Note 68 — SOME CHESHIRE CUSTOMS, PROVERBS, AND FOLK-LORE

The following anecdote, which is vouched for, is too good to omit:⁠—At a certain Cheshire church, where the farmers slumbered peacefully during the afternoon sermon, the incumbent was surprised on a certain Sunday to see the farmers, one after another, waking up suddenly and vigorously rubbing their faces. At last, looking up in a gallery to the left of the pulpit, he saw a boy with a pea-shooter, and at once discerned the cause of the commotion. He shook his fist at the lad, but to no effect, and at last cried out, “Young man, desist!” but the boy, bent on his work, replied, “Never thee mind! get along with thy sermon; I’ll keep the beggars awaken for thee!”