ses the terraces
must be supported by strong stone walls; and not only must the manure
be carried on men's shoulders up the steep, but in some cases even the
soil itself is carried up in the same way, and laid upon the bare rocks.

Different kinds of work are required in vineyards at different seasons.
In spring they prepare the soil; in summer they prune and tie up the
vine branches; and in autumn all the joyous labour of the vintage comes
suddenly on. Looking to the circumstance in the parable, that the
labourers who began early counted much on having borne the heat of the
day, we might be inclined to suppose that the scene is laid in the
middle of summer; but the fact that the householder required so many
labourers and hired all that he could find, points rather to the vintage
in the end of autumn.

The master went out early in the morning to hire labourers. There was
some spot, doubtless, recognised both by masters and men, as the common
meeting-place for those who needed work, and those who needed
workmen,--the Cross or the Buchts[33] of that place and day. This
husbandman at once engaged all the men that he found, and sent them into
his vineyard to begin work at six in the morning,--the first hour of the
Jewish day. The terms were arranged beforehand,--a penny a day. The
Roman denarius is reckoned equal to sevenpence half-penny of our money;
but obviously it was considered the ordinary rate of a labourer's wages
at the time.

[33] The name of a great trysting place for selling cattle and
hiring men and women on the eastern outskirts of the city of
Glasgow, where the two operations resemble each other too closely
for the credit of our institutions or the safety of society.

Again at nine o'clock the husbandman went to the market-place, and
finding some unemployed men, sent them also to work in his vineyard.
Again at mid-day, and yet once more at five o'clock in the afternoon he
went out, and finding men on each occasion loitering about the
market-place, he sent them also into the vineyard. In these cases,
however, as was meet when the day was broken, the master did not promise
any specific rate of wages; and the men, thankful for an opportunity of
turning to some profitable account a day which would otherwise have been
wholly lost, were content to accept whatever he might be pleased to
give.

About six o'clock in the evening,--earlier or later according to the
season of the year and the consequent dur