THE KERNING OF THE WHEAT. 191 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

 THE KERNING OF THE WHEAT. 



A NARROW single-file pathway leads obliquely as a short 

 cut across the lower corn-field to the bridge, and on 

 either hand the mellowing corn rises sharply beside it 

 like a wall, with its tall shocks now just turning from 

 pale green to golden brown before the ripening sun and 

 the warping wind. As I pass through it I cannot avoid 

 trampling down a haulm or two of the overhanging 

 straw here and there, so closely does the crop encroach 

 upon the track that threads among it. There are bright 

 yellow corn-marigolds scattered in between the heads, 

 and great scarlet poppies by the edge, and dark blue- 

 bottles further afield, and lilac scabiouses overtopping 

 even the tallest beards. Beneath, too, there is an inter- 

 loping mat of smaller weeds : lithe climbing buckwheat 

 or black bindweed, with its barbed and heart-shaped 

 leaves exactly mimicking the lesser convolvulus, whose 

 funnel-like blossoms open by its side ; stiff wiry knot- 

 grass forming here and there a ragged undersward ; 

 creeping toadflax pressing tight to the ground its broad 

 leaves and snap-dragon flowers ; red bartsia sucking out 

 the life-blood of the corn with its parasitic rootlets and 

 clinging suckers. For even the most carefully tended 



