A BARN 



off the projections with quick blows, which seem 

 to only just miss her ringers, laughing and talking 

 the while with two children who have brought her 

 some refreshment, and who roll and tumble and 

 play about her. The scene might be bodily re- 

 moved and set down a hundred miles away, in the 

 midst of a western county, and would there be 

 perfectly at one with the surroundings. 



Here, as she sits and chops, the east wind brings 

 the boom of trains continually rolling over an iron 

 bridge to and from the metropolis. She was there 

 two successive seasons to my knowledge; she, too, 

 had the stamp of the land upon her. 



The broad sward where the white-haired shep- 

 herd so often stands watching his sheep feeding 

 along to this field, is decked in summer with many 

 flowers. By the hedge the agrimony frequently 

 lifts its long stem, surrounded with small yellow 

 petals. One day towards autumn I noticed a man 

 looking along a hedge, and found that he was 

 gathering this plant. He had a small armful of 

 the straggling stalks, from which the flowers were 

 then fading. The herb once had a medicinal 

 reputation, and, curious to know if it was still 

 remembered, I asked him the name of the herb, 

 and what it was for. He replied that it was 

 agrimony : " We makes tea of it, and it is good 

 for the flesh," or, as he pronounced it, "fleysh." 

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