134 Wild Life ina Southern County. 
Some way behind, a weary grey,—the only spot of 
colour, and that dimmed—is gamely struggling—it 
is not leaping—through a gap beside a gaunt oak 
‘tree, whose dark buff leaves yet linger. But out of 
these surely an artist who dared to face Nature, as 
‘she is might work a picture. 
The year really commences at Wick farmhouse 
immediately before the autumn nominally begins— 
nominally, because there is generally a sense of 
autumn in the atmosphere before the end of Septem- 
ber. Just about that time there comes a slackening 
of the work requiring earnest personal supervision. 
When the yellow corn has been cut and carted, and 
_ the threshing machine has prepared a sample for the 
markets—when the ricks are thatched, and the steam 
plough is tearing up the stubble—then the farmer 
can spare a day or so free from the anxieties of 
‘harvest. There is plenty of work to be done ; in fact, 
the yearly rotation of labour may be said to begin in 
the autumn too, but it does not demand such hourly 
attention. It is the season for picnics—while the sun 
is yet warm and the sward dry—on the downs among 
the great hazel copses, or the old entrenchment, with 
its view over a vast landscape, dimmed, though, by 
yellow haze, or by the shallow lake in the vale. 
With the exception of knocking over a young 
rabbit now and then for household use, the farmer, 
even if he is independent of a landlord, as in this case, 
does not shoot till late in the year. Old-fashioned 
