150 TILLEKS OF THE GEOUND CHAP. 



battle, but in the nobler fields of knowledge ; and 

 there were many others. 



But before a new France could be slowly built 

 up, the people must have bread ; the land swept 

 bare by the two armies must be ploughed and 

 sown. The seed-corn which the peasants had 

 saved had either been eaten in their time of dire 

 distress, or was useless now the springtime had 

 come. So one of the many committees for helping 

 the unfortunate, which had been founded at this time, 

 distributed spring corn (that is, corn which could be 

 sown in spring) in the ravaged provinces. They 

 knew that this spring -sown corn flourished in 

 parts of England, and they hoped that it might 

 do the same in France. But, alas ! they had not 

 noticed the slight difference in climate, the fact 

 that the hot dry summer comes earlier in France 

 than in England, and is both hotter and drier. 

 The hot dry weather came before the wheat had 

 had time to make its growth, and the poor peasants 

 had to stand by and see the empty ears in their 

 fields wither for want of rain. While this happened 

 in France, in England the same wheat grew steadily 

 all through the early part of the summer, which 

 was. damp, and ripened beautifully in August. 



This little story appears in a French book on 

 the best kinds of wheat, and the only comment the 

 author makes is that this was a lesson to French 



