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第11章 The Wife's Tale

When I had spread it all on linen cloth

Under the hedge, I called them over.

The hum and gulp of the thresher ran down

And the big belt slewed to a standstill, straw

Hanging undelivered in the jaws.

There was such quiet that I heard their boots

Crunching the stubble twenty yards away.

He lay down and said 'Give these fellows theirs,

I'm in no hurry,' plucking grass in handfuls

And tossing it in the air. 'That looks well.'

(He nodded at my white cloth on the grass.)

'I declare a woman could lay out a field

Though boys like us have little call for cloths.'

He winked, then watched me as I poured a cup

And buttered the thick slices that he likes.

'It's threshing better than I thought, and mind

It's good clean seed. Away over there and look.'

Always this inspection has to be made

Even when I don't know what to look for.

But I ran my hand in the half-filled bags

Hooked to the slots. It was hard as shot,

Innumerable and cool. The bags gaped

Where the chutes ran back to the stilled drum

And forks were stuck at angles in the ground

As javelins might mark lost battlefields.

I moved between them back across the stubble.

They lay in the ring of their own crusts and dregs

Smoking and saying nothing. 'There's good yield,

Isn't there?' – as proud as if he were the land itself –

'Enough for crushing and for sowing both.'

And that was it. I'd come and he had shown me

So I belonged no further to the work.

I gathered cups and folded up the cloth

And went. But they still kept their ease

Spread out, unbuttoned, grateful, under the trees.

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