264 
RURAL HOURS. 
Saturday, Idth. — Decided change in the weather; thermome- 
ter 62, with cool, north wind. This sort of atmosphere is very- 
unfavorable to the scenery ; it lowers the hills, narrows the lake, 
and altogether, the famihar objects of the landscape do not look 
half so well as Avhen a soft haze hangs upon the hills. The nat- 
ural features of the country are not on a scale sufficiently grand to 
rise superior above such accidents of light and shade. Most sum- 
mers, we have a touch of this sort of weather — sometimes in July, 
sometimes in August — this sort of cool, matter-of-fact atmosphere, 
when things look unenjoyable without, and people feel cross at 
havino' to close their doors and windows, and sometimes lisjht a 
fire. 
Saw a large flock of barn-swallows hanging in clusters upon 
the mullein-stalks in a Avaste field. They are thinking of moving. 
Monday, 21st. — Very pleasant again. Walked some distance. 
The grain harvest is now over, very generally, and cattle are seen 
feeding among the stubble on many farms. 
In this part of the world, although we have once seen a woman 
ploughing, once found a party of girls making hay with the men 
of the family, and occasionally observed women hoeing potatoes or 
corn, we have never yet seen a sight very common in the fields of 
the Old World : we have never yet met a single gleaner. Prob- 
ably this is not entirely owing to the prosperous state of the coun- 
try, for there are many poor among us. " The poor ye have with 
you always, and whensoever ye Avill, ye may do them good." In 
the large towns, who has not seen the wretched creature who 
pick up the filthy rags from the rubbish and mud of the streets ? 
Where human beings can earn a livelihood in this way in the 
cities, gleaning in the fields of the country ought not to surprise 
