222 July The Harvest-time 



XL. 



The Harvest-time What our Bread costs Merriment in Harvest 

 Strength of the Girls A Picture by Jules Breton Jules Breton's 

 Poetry Alfred de Musset The ' Chanson de Fortunio' Rossetti 

 'The Blessed Damozel' Stalks of Wheat Weight of Wheat 

 needed in the World Buckwheat. 



THERE is a time of the year, varying in date with 

 the climate of different places, which is felt by 

 all to be the richest and mellowest time, and that is 

 when the wheat is garnered. The reapers go down 

 from the hill villages into the fertile plains, walking in 

 bands through the sultry night, when not a cloud 

 obscures the starry sky, and the broad yellow harvest- 

 moon comes up in the east to light them. Many a 

 league do they march, singing the old harvest songs, 

 and at sunrise they are at work already in the ripe 

 wheat, and their sickles are set to the harvest. Oh the 

 toil and the endurance that are paid for the bread we 

 eat ! From dawn to dusk, in the full blaze of morning, 

 noon, and afternoon, the reapers reap without ceasing, 

 except their little half-hours for food, and in the late 

 evening they load the harvest-wains. All that time 

 they have to bend to their toil, with the heat of the 

 earth in their faces and the heat of the sun upon their 

 backs. Their food is poor indeed, and the wonder is 

 how it supplies the waste of sweat and toil. And yet 



