and wearisome when they knew that the farmers had such a grateful
sense of their good services; and if any one felt aggrieved or
discontented, the mutual intercourse at the harvest-home, when all
were equal, when all sat at the same table and conversed freely
together, soon banished all ill-feeling, and promoted a sense of
mutual trust, which is essential to the happiness and well-being of
any community. Shorn of much of its merriment and quaint customs,
the harvest-home still lingers on in some places; but modern habits
and notions have deprived it of much of its old spirit and
light-heartedness. We have our harvest thanksgiving services, which
(thank God!) are observed in almost every village and hamlet. It is,
of course, our first duty to thank God for the fruits of His bounty
and love; but the harvest-home should not be forgotten. When
labourers simply regard harvest-time as a season when they can earn
a few shillings more than usual, and take no further interest in
their work, or in the welfare of their master, all brightness
vanishes from their industry: their minds become sordid and
mercenary; and mutual trust, good-feeling, and fellowship cease to
exist.

Neither did the harvest-men allow drunkenness, laziness, swearing,
quarrelling, nor lying, to go unpunished. The labourers in Suffolk,
if they found one of their number guilty, would hold a court-martial
among themselves, lay the culprit down on his face, and an
executioner would administer several hard blows with a shoe studded
with hob-nails. This was called "ten-pounding," and must have been
very effectual in checking any of the above delinquencies.

Besides the harvest-home there was also observed another feast of a
similar character in the spring, when the sheep were shorn. A