Page:An Old English Home and Its Dependencies.djvu/220

 Our day's work is done, to the farmhouse we steer, To eat a good supper and drink humming beer; We wish the good farmer all blessings in life, And drink to his health, and as well to his wife. God prosper the grain for next harvest we sow, When again in the arrish we'll sing, Boys, hallo!


 * Then, all in a row! etc."

When the reapers had cut nearly the whole field they reached a portion that had been purposely left, and this, instead of attacking in row, they surrounded, shouting "A neck! a neck!" and of this the last sheaf was fashioned, and on top of it was a little figure formed of plaited corn, and this was conveyed in triumph to the garner.

My old coachman, who had served three generations of my family and had seen four, was the last man who made these corn-men in our neighbourhood, and long after the custom had been abandoned, he was wont on every harvest thanksgiving to produce one of these comical figures for suspension in the church. The head was made of a tuft of barley, and flowers were interwoven with the rest.

All this is of the past, and so also is the