A BARN 79 



and slashes off the projections with quick blows, which 

 seem to only just miss her fingers, laughing and talking 

 the while with two children who have brought her some 

 refreshment, and who roll and tumble and play about 

 her. The scene might be bodily removed and set 

 down a hundred miles away, in the midst of a western 

 county, and would there be perfectly at one with the 

 surroundings. 



Here, as she sits and chops, the east wind brings the 

 boom of trains continually rolling over an iron bridge to 

 and from the metropolis. She was there two successive 

 seasons to my knowledge; she, too, had the stamp of 

 the land upon her. 



The broad sward where the white-haired shepherd so 

 often stands watching his sheep feeding along to this 

 field, is decked in summer with many flowers. By the 

 hedge the agrimony frequently lifts its long stem, sur- 

 rounded with small yellow petals. One day towards 

 autumn I noticed a man looking along a hedge, and 

 found that he was gathering this plant. He had a small 

 armful of the straggling stalks, from which the flowers 

 were then fading. The herb had once a medicinal repu- 

 tation, and, curious to know if it was still remembered, 

 I asked him the name of the herb and what it was for. 

 He replied that it was agrimony. " We makes tea of it, 

 and it is good for the flesh," or, as he pronounced it, 

 " fleysh." 



