HOW WE MADE OUR HAY. 127 



cottager. To return, however; our reward for this 

 recounted treatment was a luxuriant crop of waving 

 grass, over which the wind ran coyly, waking shadows 

 where the light fell even as young love does. 



The young farmer should study the grasses, they 

 are so easily discernible ; in fact, he ought to devote 

 a few dozen half-hours to the study of general botany, 

 with the help of a microscope ; it will pay him well 

 to do so, not to mention the amusement it affords. 



" Two tons to the acre, sir," remarked our pleasant 

 apple-cheeked bailiff, as he would advance (scene re- 

 peated at least weekly) some ten yards into the field, 

 ourselves meanwhile meditatively leaning with arms 

 akimbo across the top bar of the gate. " You'd 

 better let us have it down, sir ; Fred and I and 

 Grubney and two others, we'll have it down in no 

 time." "Oh yes, Fletcher," we reply, almost pro- 

 vokingly, if his temper were not so charming ; " as if 

 there were not plenty for Fred and Grubney and you 

 to do elsewhere, horse-hoeing in the mangold-field, 

 turnip-thinning, and the like. Do you remember 

 last year ? " — " I do, sir." " Well, do you remember 

 that saucy tramp who took this field to mow, and 

 who didn't come for a fortnight after he had pro- 

 mised, and then brought only one other man with 

 him instead of a gang, as he had engaged % " — "I do, 

 sir." " Do you remember how he lay down in the 

 middle of the day, and wouldn't work a stitch when 

 the sky grew all over mares' tails, and the barometer 

 trembled in his shoes ? " — Again, " I do, sir." " You 

 remember how I had to come to words with him 

 about the bargain, and how we found when he was 



