REAPERS.

Sun-tanned men and women, toiling there together;

Seven I count in all, in yon field of wheat,

Where the rich ripe ears in the harvest weather

Glow an orange gold through the sweltering heat.

Busy life is still, sunk in brooding leisure:

Birds have hushed their singing in the hushed tree-tops;

Not a single cloud mars the flawless azure;

Not a shadow moves o'er the moveless crops;

In the glassy shallows, that no breath is creasing,

Chestnut-coloured cows in the rushes dank

Stand like cows of bronze, save when they flick the teasing

Flies with switch of tail from each quivering flank.

Nature takes a rest — even her bees are sleeping,

And the silent wood seems a church that's shut;

But these human creatures cease not from their reaping

While the corn stands high, waiting to be cut.