July — A Picture by Jules Breton. 223 



they all delight in the harvest-time, and keep to their 

 work gaily with many a merry jest. The strength of 

 the girls is surprising ; often a girl will lead the line 

 and keep up to her work quite steadily, which confirms 

 the theory that women were made for labor. One of 

 these strong girls was the subject of a picture by Jules 

 Breton ; but in his picture she has done with reaping, 

 and sits apart from her companions, who are dancing, 

 for they forget their fatigues in the dance. She has 

 reasons of her own for not joining them ; very likely 

 some feeling of jealousy or disappointment ; perhaps a 

 certain youth may have invited another maiden, and 

 now, according to peasant custom, is engaged to her 

 for the whole evening. Jules Breton writes admirable 

 verses, and in a little poem of his, which has been pub- 

 lished, I find some stanzas which may refer to this very 

 picture : — 



* Dans la poussiere ardente et les rayons de flammes 

 Joyeusement, les mains aux mains, dansent les femmes, 

 Mais la plus belle rSve, assise un peu plus loin. 

 Elle est la seule . . . . ' 



No wonder that painters like the harvest-time, it is 

 so rich in color, and in the association of human life 

 and labor with the bountiful gifts of Nature. The toil 

 that it brings is sweet and healthy toil, and the only 

 laborers who are really to be pitied are the few weaker 

 ones whose strength is hardly equal to the work. For 

 the rest it is a time of merriment and gladness, a change 

 of scene and of society for the laborers who come 

 from a distance, and the pay is far higher than in 



