102 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



XVIII. 

 HAYMAKING BEGINS. 



THE early season has told upon the hay more than upon 

 any other crop this year, perhaps ; and the thick 

 swathes are already lying in long parallel curves upon 

 the bulging side of Stonebarrow Hill. There is no 

 more beautiful sight among all the beautiful sights of 

 the country than to see the scythes following one 

 another in measured rhythm along a convex undulation 

 on the hill-side, and to watch the swathes forming, as if 

 by magic, in regular ranks behind each mower as he 

 moves quickly and skilfully across the transformed field. 

 It is a graceful combination of natural beauty and 

 simple human art : a combination in which each rather 

 adds to than diminishes the effect of the other. Behind 

 the mowers, in the still uncut portion of the meadow, 

 the grasses sway and bend before the wind in broken 

 curves looking almost as though the whole mass were 

 moving swiftly like a river in the direction of the breeze. 

 But in the foreground, the long even line of the mown 

 edge stands up sharply like a wall with human regu- 

 larity ; and still nearer, the great sweeping rows of fresh 

 hay lie one in front of the other with human consecutive- 

 ness. In the level field that fills up the alluvial valley 



