HIS LIFE AND WORK 



covery of a new fact. All his life he had been 

 much less conscious of the battle itself than of 

 the cause for which he fought. 



In 1884 McCormick died, at that time of the 

 year when wheat is being sown in Spain and 

 reaped in Mexico. The earth-life of "the 

 strong personality before whom obstacles went 

 down as swiftly and inevitably as grain before 

 the knife of his machines," was ended. His 

 last words, spoken in a moment's awakening 

 from the death-stupor, were "Work, work!" 

 Not even the dissolution of his body could relax 

 the fixity of his will. And when he lay in state, 

 in his Chicago home, there was a Reaper, 

 modelled in white flowers, at his feet; and upon 

 his breast a sheaf of the ripe, yellow wheat, 

 surmounted by a crown of lilies.' These were 

 the emblems of the work that had been given 

 him to do, and the evidence of its completion. 



[187 



