"Boys, I thank you! You're all boys to me, young and old, for
you've worked on the farm so long that I seem to know your faces
as well as I know the shape of the land and the trees on the
ridges. You've wished me health and long life--and I take it that
your wishes are honest--but I've had a long life already and
mustn't expect much more of it. However, the farm will go on just
the same whether I'm here or elsewhere,--and no man that works
well on it will be turned away from it,--that I can promise you!
And the advice I've always given to you I give to you again,--
stick to the land and the work of the land! There's nothing finer
in the world than the fresh air and the scent of the good brown
earth that gives you the reward of your labour, always providing
it is labour and not 'scamp' service. When I'm gone you'll perhaps
remember what I say,--and think it not so badly said either. I
thank you for your good wishes and"--here he hesitated--"my little
girl here thanks you too. Next time you make the hay--if I'm not
with you--I ask you to be as merry as you are to-night and to
drink to my memory! For whenever one master of Briar Farm has gone
there's always been another in his place!--and there always will
be!" He paused,--then lifting a full tankard which had been put
beside him, he drank a few drops of its contents--"God bless you
all! May you long have the will to work and the health to enjoy
the fruits of honest labour!"

There was another outburst of noisy cheering, followed by a new
kind of clamour,

"A song!"