Country life -- England -- Fiction; Pastoral fiction; Villages -- England -- Fiction
Now we cross the stile, and walk up the fields to the Shaw. How
beautifully green this pasture looks! and how finely the evening sun
glances between the boles of that clump of trees, beech, and ash, and
aspen! and how sweet the hedgerows are with woodbine and wild scabious,
or, as the country people call it, the gipsy-rose! Here is little Dolly
Weston, the unconscious witness, with cheeks as red as a real rose,
tottering up the path to meet her father. And here is the carroty-poled
urchin, George Coper, returning from work, and singing 'Home! sweet
Home!' at the top of his voice; and then, when the notes prove too
high for him, continuing the air in a whistle, until he has turned the
impassable corner; then taking up again the song and the words, 'Home!
sweet Home!' and looking as if he felt their full import, ploughboy
though he be. And so he does; for he is one of a large, an honest, a
kind, and an industrious family, where all goes well, and where the poor
ploughboy is sure of finding cheerful faces and coarse comforts--all
that he has learned to desire. Oh, to be as cheaply and as thoroughly
contented as George Coper! All his luxuries a cricket-match!--all his
wants satisfied in 'home! sweet home!'
Nothing but noises to-day! They are clearing Farmer Brooke's great
bean-field, and crying the 'Harvest Home!' in a chorus, before which all
other sounds--the song, the scolding, the gunnery--fade away, and become
faint echoes. A pleasant noise is that! though, for one's ears' sake,
one makes some haste to get away from it. And here, in happy time, is
that pretty wood, the Shaw, with its broad pathway, its tangled dingles,
its nuts and its honeysuckles;--and, carrying away a faggot of those
sweetest flowers, we reach Hannah Bint's: of whom, and of whose doings,
we shall say more another time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account