159 



XXVII. 

 I^A/A' ON THE ROOT CROPS. 



Here in the country we are really bcfrinning at last 

 to lose heart altogether. Night after night we see the 

 leaden mists gathering ominously over Pilbury-hill ; and 

 morning after morning we see a fallacious gleam of sun- 

 shine or two peeping through the lattice at five o'clock, 

 only to find the whole sky overcast again and heavy 

 showers pattering steadily against the window-panes an 

 hour before breakfast-time. Never was there such a 

 diluvial summer. Sometimes for a couple of days at 

 once we get a little respite, with nothing more serious 

 than occasional downpours from a passing white fleece 

 that drifts island-like before the wind through a sea of 

 blue ; and then the deceptive barometer struggles slowly 

 upward with every promise of settled weather. But just 

 as the mercury and our spirits rise half-way to 30, an- 

 other squadron of black rain-clouds comes careering to 

 us across the Atlantic, till the glass and the farmer's 

 heart sink down together gloomily to 'very stormy.' 



To-day is just as bad as any of its predecessors. It 

 is now a full month since we carried our hay in the lower 

 croft, and still to this moment we have not been able to 

 put a scythe into the high meadow on the top of War- 



