134 A FARMER'S YEAR 



lighter, and, like the opening flowers, prospects which were of the 

 gloomiest take the rainbow hues of hope. 



It is curious how extraordinarily susceptible some of us are to 

 the influences of weather, and even to those of the different seasons. 

 I do not think that these affect the dwellers in towns so much, for, 

 their existence being more artificial, the ties which bind them to 

 Nature are loosened ; but with folk who live in the country and 

 study it, it is otherwise. Every impulse of the seasons throbs 

 through them, and month by month, even when they are 

 unconscious of it, their minds reflect something of the tone and 

 colour of the pageant of the passing day. After all, why should 

 it not be so, seeing that our bodies are built up of the products of 

 the earth, and that in them are to be found many, if not all, of the 

 elements that go to make the worlds, or at any rate our world, 

 and every fruit and thing it bears ? The wonder is not that we are 

 so much in tune with Nature's laws and phases, but that we can 

 ever escape or quell their mastery. This is where the brain and 

 the will of man come in. 



To-day Fairhead is harrowing on the nine-acre marsh, No. 19. 

 The bottom of this marsh grows thick as tow, and it is hard work 

 for the two big mares to drag the new patent harrow through it, 

 especially as they are both of them very near to foaling. One 

 might think that under these circumstances such toiling was 

 injurious to them, but, on the contrary, it seems that the more 

 exercise they have right up to their time the better, provided 

 that it is steady in its nature, and not of a kind which is likely to 

 wring or jerk them, such as shaft work while carting heavy loads. 

 Harrowing or ploughing they can do as well as ever, though, of 

 course, they are a little slow in their movements, and especially at 

 the turns. By the way, Fairhead tells me that we very nearly lost 

 one of the two, the mare Scot, last night. About ten o'clock he 

 went up to the Buildings to see if she was all right, and found her 

 ' cast ' upon her side in such a position that, owing to her state 

 and size, she could not find her feet again, but was lying with her 

 legs in the air, kicking. Had he not chanced to discover her, 



