Such things form the whole of G. Selden's cheerful
aim. His spirit is alight within me. I will walk over and talk to
Bolter."
Bolter was a farmer whose struggle to make ends meet was almost too much
for him. Holdings whose owners, either through neglect or lack of money,
have failed to do their duty as landlords in the matter of repairs of
farmhouses, outbuildings, fences, and other things, gradually fall into
poor hands. Resourceful and prosperous farmers do not care to hold lands
under unprosperous landlords. There were farms lying vacant on the Mount
Dunstan estate, there were others whose tenants were uncertain rent
payers or slipshod workers or dishonest in small ways. Waste or sale
of the fertiliser which should have been given to the soil as its due,
neglect in the case of things whose decay meant depreciation of property
and expense to the landlord, were dishonesties. But Mount Dunstan knew
that if he turned out Thorn and Fittle, whom no watching could wholly
frustrate in their tricks, Under Mount Farm and Oakfield Rise would
stand empty for many a year. But for his poverty Bolter would have been
a good tenant enough. He was in trouble now because, though his hops
promised well, he faced difficulties in the matter of "pickers.
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