THEASHING. 



Mortimer— Boxted Lodge Feat — Arrival of Apparatus — Process of 

 Thrashing. 



"I WISH some better methods " (plaintively wrote 

 Mortimer a century and a half ago) " were found out 

 for the thrashing and cleansing of corn from the chaff 

 than is." How he would applaud, were he alive now, 

 and could hear of the celebrated Boxted Lodge feat of 

 reaping a field, thrashing the seed, grinding it, making 

 it into bread, and re-sowing the land — all, too, within 

 a summer's day ! 



But to come down to our humble homestead. It 

 happens that straw is wanted for chaff-cutting, and 

 grain for the mill, so we send off Ned upon the 

 pony to see when we can have the machine. There 

 are several in the country : they travel from place to 

 place as they find work. It is to be at a farm two 

 miles off to-morrow, and the day but one after we 

 may fetch it about sunset. Well, the intervening 

 days soon follow on their ancestors, and the teams 

 have been despatched for the machine. 



They have been gone some hours. There has been 

 some unexpected delay, I presume, for the shades of 

 night have descended, and yet there is no sign of their 

 return. I pace about the avenue to the stack-yard, 



