The Ploughboy 



melons we had placed in our cold spring were 

 a glorious luxury that only weary barefooted 

 farm boys can ever know. 



Spring was not very trying as to tempera- 

 ture, and refreshing rains fell at short intervals. 

 The work of ploughing commenced as soon as 

 the frost was out of the ground.. Corn- and 

 potato-planting and the sowing of spring wheat 

 was comparatively light work, while the nest- 

 ing birds sang cheerily, grass and flowers cov- 

 ered the marshes and meadows and all the wild, 

 uncleared parts of the farm, and the trees put 

 forth their new leaves, those of the oaks form- 

 ing beautiful purple masses as if every leaf were 

 a petal; and with all this we enjoyed the mild 

 soothing winds, the humming of innumerable 

 small insects and hylas, and the freshness and 

 fragrance of everything. Then, too, came the 

 wonderful passenger pigeons streaming from 

 the south, and flocks of geese and cranes, filling 

 all the sky with whistling wings. 



The summer work, on the contrary, was 

 deadly heavy, especially harvesting and corn- 

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