Harvest

s, and the part taken in it by the woman land-workers under their care. They had summoned the land lasses from far and wide; in a field on the outskirts of the town competitions had been in full sw

, lent by a farmer, whose forebears had rented the same farm since William and Mary. Every spoke of the wheels blazed with red geraniums; there was a fringe of heather along the edge of the cart, while vegetables, huge marrows, turnips, carrots, and onions dangled from its sides, and the people inside sat under a nodding canopy of tall and splendid wheat, mixed with feathery ba

ne of them was the granddaughter of one of the old wo

git down! They mun think us o

e very best bit of the show. Why, j

woman

eness. But her tall granddaughter, in full uniform, with a rake ov

nd leggings-stood in the front of the cart, guiding two white horses, their mane

farmer of the humbler sort to his neighbou

a great hustler! The men say she's allus at 'em. But they don't mind he

passed, and knew it. Behind her in the cart sat Janet Leighton; and the two remaining seats were filled by the Vicar of Ipscom

er own estimation she was an important member of the Women's Committee which looked after the land girls. The war had done a great deal for Lady Alicia. It had dragged her from a sofa, where she was rapidly becoming a neurasthenic invalid, and had gradually dri

t herself much like Miss Henderson. Her husband had sent her to call upon the new tenants, and she had been much puzzled. They were ladies, she supposed. They spoke quite nicely, and Miss Henderson seemed t

life out of farming. We shall all be rui

at you. And Colonel Shepherd had told his wife that he understood from Hastings Miss Henderson had raised her wages before the award of the Wages Board. Well

rought with her, to take off his cap. She looked approvingly over the crowd, which was growing denser and denser every moment. It was so that she really enjoyed the populace-at a safe distance-and ready

the war, in the growth of the Woman's Land Army. "We've just been proud to do our bit at home while our boys have been fighting over there. They'll be home soon, perhaps, and won't we give them a welcome! And we'll show them the harvest that we've helped to reap-the biggest harvest that England's ever known!-the harvest that's going to beat th

d at Jenny

sterday; d'ye think she'

t Ralstone way. Ee says there ain't nothing she can't do. Ee don't want no

*

e outskirts of the crowd, from a side street. "Who's she going to take in here? What's the good of talking

one of the Canadians employed at Ralstone camp. He had been taken with the "sentimental young

other, removing his pipe for a mome

er went out to Canada from a place near here sixty years ago

aid the other, re

e other angrily. "It's as nice a little

ere not to be mistaken-also his cadaverous and sickly look, and his shabby clothes. The ticket-collector saw that the man was holding the dark-eyed, "furrin-looking" child by the hand, which the woman he met had brought down with her. "Furriners," he supposed, all of them; part of that stream of fugitives from air raids that had been flowing out of London during the pre

ovoked apparently by the eloquence of the young woman in the wagon. Meanwhile the little girl whose hand he held was trying to pull him into a better place for seeing the rest of the procession. For fro

's cart there emerged the second wagon with its white horses; Rachel Henderson, the observed of all beholders, sta

!" said

behind a girl with a large hat who stood in front of him, his eyes fixed on the Great End wagon. A ghastly white had replaced the patchy red on his cheeks, and had any careful observ

ith a long breath, Roger Del

hly to the child. "If you'll be a goo

oncealed his own features. Then he resumed an excited scrutiny of the Great End wagon. At the same moment he saw a man in uniform making his way through the c

er from the crowd; and the chairman of the meeting, a burly farmer, eagerly came to the side of the wagon, and helped the American officer into the cart. Then with a stentorian voice the chairman announced that Captain Ellesborough from Ralstone camp had come "to tell us what America is doing!" A roar from the crowd. Ellesborough saluted gaily, and then h

en a man thinks he's done enough, and wants to rest a bit, the man next him gets behind him with a bradawl. There's no rest for anybody. We've just registere

women, which set the la

n the crowd, ending in

ig, which came echoing

e old houses which ri

her applauding the speaker, or talking with the clergyman behind her, or the lady with the lace parasol. And when the speech was over, amid a hurricane of enthusiasm, when the resolution had been put and carried, and the bells in the old church-tower began to ring out a deafening joy-peal above the dispersing

the competitions had been held in the morning, and some of the crowd with them. Anot

eyed than before. When it was over, he noticed a group of elderly labourers. They had come late into the meeti

relessly. "Can you tell me who al

old Halsey-gave the spea

" he said cautiously, "

in the first one. She d

But they made such a

ghton I seed, an' I d

ond wagon?" said D

hat was Miss Henderson. Don't

on the

d man

an' she frames pretty fair. She don't know much y

s Has

e sure. You do be a str

tin

. It's a rum business, isn't i

dded refl

be cleverer at it than ye'd think. Miss H

money, I

lonel Shepherd, ee sees to that. Well, good-day to you. I'm goin' in to get s

where y

mile to Ipscombe, and near a mile beyont. I didn't want to co

into the public, where his mates were alr

ld playing at his heels. Then he turned abruptly, called the child, and w

l going on. He could hear them singing, the harvest hymn: "We plough the fields and scatter-The good

ers, a few soldiers on leave, with a lively fringe of noisy boys and girls skirmishing round and about their elders, like so many young animals on the loose. The evening light was f

demanded, and closely buttoned across the chest. The rest of his dress, felt hat, dark trousers, and tan boots, had all of it come originally from expensive shops, but was now only ju

rseness had been brought out or emphasized by developments of character and circumstance. The mouth was now loose and heavy. The hazel eyes had lost their youth, and were disfigured by the premature wrinkles of either ill-health or dissi

along the road. At last he crossed over towards an elderly man in

y, addressing the elder man,

ght'll bring yer to it." Peter Betts looked the s

rom the meetin

That worn't in our line. But we

fine!-especially

e and the two girls done

s her

peaking with an amiable, half careless detachment

he farme

epherd-she did-all on her own. To be sure there's Miss Leighton as lives with her. But it do see

son? She's n

"She's like a lot o' women nowadays, I

rry 'em, dad!" said his elder so

k a medita

of 'em's good-looking-Miss Henderson 'ersel', by token. A

bout two hundred and fifty acres, that Miss Henderson seemed to have "lots o' money," and had sold her autumn crops very well, that Miss Lei

into his cottage, with a nod to his c

Yes, it was lonesome, as the old man said, but a big, substantial-looking place. Rachel's place! And Rachel had "lots o' money"-and as to her health and well-being, why the sight of her on that cart was enough. That vision of her indeed-of the flushed,

him from the cart. The manner of their short conversation, indeed, showed them well acquainted. She told him to go and speak-and he had gone-with alacrity-smiling back at her.

stubble fields, Delane suddenly drew a letter from his pocket. While Rach

the bank to cancel your allowance, and wash my hands of you altogether. My husband's determined to stop this kind of thing. Don't imagine you can either threaten us, or come round us. We have tried again an

he use of ￡100 a year to him, with living at the price it was now? His wretched pittance besides, doled out to him by his father's tru

ad done with him-thrust him out of her life altogether. He'd let her see! Whose fault was it that he had taken up

left as he reached the buildings so as to escape the notice of any one who might be left in charge. As he slipped under the large cart-shed which backed on the cow-house, he heard somebody whistling inside. It was old Halsey, who had done the afternoon milking in the absence of the girls. Delane could hear the movements of the labourer, and the munching of the cows. A little farther on was the stable, and two horses' heads, loo

stily back into the shelter of an old holly that grew against the wall, till the old man had disappeared. Then he eagerly examined the room, which was still suffused by the sunset. Its prettiness and comfort were so many fresh exasperations. He contrasted it inwardly with the wretched lodging from which he had just come. Why, he knew the photographs on the walls-her father, the old parson, and her puritanical mother, whom Rachel had always

e a greater fool than he thought her, must have guessed that he would get back to England somehow. Why, the farm had ended in bankruptcy, and what else was there to do but to come home and dun his relations! Yet she had not been afraid to come home herself, and set up in this conspic

opened. "Hallo-who's there?" The voice was, no doubt, that of the labourer he had seen. Delane slipped

along the crest. Through the gathering dusk he saw the large farm-cart clattering up the lane with several figures in it. The cart carried lamps, which sent shafts of light over the stubbles.

he wagon, drove the horses. Then, for a time, Delane could see nothing more. The farm quadrangle had absorbed the party. Occasionally a light flas

kedly on the flat prairie with a bit of untidy garden round it-its living room in winter, with a huge fire, and a woman moving about-the creek behind it, and himself taking hor

ked out on the front of the farm, and a wooden shutter had been fastened across the window. But the wood of the shutter was old and full of chinks, and Delane, pressing his face to the window, was able to get just a glimpse of the scene within-Rachel at the head of the table, the man in uniform beside her-three other women. A paraffin lamp threw the shadow of the persons at the table sharply on the white distempered wall.

tood, and avoiding the open track through the fields, he skirted a hedge