Why I thought you wanted to go home," said her cousin.

"So I do; -- but I don't want to go away from here."

"What do you want to stay for?"

"It is so lovely! --"

"_What_ is so lovely?" asked Miss Cadwallader with a tone of
mischief.

Elizabeth turned away and began to walk on, an expression of
great disgust upon her face.

"I wish I was blessed with a companion who had three grains of
wit!" she said.

Miss Cadwallader's light cloud of ill-humour, it seldom looked
more, came on at this; and she pouted till they reached the
fence of the ploughed field where the young men were at work.
Here Elizabeth gave up her basket to Winifred; and creeping
through the bars they all made for the nearest plough. It
happened to be Winthrop's.

"What's the matter?" said he as they came up. "Am I wanted for
guard or for oarsman?"

"Neither -- for nothing," said Elizabeth. "Go on, won't you? I
want to see what you are doing."

"Ploughing?" said he. "Have you never seen it?"

He went on and they walked beside him; Winifred laughing,
while the others watched, at least Elizabeth did minutely, the
process of the share in turning up the soil.

"Is it hard work?" she asked.

"No, not here; not when the business is understood."

"Like rowing, I suppose there is a sleight in it?"

"A good deal so."

"What has been growing here?"

"Corn."

"And now when you get to the fence you must just turn about
and make another ridge close along by this one?"

"Yes."

"Goodness! -- What's going to be sown here?"

"Wheat."

"And all this work is just to make the ground soft for the
seeds!"

"Why wouldn't it do just as well to make holes in the ground
and put the seeds in?" said Miss Cadwallader; -- "without
taking so much trouble?"

"It is not merely to make the ground soft," said Winthrop
gravely, while Elizabeth's bright eye glanced at him to mark
his behaviour. "The soil might be broken without being so
thoroughly turned. If you see, Miss Elizabeth, -- the slice
taken off by the share is laid bottom upwards."

"I see -- well, what is that for?"

"To give it the benefit of the air."

"The benefit of the air! --"

"The air has a sort of enriching and quickening influence upon
the soil; -- if the land has time and chance, it can get back
from the air a great deal of what it lost in the growing of
crops."

"The soil loses, then?"

"Certainly; it loses a great deal to some crops."

"What, for instance?"

"Wheat