274 AUGUST. 



boured description, often by a single stroke, 

 presents so livingly to the imagination; as it 

 was when tender thoughts passed 



Through the sad heart of Ruth, when sick for home, 

 She stood in tears amid the alien corn ; 



When the minstrel-king wandered through the 

 solitudes cf Paran, or fields reposing at the feet 

 of Carmel ; or " as it fell on a day, that the 

 child of the good Shunamite went out to his 

 father to the reapers. And he said unto his 

 father, My head, my head! And he said to 

 a lad, Carry him to his mother. And when 

 he had taken him, and brought him to his 

 mother, he sate on her knees till noon, and then 

 died." 2 Kings, c. iv. 1820. 



Let no one say it is not a season of happiness 

 to the toiling peasantry ; I know that it is. In 

 the days of boyhood I have partaken their har- 

 vest labours, and listened to the overflowings 

 of their hearts as they sate amid the sheaves 

 beneath the fine blue sky, or among the rich 

 herbage of some green headland beneath the 

 shade of a tree, while the cool keg plentifully 

 replenished the horn, and sweet after exertion 

 were the contents of the harvest-field basket. 



