So there were
plenty of places scattered all over the moorland where tobacco
could be bought cheap, and where when the right signal was given
a noggin of spirits could be had from the keg which was lying
concealed in the wood stack or rubbish heap. What drunkenness there
was on the moors profited his majesty's excise but little.
The evenings at the "Cow" were not lively. The men smoked their
long pipes and sipped their beer slowly, and sometimes for half an
hour no one spoke; but it was as good as conversation, for every
one knew what the rest were thinking of--the bad times, but no one
had anything new to say about them. They were not brilliant, these
sturdy Yorkshiremen. They suffered patiently and uncomplainingly,
because they did not see that any effort of theirs could alter the
state of things. They accepted the fact that the high prices were
due to the war, but why the war was always going on was more than
any of them knew. It gave them a vague satisfaction when they heard
that a British victory had been won; and when money had been more
plentiful, the occasion had been a good excuse for an extra bout
of drinking, for most of them were croppers, and had in their time
been as rough and as wild as the younger men were now; but they
had learned a certain amount of wisdom, and shook their heads over
the talk and doings of the younger men who met at the "Dog.
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