IRRIGATION, POLITICS, AND SECTIONALISM 73 



long as he endures which in our midst may 

 not be so very long. 



Some of the wheat had already been cut, 

 but there were no shocks visible. The 

 stooping figures were gathering the crop in 

 little handfuls and armfuls from the ground, 

 and carrying these dolls' bundles to the 

 rickety waggon drawn by sad little ponies. 

 Further on two or three other men were 

 reaping as their fathers and grandfathers did 

 before them with miniature old-time reaping- 

 hooks. It all looked somewhat futile and 

 inadequate in the centre of this wide panorama 

 of mountain, vale, and sky. 



And yet further, as we drove upon our 

 way, we passed a threshing-ground where a 

 flock of panting sheep and goats were being 

 driven in a circle beneath the pitiless sun, 

 engaged in trampling out the grain. And 

 round and round, keeping the flock within 

 the appointed radius, walked the Mexican 

 herder, raising at intervals that long, wailing 

 cry which belongs rather to the desert wastes 

 than to the cultivated levels and the brown 

 ranch-house and friends and cheer. Further 

 still threshing was at an end, and in the light 



