CHAPTER IX.

SEPTEMBER.

"Ruddy SEPTEMBER, with wide wicker-maunds,
Treads his full orchards now, and at all hours
Gathers delicious sweets, where are no sours.
And numerous rural youth, in clamorous bands,
With nut-hooks armed, clamber with knees and hands
Old hazel trees, and brown nuts rain in showers,
Pattering and pelting every maid that stands

Within their sportive reach, who fall like flowers
When hard hails pelt, and feign alarming cries.

And thus the merry month wears well away,

With feast and fruit, revel and roundelay."-Cornelius Webbe. Ar five o'clock in the morning of the 1st of September, while Adam and his father were at work in the garden, they heard the report of a gun. "This is the first day for partridge-shooting," said Mr. Stock; "and probably with that shot some poor bird at this moment lies dead, or has flown away wounded and bleeding." Adam inquired whether it was more cruel to kill birds than sheep and oxen. Certainly not," said his father; "I only object to the manner of doing the act. It seems to be as much the nature of man to require flesh for his support, as grass and other vegetables are necessary to the sheep and ox. If, therefore, life must be sacrificed that man may live, I would have life

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CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

taken in the most easy and sudden way possible; and, above all things, I would not have it made a sport and a pastime. We should feel very much shocked if butchers were always to make the slaying of sheep and oxen a season of amusement and lengthened cruelty. The abominable custom of bull-baiting, and similar barbarities towards our domestic animals, has, indeed, been abolished by law; yet, although the common people are not permitted to hunt bulls to death, the gentlemen are allowed to worry with dogs a poor hare or stag, till its heart bursts with fright and agony. It may be said that these are wild creatures, and that there is no other mode of destroying them than by the gun or the hound. This is not true: many other ways may be pointed out, by which they could be as effectually as suddenly killed. But this is not the object of the sportsmen. Their delight is not

merely in the death of the hare, fox, or stag, but the longer the time before that death is accomplished, the greater is their pleasure. If any one of those animals will run twenty or thirty miles before it is caught and killed, their happiness is complete. Besides, their object is not to destroy them as vermin and mischievous creatures; for the greater part of our sporting nobility have in their parks portions of land laid out for the only purpose of preserving foxes, that they may hunt them; and any poor little farmer who should kill one that has invaded his hen-roost, or a hare that has devoured the bark of his young fruit-trees, would, in all probability, be harassed and persecuted by the rich owner, for what is called the offence: yet the person who would prosecute him kills the creature himself, only in another and more cruel way. I myself knew an instance of a poor small farmer, who, with his

GAME-LAWS.-SHOOTING.

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whole family, was deprived of their only means of livelihood, because he had killed a fox belonging to his rich landlord, although the animal had laid waste almost the whole stock of the poor fellow's young ducks and chickens. These, among many others, are the acts of injustice which make the common (that is, the poor) people reflect with so much bitterness upon their superiors in wealth.

"In partridge and other shooting, if the marksman could be as sure of his aim as he would be in wringing off the neck of the bird, it would be the most desirable mode of extinguishing life; for when the shot strikes a vital part, it is as sudden in effect as can be contrived. But the case is frequently otherwise, and many a poor bird flies away with a mangled body, and when exhausted through pain and loss of blood, it dies miserably."

When they had finished this little dissertation upon hunting and shooting, "Now, Adam," said Mr. Stock, "as soon as you have completed that job of weedhoeing, I would have you dig up yonder bed of light loamy soil; and dig it as deep, and make it as light as you can; and then plant out about fifty or a hundred of those lettuces from the seed bed which we sowed last month; and do the same at the end of every week during the present month: we shall then have a good supply of sallad during autumn, winter, and early spring; but remember, that the last crop must be taken from those that were the last sown in August, and the best situation for them would be under the south wall there. Plant them all in rows, six inches apart, and at the same distance from each other." While Adam was occupied with the above task, his father was preparing a nursery-bed to receive some

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LABORS OF SEPTEMBER.

young cauliflower plants that had been sown in the latter end of the preceding month, and which he intended to remove in about ten days or a fortnight, setting them about three inches asunder. When he had planted out as many as he thought proper, he covered them with a frame and glass, shading them also from the sun till they had struck root; when this had taken place, the glass and covering were removed, and replaced only in cases of heavy rain. In about five weeks from that time he again planted them out in a sheltered bed, where they were to remain all winter. In the progress of this work they likewise hoed, weeded, and plentifully watered those cauliflowers which were intended for the table in October and November. The same course was also pursued with respect to the young broccoli plants; setting out seedlings, hoeing, weeding, and watering those that had already advanced. Young savoy and cabbage plants they pricked out for the late autumn and winter crops; and twice during the month they planted out celery for the spring supply; trimming the roots and tops, and setting them about four inches apart. Those rows which had been planted in former months, they took care to keep constantly earthed up, and on those days when the plants were dry; cautiously avoiding injury to the stalks, or burying them too deeply. Those endive plants that had reached their full growth they tied round with bass to whiten their hearts; and those which had been sown last month they planted out in a warm bed for winter salads. The spinach, onion, and turnip beds were thinned out and constantly weeded. In fine dryweather, too, they gathered the seeds of all such plants as had become fully ripe. Here was a great deal of work done, and it is not to be supposed that it was