LETTER No, IV. 



[1886. 



ATURDAY was a fine and plea- 

 sant day, but my bones still ached 

 so much from the unwonted exer- 

 tion of mowing and wood chopping on the 

 previous day that I did not care to go a- 

 fishing. I wandered aimlessly about the 

 farm ; I watched the haymakers, but was too 

 lazy to take pike or rake in hand myself, 

 although in this catching weather hands were 

 badly wanted. Meadows of hay were still 

 out that had been cut for weeks, and the hay, 

 all but spoilt, was now being hastily opened 

 out to wind and sun. 



This day should see a good deal of it in 

 stack or piled in large cocks ; some meadows 

 were still unmown. Hay-harvest is unusually 

 late ; but crops, if saved, will be very heavy. 

 Corn-harvest will come close upon its heels, 

 and give the farmer but little chance of his 

 brief holiday at the sea between the harvests. 

 The grass land on this farm is of the sort 



