244 
RICHES. 
portant operations. She has ripened her best 
fruits, and a thousand hands are ready to reap 
them with joy. It is a gladdening sight to 
stand upon some eminence, and behold the 
yellow hues of harvest amid the dark relief 
of hedges and trees, to see the shocks stand¬ 
ing thickly in a land of peace; the partly 
reaped fields and the clear cloudless sky shed¬ 
ding over all its lustre. There is a solemn 
splendour, a mellowness and maturity of 
beauty thrown over the landscape. The 
wheat-crops shine on the hills and slopes, as 
Wordsworth expresses it, ‘ like golden shields 
cast down from the sun.’ For the lovers of 
solitary rambles, for all who desire to feel the 
pleasures of a thankful heart, and to partici¬ 
pate in the happiness of the simple and the 
lowly, now is the time to stroll abroad. They 
will find beauty and enjoyment spread abun¬ 
dantly before them. They will find the mow¬ 
ers sweeping down the crops of pale barley, 
every spiked ear of which, so lately looking 
up bravely at the sun, is now bent downward 
in a modest and graceful curve, as if abashed 
at his ardent and incessant gaze. They will 
find them cutting down the rustling oats, 
each followed by an attendant rustic who 
gathers the swarth into sheaves from the ten¬ 
der green of the young clover, which, com¬ 
monly sown with oats to constitute the future 
crop, is now showing itself luxuriantly. But 
