So one day he struck upon a plan to get rid of them.

Going outside the gates he shouted at the top of his voice, 'Beer, beer, who wants beer ?' every cropper in the place rushed out, and he then slipped in again and shut the gates, and has taken good care ever since never to admit a cropper into his territory." Ned laughed at the story.
"It shows at any rate, father, what people think of them here; but I don't think they are as bad as that, though Bill did say that there are awful fights and rows going on there of an evening, and even down here if there is a row there is sure to be a cropper in it.

Still you see there are some good ones; look at Luke Marner, that's the man we saw in church, see how kind he has been to his niece." "There are good men of all sorts, and though the croppers may be rough and given to drink, we must not blame them too severely; they are wholly uneducated men, they work hard, and their sole pleasure is in the beer shop.

At bottom they are no doubt the same as the rest of their countrymen, and the Yorkshire men, though a hard headed, are a soft hearted race; the doctor tells me that except that their constitutions are ruined by habitual drinking he has no better patients; they bear pain unflinchingly, and are patient and even tempered.

I know he loves them with all their faults, and I consider him to be a good judge of character.".