AUGUST. 



Lift up your eyes and look on the fields; for they are white 

 already to harvest. 



John iv. 35. 



The grand feature of this month is Corn 

 Harvest. It is a time for universal gladness 

 of heart. Nature has completed her most im- 

 portant operations. She has ripened her best 

 fruits, and a thousand hands are ready to reap 

 them with joy. It is a gladdening sight to 

 stand upon some eminence and behold the 

 yellow hues of harvest amid the dark relief of 

 hedges and trees, to see the shocks standing 

 thickly in a land of peace ; the partly-reaped 

 fields — and the clear, cloudless sky, shedding 

 over all its lustre. There is a solemn splendour, 

 a mellowness and maturity of beauty thrown 

 over the landscape. The wheat crops shine on 

 the hills and slopes as Wordsworth expresses it 

 " like golden shields cast down from the sun." 

 For the lovers of solitary rambles, for all who 

 desire to feel the pleasures of a thankful heart, 



