Stumps and Snake-fences 109 



pail of water over to the grindstone behind the 

 milkhouse. We'll start into that clover to-mor- 

 row." 



To-day he says : "Jim, run the mowing machine 

 out of the shed and get it oiled up. I think we'll 

 take a few turns about that hayfield to-morrow. 

 You'll drive the mower, Tom will run the tedder 

 and your mother and I will go over and spend the 

 day at Uncle Joe's." 



THE OLD-TIME HAEVEST FEELD 



And there's the harvest field of other days — 

 another poetical spot, surely. To have seen sev- 

 eral lusty men laying low the golden grain with 

 their swinging cradles was a sight to be remem- 

 bered. I've made sheaves behind a cradler and I 

 once cut two acres of grain with that old-fashioned 

 reaping tool — ^perhaps I'm qualified to write about 

 the old-time harvest field. It required a man who 

 was a direct descendant of Anak — a strong man 

 mentioned in the Good Book, you know — to cut 

 five acres of grain in a day, and he wouldn't feel 

 like going to a moving picture show when the sun 

 went down. 



What a picture that ten-acre wheat-field makes 

 in the August sunshine, gently undulating in 

 golden billows, set in motion by summer zephyrs. 

 Farmer Brown is proud of it, and, with reason. 

 It represents honest toil and the staff of life — 

 the world's bread — and no defence is needed be- 



