RICHES. 
245 
it is in the wheat field that all the jollity, and 
gladness, and picturesqueness of harvest are 
concentrated. Wheat is more particularly 
the food of man. Barley affords him a whole¬ 
some but much abused potation; the oat is 
welcome to the homely board of the hardy 
mountaineers; but wheat is especially and 
everywhere the ‘staffof life.’ To reap and 
gather it in, every creature of the hamlet is 
assembled. The farmer is in the field like a 
rural king amid his people. 
Around him ply the reaper band 
With lightsome heart and eager hand, 
And mirth and music cheer the toil, — 
While sheaves that stud the russet soil, 
And sickles gleaming in the sun, 
Tell jocund autumn is begun. 
“ The labourer, old or young, is there to 
collect what he has sown with toil, and watch¬ 
ed in its growth with pride; the dame has 
left her wheel and her shady cottage, and, 
with sleeve-defended arms, scorns to do less 
than the best of them; the blooming damsel 
is there adding her sunny beauty to that of 
universal nature ; the boy cuts down the stalks 
which over-top his head; children glean 
amongst the shocks ; and even the unwalk- 
able infant sits propt with sheaves, and plays 
with the stubble, and 
With all its twined flowers. 
