The lads use a long 'gicks' cut between the joints as a tube to blow haws or peggles at the girls.

When thirsty, and no ale is handy, the men search for one to suck up water with from the brook.

It is difficult to find one free from insects, which seem to be remarkably fond of anything hollow.

The haymakers do not use the hemlock, thinking it would poison the water; they think, too, that drinking through a tube is safer when they are in a great heat from the sun than any other way.
Nor is it so easy to drink from a stream without this simple aid.

If the bank be flat it is wet, and what looks like the grass of the meadow really grows out of the water; so that there it is not possible to be at full length.