The many readers of Pickwick will have vivid recollections of the memorable part played by a warming pan, but who would believe that a similar amount of indignation could be aroused in the breasts of the Reverend Managers’ Committee at the lighting of a schoolroom fire to dry the wet clothes of the agricultural labourers’ children. The great difficulty one is confronted with in placing these items before the general public is to convince folks that these complaints were made against Council School teachers and not High Church ones. These backstairs, intriguing, silly, childish complaints might well be laughed out of court if they were not being launched with a definite object in view. That object was to strike at Higdon through his wife. This is a very ancient pastime. Satan, by all accounts, was an early exponent of it. He had a similar object in view, _viz._, to assist emigration and check sympathetic vibration. Readers may have noted the paragraph: “This is the second place in which you have come into conflict with the managers.” To understand this sentence is to possess the key to all the petty persecution and to gain a grip upon the problems of the countryside. Mr. Higdon has constantly, at Wood Dalling, his previous place, and at Burston, tried to secure brighter conditions of life and better housing for the tillers and toilers. WHERE ARE THE “NUTS”? He has been an ardent advocate of the Agricultural Labourers’ Union. He and his wife are both members of the N.U.T. to-day, and have been during the past eight years. Mrs. Higdon was this year made honorary member by her Association, East Dereham, in order to ensure her continuance of her qualification for support could she not afford to pay. In order to relieve the anxiety of a few up-to-date doubting Thomases I here insert certificate of membership: No. 44,784. Received of Mrs. Higdon (1913), of Burston, Diss., following amounts on behalf of N.U.T. and the East Dereham Association. SUBSCRIPTION. s. d. Annual to Local Association 3 0 Annual to N.U.T 12 0 Signature of Local Secretary or Treasurer, A. E. Tripp. Mr. Higdon’s 1914 membership card is 41,534. He possesses similar receipts right up to date. In order also to relieve the minds of a few gentlemen who know so much _that is not so_, Mr. and Mrs. Higdon have not received one penny piece from the “nuts” of the N.U.T. Executive. They have taught during the last sixteen months without fee, and the villagers, having understudied Elijah’s raven, have, out of their humble cupboards, supplied the Higdons. Pardon this digression. Now to come to the root cause of the persecutions. Those in authority like not the cold, clear light of public opinion to be focussed upon their apathy and neglect.