arth," as the harvesters
expressed it; and with implicit faith in the moon, there would therefore
be no rain. For once in a way faith was not misplaced: there was great
heat, which ripened wheat and oats and barley too quickly, left the straw
short, and covered the turnips with fly.

It was too hot in the day to go far--that is, for those in life who can
choose their own time. So the dog and the man took their walks late, and
prolonged them to the hour when the ruddy moon rose solemnly into the sky
over the woods and set out on its low, summer curve to the west. Daylight
lasted long after the sun went down: a hot glow spread gradually
northward, and what with the light in this direction and the moon at
full, only those two other worlds, Jupiter and Venus, were visible in the
cloudless vault above. This was the time of day to be abroad, but, oddly
enough, the hour when many were indoors. There was some excuse for the
harvesters. They had been up with the sun: by half-past seven it was time
to put the self-binder to bed in the field; by eight, or soon after, many
were in bed themselves. Men and horses had sweated much, and had had a
long day.

It was on an evening such as this that Murphy had his first lesson in
working to the hand, for Job's remark had given rise to a train of
thought. Education was of course everything. Those who lived on the land
should be educated in the things of the land; should learn, if not its
deeper wonders and mysteries, at least its simple lessons and what lay at
the back of these. It was in these fields and over these breezy downs
that thews and sinews were to be braced, health and strength gathered,
souls cleansed, if so be that the ways of the man were straight and true.

Here was God's work always visible, from the wonders of the growth of the
seeds to the coming of the music of the rains that washed the air and
made the land sing with life. Here was always visible the infinite power
of small things, beauty unstained, Nature's laws always in full
operation--the triumph of good work, the smothering of that which was
ill. Here in these very fields had been gathered the strength of arm that
had stood the country in good stead, when the drums beat and true men
were wanted beyond seas. That seemed to be more as it should be. And so
it may be yet--that is, when the craze of a day has passed, and the men
of the land come back.

Education would do it. Some hearts would be bitten with the old lo