Below the woodman in rank, and not rightly to be called a woodman, is
the copse-worker, or copser; a piece-worker, free to work for any one
who will give him a job. He is a skilled craftsman, one of a dying
race, for his boys are kept too long at school ever to take kindly to
his calling. This is his constant complaint: and he will air his views
freely on "eddication" and the making of "scholards." He himself
had only enough learning drubbed into him to allow him to make every
night an entry of his day's work--so many bavins, so many bundles of
pea-sticks, so many fencing-poles. His daily earnings fluctuate with
the quality of the wood, which he is sure to declare is nothing like
what it was in the days of his youth.
* * * * *