HARVESTING. 69 



or "wabster." He received the thread thus spun by the 

 hearthstone, wound it into warp, wove it into cloth of the 

 kind and pattern desired, and sent it home again to the 

 " customer," whose person and family were thus protected 

 both by night and day, from the summer's heat and 

 winter's cold, by these substantial home-produced stuffs. 



It was this ancient order, with the poetry of Penelope 

 and the sanctity of Scripture round it, that John Duncan 

 now entered. It was this by-gone period of Scotch 

 thrift, Scotch independence, and Scotch home life that he 

 represented to the last, long after it had almost died out 

 through the country. His life thus affords an interesting 

 glimpse into the past, of a state of society admirable 

 and beautiful in its time, with features of excellent in- 

 dustrial and moral quality, which the steam-engine and 

 modern improvements have banished for ever. 



Another very commendable feature in this country life 

 was this. During the autumn, when work in country 

 districts became slack, from the general occupation of the 

 people with the harvest, it was a common custom for 

 weavers, as well as carpenters, smiths and others, to enter 

 the harvest field, and take an autumn campaign in cutting 

 down the standing army of cereals ; and it often formed 

 part of the engagements of such labourers to be allowed 

 to " gae to the hairst." Many went to the south and 

 hired themselves on the larger farms there, returning at 

 the end of the season with the fruits of their labours in 

 heavier pockets. It was a practice at once healthy, 

 remunerative and informing ; for they saw the different 

 parts of the land and extended their knowledge of the 

 world. Of course, these were the days of the sickle, when 



