Page:Her Benny - Silas K Hocking (Warne, 1890).djvu/260

236 believed that he was where God intended him to be. He had a home, and a good one, among friends who believed in his honesty and treated him with kindness. And even yet, had he been disposed to pay a visit to his old haunts, he had no time. He was fully employed every day of the week, and every season of the year brought its appointed work. The days were so short in winter that he had always his hands full, and sometimes more than he could do. And spring was always a busy time: the lambs had to be attended to; fences had to be repaired; and so many "crops" had to be got in, that hay harvest came upon them frequently before they were ready. Then huge fields of turnips and mangolds and potatoes had to be hoed, and ere that was done the fields were white unto the harvest. Then came sheep-shearing and ploughing land for next yearns wheat crop, and potato digging, and half a dozen other things, that allowed him no time for idleness; and it was well for Benny that it was so. He had no time to mope or to waste in useless regrets.

One evening he had to pass Brooklands on his way to a neighbouring farm. The day had been beautifully fine—a real June day, people said; a few people complained that it had been too hot about noon, but as the day declined a fresh breeze had sprung up, that made the evening deliciously cool. Benny enjoyed few things more than a saunter across the fields during a summer's evening. And this evening he was just in the mood to enjoy the song of birds, and the scent of apple-blossom and new-mown hay. It wanted several hours