wind. Think of the aching backs of the plower and the sower. Of course
there were happy hours, also. It was great fun to ride home behind the
oxen, on a cart packed full and pressed down with golden sheaves. The
time of treading out the grapes was a festival of laughter,
love-making, and song. And in the rainy season, after a year of
plentiful harvests, when the granaries and cellars were well stored,
there must have been many happy days of quiet rest and play in Hebrew
homes.

But most of all, what cheered them on was the hope of better days to
come, when their children at least, or their children's children,
would not have to toil quite so hard or so long each day, and when the
danger of famine and starvation would not loom up quite so grimly as
in the old days in the desert when one summer of drought might mean
death for all. Here in Canaan, they thought, we will surely be happy
by and by.


STUDY TOPICS

1. Explain the following Scripture passages, in the light of the
customs described in this chapter: Isaiah 63. 2; Deuteronomy 25. 4;
Matthew 3. 12.

2. Psalm 23. 1 draws a great lesson about God from the experiences of
shepherd life. What lesson about God is drawn from farm life in Isaiah
5. 1-7?

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| [Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN REAPING] |