Tarnside women dinna count. It's a kind o' pity, because t' Osborn
menfolk are lakers and always was."

A _laker_ is a lounging pleasure-seeker and Kit admitted that the remark
was justified.

"I sometimes think Osborn means well," he said.

"Mayhappen! For aw his ordering folks aboot, he's wake; like his father,
I mind him weel. Might mak' a fair landlord if he was letten and had t'
money; but oad Hayes is grasping and always at his tail."

"The rent-roll's good. The estate could be managed well."

"There's t' mortgages and Osborn canna keep money. When he has it he must
spend. There would be nea poor landlord's, if I had my way. I'd let them
putten rents up if they had money and spent it on the land. Low rent
means poor farming."

Kit knew this was true on the Tarnside estate. Dykes that had kept the
floods off the meadows were falling down, drains were choked, and land
that had grown good crops was going sour. The wise use of capital would
make a wholesome change, but Kit did not altogether like centralized
control. Although it was economical, the landlord got the main advantage,
and there was much a farmer could do, in cooperation with his neighbors,
to help himself, if his lease was long enough. Then, joint action was
once common in the dale. Men pooled their labor and implements at hay
time and harvest, and combined for their mutual benefit in other ways.
Now it looked as if they might combine again.