78 THE OPEN AIR. 



a spider, seeming to try to hide itself. If the nest 

 had been formed under glass, it could not have been 

 more open to view. The stone was carefully replaced. 

 Below the pine wood on the slope of the hill a plough 

 was already at work, the crop of peas having been 

 harvested. The four horses came up the slope, and 

 at the ridge swept round in a fine curve to go back 

 and open a fresh furrow. As soon .as they faced 

 down-hill they paused, well aware of what had to be 

 done, and the ploughman in a manner knocked his 

 plough to pieces, putting it together again the opposite 

 way, that the earth he was about to cut with the 

 share might fall on what he had just turned. With 

 a piece of iron he hammered the edge of the share, 

 to set it, for the hard ground had bent the edge, and 

 it did not cut properly. I said his team looked light ; 

 they were not so heavily built as the cart-horses used 

 in many places. No, he said, they did not want 

 heavy horses. " Dese yer thick-boned bosses be 

 more clutter-headed over the clots," as he expressed 

 it, i.e. more clumsy or thick-headed over the clods. 

 He preferred comparatively light cart-horses to step 

 well. In the heat of the sun the furze-pods kept 

 popping and bursting open ; they are often as full of 

 insects as seeds, which come creeping out. A green 

 and black lady-bird exactly like a tortoise flew on 

 to my hand. Again on the heath, and the grass- 

 hoppers rose at every step, sometimes three or four 

 springing in as many directions. They were winged, 

 and as soon as they were up spread their vanes and 

 floated forwards. As the force of the original hop 

 decreased, the wind took their wings and turned them 



