202 SKETCHES OP RUBAL AFFAIRS. 



but rather tends, by its constant and measured action 

 throughout the long winter-day, to inspire with cheer- 

 fulness all who come within sound of it. There is a 

 satisfaction in knowing that the wet and dreary season 

 has not shut up the whole village in idleness, but that 

 some of its inhabitants are still labouring in their call- 

 ing, and earning the fruit of their toil. No particular 

 time can be named for the business of threshing, for it 

 is common to all seasons, though more especially carried 

 on during the winter months. An old writer, indeed, 

 gives the following recommendation : 



" Such wheat as ye keep for the baker to buy, 

 Unthreshed till March, in the sheaf let it lie ; 

 Lest foistiness take it, if sooner ye thresh it, 

 Although by oft turning ye seem to refresh it." * 



The first step towards threshing is, of course, the 

 taking in of a rick. This is done by a few labourers 

 and a superintendent ; the latter mounts the rick, and 

 begins to cut away with a stout clasp-knife the tyings of 

 the straw ropes at the eaves ; this enables him to remove, 

 by means of a long small pitchfork, the whole covering 

 of the wheat-rick, and throw it to the ground. On the 

 side of the rick nearest the barn, the labourers now 

 spread out a layer of this straw on the ground, and then 

 extend the barn-sheet upon it, drawing the latter close to 

 the rick. The barn-sheet is a large piece of thin canvas, 

 perhaps about twelve feet square ; upon this the sheaves 

 are thrown down, and it is the office of women to place 

 them evenly, side by side, along the two sides of the 

 sheet, and to prevent their being blown aside or turned 

 over : they are conveyed thence to the barn on barrows, 

 and are piled up in rows to a considerable height with 

 their butt ends outwards. This work is continued 

 until the whole rick is taken in, after which the ground 

 is cleared of loose corn by raking it into the sheet, and 

 then doubling up the latter from the four corners, and 



* Tusser. 



