A child was born here on 20 November 1902, and had a rupture. Some while afterwards I asked the father how the child was getting on, and the answer was--“Oh, it be a sight better since us put’n through a tree.” And I found that they had carried out the ancient rite. The father had split an ash-tree on the hill behind this house, and had wedged the hole open with two chunks of oak. Then he and his wife took the child up there at day-break; and, as the sun rose, they passed it three times through the tree, from east to west. The mother then took the child home, and the father pulled out the chunks of oak, and bandaged up the tree. As the tree-trunk healed, so would the rupture heal also. I asked him why he did it, and he seemed surprised at the question, and said--“Why, all folk do it.” I then asked him whether he thought it really did much good, and the reply was--“Well, as much good as sloppin’ water over’n in church.” Some years ago there was an ash-tree growing in the hedge of a field of mine at Moreton. The field was let as allotments; and the tree was a nuisance to the man who had the allotment next it, as its roots spread out along his ground. He asked me several times to have the tree cut down; but I liked the look of the tree, and was unwilling to lose it. And then there came a thunder-storm, and the tree was struck by lightning and destroyed. I thought it strange, but he explained it simply:--“I’d prayed ag’in’ that tree.” He was a very old man; and people of his generation never looked upon your actions as your own, but as the actions of a Power that directed you. I am pretty sure he said that the Lord had hardened my heart about that tree, though I did not actually hear him say it. In a case where I was able to do a kindness, I got no thanks till some months after; and then I got them in this form:--“I’ve a-said it to othern, and I don’t know as I mind a-sayin’ it to you--I do believe as you were sent for some good purpose.” In another case I heard indirectly how the thanks were given:--“I were a-sittin’ there, a-wonderin’ whatever I should do, when I lifted up my eyes, and there were Mr Torr like an Angel o’ God a-comin’ down the path.” I was all the more flattered by the comparison, as one of my neighbours had lately been mistaken for the Devil.