GARNERING
While the sun was shining, progress in the corn- field was steady. The tractor towing the wagon went along the lanes between the stooks, and the sheaves came sailing up to the man building the load with a regularity that must have been wearying. I saw him swaying on top as the tractor hauled it all away to the rickyard, and shortly afterwards the loaded wagon was exchanged for an 'empty.' It seemed that
the stubble would soon be clered and the hens; encroaching upon it along the farm road, would have it all to themselves, but in mid-afternoon when I looked a black cloud was shadowing the field and. the man building the load was struggling into his jacket. I wondered about this for a minute, thinking that perhaps he might be feeling cold, but the answer came when the window pane was spattered by raindrops. In a short time I could see the field in a haze. A tarpaulin was over the wagon. The tractor, harvesters and hens had all taken themselves off for the third time in as many days. The progress of garnering and gleaning was impeded and one realised how essential it is to a farmer to have a philosophic nature when the weather is as unstable as it is just now.
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