WHEATFIELDS 



^HE cornfields immediately without Lon- 

 don on the southern side are among 

 the first to be reaped. Regular as if 



wheat shows the slope of the ground, correspond- 

 ing to it, so that the glance travels swiftly and 

 unchecked across the fields. They scarce seem 

 divided, for the yellow ears on either side rise as 

 high as the cropped hedge between. 



Red spots, like larger poppies, now appear above 

 and now dive down again beneath the golden sur- 

 face. These are the red caps worn by some of 

 the reapers ; some of the girls, too, have a red 

 scarf across the shoulder or round the waist. By 

 instinctive sympathy the heat of summer requires 

 the contrast of brilliant hues, of scarlet and gold, 

 of poppy and wheat. 



A girl, as she rises from her stooping position, 

 turns a face, brown, as if stained with walnut juice, 

 towards me, the plain gold ring in her brown ear 

 gleams, so, too, the rings on her finger, nearly 

 black from the sun, but her dark eyes scarcely pause 

 1 06 



