Page:The farm labourer in 1872.djvu/7



ELL Oldsort, what do you think of this movement amongst the labourers?" asked his landlord one day of a West-Midland farmer.

"I don't know what to think, I don't," answered Oldsort.

"How many men do you employ?"

"Why, four regular. But I'll tell you what; I and that Edward Sharpe there, can do as much work in a day as I and all those other three, Tom Careless, Jack Shirk, and William Slow."

"How's that?"

"Why, you see, if I tell Sharpe to do a thing, it's done well and quickly, and I need never think about it again. But if I tell any of the others, I've almost got to do it myself, or it will be done wrong."

"And what are they earning?"