Page:Carroll - Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.djvu/244

206 farmers to divide their staff of labourers into two Parties, and to set them one against the other. They were called, like our political Parties, the 'Ins' and the 'Outs': the business of the 'Ins' was to do as much of ploughing, sowing, or whatever might be needed, as they could manage in a day, and at night they were paid according to the amount they had done: the business of the 'Outs' was to hinder them, and they were paid for the amount they had hindered. The farmers found they had to pay only half as much wages as they did before, and they didn't observe that the amount of work done was only a quarter as much as was done before: so they took it up quite enthusiastically, at first"

"And afterwards?" I enquired.

"Well, afterwards they didn't like it quite so well. In a very short time, things settled down into a regular routine. No work at all was done. So the 'Ins' got no wages, and the 'Outs' got full pay. And the farmers never discovered, till most of them were ruined, that the rascals had agreed to manage it so, and had shared the pay between them!