They went back to the farm building, and found two hay-rakes, and
were just trying to reach the kegs, the tops of which they could plainly
see in the light of the full moon, when a horseman rode up, whom, to
their horror, they recognised as the exciseman himself. When he asked
"What's the matter?" the men pretended to be drunk, and one of them said
in a tipsy tone of voice, "Can't you see, guv'nor? We're trying to get
that cheese out o' th' water!" The exciseman couldn't see any cheese,
but he could see the image of the full moon on the surface of the canal,
and, bursting into a roar of laughter at the silliness of the men, he
rode off on his way home. But it was now the rustics' turn to laugh as
they hauled the kegs out of the canal and carried them away in triumph
on their shoulders. The gentleman who told the story fairly "brought
down the house" when he added, "So you see, gentlemen, they were not so
silly after all."
[Illustration: HIGH STREET GATE, SALISBURY.]
One of the company asked my brother if he had heard that story before,
and when he said "No, but I have heard one something like it in
Yorkshire," he at once stood up and called for "Silence," announcing
that there was a gentleman present who could tell a story about the
Yorkshire Moonrakers.
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