Rural Sketches and Poems, Chiefly Relating to Cleveland

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1845 edition. Excerpt: ...hast left thy father and mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knowest not heretofore. "And Boaz said unto her, at meal-time, come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left. "And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not. "And let fall also some of the handfuls on purpose for her, and leave them that she may glean them, and rebuke her not. "So she gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that she had gleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley." Is it not, then, a sweet and innocent picture? It is three thousand years old, yet the drama is true to life and the facts are tableaux vivans of the harvest field! The harvest field!--What a joyful sound has that name to the ears of the farmer. Long has he looked forward, through ploughing time and seed time, through drought and rain; through spring, summer, and early autumn, to this cheering season, and now, even now, a week's continuance of easterly or northerly winds, a single furious thunder shower, or a midnight hurricane may destroy the beneficial results of all his weary toil and constant anxiety; and, perhaps, where his rents are too high, or his capital scanty, may ruin him, and render him a beggar for life. It is not only the sea that hath its perils. Even "the gentlemen of England, that live at home at ease," have their own torments, perplexities, and dangers. We are now in the harvest field. The hot blazing sun burns upon them, they have been toiling since dawn of day, whilst millions are sleeping and slumbering on their...