[Alec Forbes of Howglen by George MacDonald]@TWC D-Link bookAlec Forbes of Howglen CHAPTER V 4/5
For before hay-time, for instance, when the grass was long in the fields, if she came upon any place that took her fancy, she would tumble down at once, and show that she loved it by going to sleep upon it.
Then it was no easy task to find her amidst the long grass that closed over her, as over a bird in its nest.
But the fact was, this habit indicated a feebleness of constitution, to which sleep itself was the best restorative.
And in the harvest-field, at least, no harm could come of it; for Dooie, as she always called him, watched her like a mother; so that sometimes when she awoke, she would find a second stook of ten sheaves, with a high-uplifted crowning pair above, built at right angles to the first, to shelter her from the sun which had peered round the corner, and would soon have stared her awake. The only discomfort of the harvest-field was, that the sharp stubble forced her to wear shoes.
But when the corn had all been carried home, and the potatoes had been dug up and heaped in warm pits against the winter, and the mornings and evenings grew cold, and, though still friendly to strong men and women, were rather too keen for delicate little Annie--she had to put on both shoes and stockings, which she did not like at all. So with "gentle gliding," through a whole winter of ice and snow, through a whole spring of promises tardily fulfilled, through a summer of glory, and another autumn of harvest joy, the day drew on when they must leave the farm.
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