together with the invention of drill plough and thrashing-machines,
and other agricultural novelties, she failed not to attribute all
the mishaps or misdoings of the whole parish. The last-mentioned
discovery especially aroused her indignation. Oh to hear her
descant on the merits of the flail, wielded by a stout right arm,
such as she had known in her youth (for by her account there was as
great a deterioration in bones and sinews as in the other implements
of husbandry), was enough to make the very inventor break his
machine. She would even take up her favourite instrument, and
thrash the air herself by way of illustrating her argument, and, to
say truth, few men in these degenerate days could have matched the
stout, brawny, muscular limb which Mrs. Sally displayed at
sixty-five.

In spite of this contumacious rejection of agricultural
improvements, the world went well with her at Court Farm. A good
landlord, an easy rent, incessant labour, unremitting frugality, and
excellent times, insured a regular though moderate profit; and she
lived on, grumbling and prospering, flourishing and complaining,
till two misfortunes befell her at once--her father died, and her
lease expired. The loss of her father although a bedridden man,
turned of ninety, who could not in the course of nature have been
expected to live long, was a terrible shock to a daughter, who was
not so much younger as to be without fears for her own life, and who
had besides been so used to nursing the good old man, and looking to
his little comforts, that she missed him as a mother would miss an
ailing child. The expiration of the lease was a grievance and a
puzzle of a different nature. Her landlord would have willingly
retained his excellent tenant, but not on the terms on which she
then held the land, which had not varied for fifty years; so that