They never forgot the gentry they had caught
sight of riding or driving by on the road, the parson who came to talk,
and the occasional groups of ladies from the "great house" who came into
the gardens to walk about and look at the bins and ask queer questions
in their gentry-sounding voices. They never knew anything, and they
always seemed to be entertained. Sometimes there were enterprising,
laughing ones, who asked to be shown how to strip the hops into the
bins, and after being shown played at the work for a little while,
taking off their gloves and showing white fingers with rings on. They
always looked as if they had just been washed, and as if all of their
clothes were fresh from the tub, and when anyone stood near them it
was observable that they smelt nice. Generally they gave pennies to the
children before they left the garden, and sometimes shillings to the
women. The hop picking was, in fact, a wonderful blend of work and
holiday combined.
Mount Dunstan had liked the "hopping" from his first memories of it. He
could recall his sensations of welcoming a renewal of interesting things
when, season after season, he had begun to mark the early stragglers on
the road. The stragglers were not of the class gathered under captains.
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