Pile HARV ES i.

MALBRER IT

( <“OUSIN GEORGE can use a reaping-hook very cleverly,
quite as well as the men. Uncle would not let me try to
reap for fear of accidents; but I helped to carry beer to the reapers,
and we dined in the field, which was very delightful. Mary and
Annie helped the old people to glean, and when the last load was
carried, we crowned little Annie with a wreath of poppies and blue
corn-flowers, tied together with ears of golden wheat, and lifted her
on the top of the load, and there George sat and held her quite
safely as Queen of the Harvest Home. Uncle kept the feast the
next day, not that same evening, and we all went to church, and
thanked God for “crowning the year with His goodness,” as the
Psalm says. The church was decked with flowers and wheat-ears,
and looked very pretty, and all the reapers were there with their
families, dressed in their Sunday clothes, and looking so happy. After
church there was a dinner spread in the meadow under the trees,
for the reapers, their wives, and children—roast beef and plum .pud-
ding, of course. And they sang songs, and drank healths in Uncle's
home-brewed ale, and were very merry.
With the Harvest Home our visit ended ; but we hope it will
not be long before we go again to stay at my Uncle's Farm.
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