cuckoo.  He was paid “by the piece,” “three-halfpence a graft and cider,” quantity not specified, but an important part of the bargain because of a superstition that grafts “unwetted” would not thrive!  Some of these large trees would have ten or more limbs requiring separate grafting, and therefore they earned him a considerable sum, but it is surprising how soon they make a new head, come into bearing, and repay with interest the cost of the work.

He was a thoughtful old man and a moralist.  I can see him now, standing with his snuff-box open ready in his hand, and saying very solemnly, “I often thinks as an apple-tree is very similar to a child, for you know, sir, we’re told to train up a child in the way he shall go, and when he is old he will not depart therefrom.”  He then refreshed himself with a mighty pinch of snuff, closing his box with a snap that emphasized his air of complete conviction.

I think the sheep-dipper was one of the early arrivals.  He brings with him an apparatus which provides a bath, and a kind of gangway, rising at an angle from it, upon which the sheep can stand after immersion, to allow the superfluous liquid to find its way back into the bath; each sheep is lifted by two men into the bath containing insecticide, and has an interval for dripping before it rejoins the flock.  In the days when Viper was young, he was introduced to the process and given a dip himself, much to his disgust; but that was the only time, for ever afterwards no sooner did the sheep-dipper and his weird-looking apparatus appear at night, in readiness for the performance on the morrow, than Viper remembered his undignified experience, and, before even the overture of the play commenced, vanished for the day.  Nobody saw him go, or knew where he went, but it was useless to call or whistle, he was nowhere to be found.

I believe the active ingredient of the dip was a preparation of arsenic, and upon one occasion I lost several sheep after the dipping, presumably from arsenical poisoning absorbed through the skin.  I met the dipper a few days later, and he said with a beaming face that he had “given ’em summat,” meaning the parasites.  His smiles disappeared when I told him the result, and that the remedy had proved more fatal than the disease.  After this experience I used a more scientific dip which was quite as effective and without the element of danger to the sheep.

Entries are to be found in the old parish records of sums paid and chargeable to the parish for killing “woonts” (moles), but later private enterprise was alone responsible.  A mole-catcher had been employed throughout the whole of my predecessor’s time at Aldington, with a yearly remuneration of 12s.  On my arrival he called and asked me to forward the account for the last year to his employer; it ran as follows:  “To dastroyin thay woonts, 12s.”  The man hoped that I should continue the arrangement, but, as I had not seen a mole or a mole-hill on the farm, I told him I would wait, and would send for him if I found them troublesome.  As a matter of fact I never saw a mole, or heard of one on my land, throughout the twenty-eight years of my occupation.