Untitled - Beeldbibliotheek

MEMORABLE CAMPS 157On a fine evening youwill see the farmer'sdaughter coming from the house with her greatbaskets of meat and drink, that all the handsmay sup without delay and not a moment maybe lost. Possibly after dark a vast uncouththrashing mill may come snorting in, grindingand swaying over the uneven ground, manoeuvringclumsily by lantern light. All the life of the farmis concentrated there. You will make morefriends in a single evening in the stackyard thanyou would in a week if you were camped in adistant field.It is not always the most formal and correct ofstackyards that attract me most. Many of themare rambling and unkempt, with trees about themand an occasional neglected implement bymeans of which Herbert saves himself a tent-peg.Docks and nettles may grow in them, but theseare not without their value, as they have greatcapacity for accepting and concealing what iscast away. Jessica one of the members of theunderworld can be emptied into them withoutcompunction. Some have those fine, newfanglediron frames, as stack-bases, on which youmay admirably spread out wet things to dry.And all have when the cropis in the sameclean, crisp, gold and green decoration, the same