Another hard kind was oval-shaped, or like a pear; it was hung up in nets to mature, and traded to the West Indies.
He looked to see when the moon changed in 'Moore's Almanac,' which was kept for ready reference on the mantelpiece.

Next to Bible and Prayer-book comes old Moore's rubric in the farmhouse--that rubric which declares the 'vox stellarum.' There are old folk who still regret the amendments in the modern issue, and would have back again the table which laid down when the influence of the constellations was concentrated in each particular limb and portion of the body.

In his oaken cabinet Hilary had 'Moore' from the beginning of the century, or farther back, for his fathers had saved them before him.

On the narrow margins during his own time he had jotted down notes of remarkable weather and the events of the farm, and could tell you the very day cow 'Beauty' calved twenty years ago.
I thought the ale good, but Hilary was certain it was not equal to what he used to brew himself before he had so large an acreage to look after, and indeed before the old style of farm-life went out of fashion.

Then he used to sit up all night watching--for brewing is a critical operation--and looking out of doors now and then to pass the long hours saw the changes of the sky, the constellations rising in succession one after the other, and felt the slight variations of the wind and of moisture or dryness in the air which predict the sunshine or the shower of the coming day.