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.