As they sat drying their jackets around the fire, passing successive mugs of the landlord's ale from one to the other, they grew more and more conversational; and, as I put in a question here and there, they gave me an insight into the general condition, aspects and prospects of their class which I had not obtained before.

They were quite free to answer any questions relating to their domestic economy, their earnings, spendings, food, drink, clothing, housing and fuel, also in reference to their educational and religious privileges and habits.
It was now the first week of harvest; and harvest in England, in any one locality, covers the space of a full month, in ordinary weather.
Then, as the season varies remarkably, so that one county is frequently a week earlier in harvesting than that adjoining it on the north, the work for the sickle is often prolonged from the middle of July to the middle of September.

This is the period of great expectation as well as toil for the agricultural laborers.
Every man, woman, and boy of them is all put under the stimulus of extra earnings through these important weeks.

Even the laborers hired by the year have a full month given them for harvesting forty or fifty extra shillings under this stimulus.

Nearly all the grain in England is cut for a certain stipulated sum per acre; and thousands of all ages, with sickle or scythe in hand, see the sun rise and set while they are at work in the field.