Country life; London (England) -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Outdoor books
Below the pine wood on the slope of the hill a plough was already at
work, the crop of peas having been harvested. The four horses came up
the slope, and at the ridge swept round in a fine curve to go back and
open a fresh furrow. As soon as they faced down-hill they paused, well
aware of what had to be done, and the ploughman in a manner knocked his
plough to pieces, putting it together again the opposite way, that the
earth he was about to cut with the share might fall on what he had just
turned. With a piece of iron he hammered the edge of the share, to set
it, for the hard ground had bent the edge, and it did not cut properly.
I said his team looked light; they were not so heavily built as the
cart-horses used in many places. No, he said, they did not want heavy
horses. "Dese yer thick-boned hosses be more clutter-headed over the
clots," as he expressed it, _i.e._ more clumsy or thick-headed over the
clods. He preferred comparatively light cart-horses to step well. In
the heat of the sun the furze-pods kept popping and bursting open; they
are often as full of insects as seeds, which come creeping out. A green
and black lady-bird--exactly like a tortoise--flew on to my hand. Again
on the heath, and the grasshoppers rose at every step, sometimes three
or four springing in as many directions. They were winged, and as soon
as they were up spread their vanes and floated forwards. As the force
of the original hop decreased, the wind took their wings and turned
them aside from the straight course before they fell. Down the dusty
road, inches deep in sand, comes a sulphur butterfly, rushing as quick
as if hastening to a butterfly-fair. If only rare, how valued he would
be! His colour is so evident and visible; he fills the road, being
brighter than all, and for the moment is more than the trees and
flowers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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