in the higher of the two, and then it was great fun for the boys and
girls and youths and maidens to jump barefooted and barelegged among
the purple clusters, and trample them until the foaming red juice ran
down into the lower of the stone chambers, where it was taken up with
gourd dippers and poured into skins. The youngsters would come home
with their legs and shirts all stained and spotted red.

=Olive orchards.=--Almost every Canaanite farm had a few olive trees
or a small olive orchard. The olives were prized for the oil which was
squeezed from them. This oil was used as we use butter, with bread and
in cooking. It was also burned in lamps. In fact, it was their chief
fuel for lighting purposes.

The olive press was a large stone with a hollow in the top. From the
bottom of the hollow, a hole was drilled through to the outside of the
stone. Across the hollow swung a wooden beam, one end riveted to a
tree or another stone, and the other end carrying weights. The ripe
olives were shaken from the trees, and basket full after basket full
poured into the hollow stone. Then the weighted beam would be laid
across the top, with flat stones under it, fitting down into the
hollow over the olives. The oil, trickling out below, was strained and
stored in jars.


HARD WORK AND BRIGHT HOPES

Most of these different kinds of crops called for an immense amount of
hard work and drudgery. Think of the weariness of the reapers,
swinging their sickles in the wheat or barley all day long under the
hot Syrian sun. Think of the winnowers, tossing the grain into the