A Pillar
Of Dust On The Long Hog-Back Of The Road Across The Hills Shows Where A
Team Is Lathering Between Farms, And The Roofs Of The Wooden Houses
Flicker In The Haze Of Their Own Heat.
Overhead the chicken-hawk is the
only creature at work, and his shrill kite-like call sends the gaping
chickens from the dust-bath in haste to their mothers.
The red squirrel
as usual feigns business of importance among the butternuts, but this is
pure priggishness. When the passer-by is gone he ceases chattering and
climbs back to where the little breezes can stir his tail-plumes. From
somewhere under the lazy fold of a meadow comes the drone of a
mowing-machine among the hay - its whurr-oo and the grunt of the tired
horses.
[Footnote 2: See 'In Sight of Monadnock.']
Houses are only meant to eat and sleep in. The rest of life is lived at
full length in the verandah. When traffic is brisk three whole teams
will pass that verandah in one day, and it is necessary to exchange news
about the weather and the prospects for oats. When oats are in there
will be slack time on the farm, and the farmers will seriously think of
doing the hundred things that they have let slide during the summer.
They will undertake this and that, 'when they get around to it.' The
phrase translated is the exact equivalent to the manana of the
Spaniard, the kul hojaiga of Upper India, the yuroshii of the
Japanese, and the long drawled taihod of the Maori.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 87 of 264
Words from 23526 to 23794
of 71314
