Vv WOODS AND FIELDS 199 
sights in nature than an English hay field on 
a summer evening, with a copse perhaps at 
one side and a brook on the other; men with 
forks tossing the hay in the air to dry; 
women with wooden rakes arranging it in 
swathes ready for the great four-horse wag- 
gon, or collecting it in cocks for the night; 
while some way off the mowers are still at 
work, and we hear from time to time the 
pleasant sound of the whetting of the scythe. 
All are working with a will lest rain should 
come and their labour be thrown away. This 
too often happens. But though we often com- 
plain of our English climate, it is yet, take 
_ it all in all, one of the best in the world, 
bemg comparatively free from extremes either 
of heat or cold, drought or deluge. To the 
happy mixture of sunshine and of rain we 
owe the greenness of our fields, | 
sparkling with dewdrops 
Indwelt with little angels of the Sun, } 
lit and 
warmed by golden sunshine 
And fed by silver rain, 
which now and again sprinkles the whole earth 
with diamonds. 
1 Hamerton. 
