The Beatups were silent—owing perhaps to their congestion5 in the trap. Nell was tired, and leaned against her mother. Life seemed a very sordid6 trip, in spite of the honey-coloured moon, which swung so high, the type of unfulfilled desire. Mrs. Beatup was thinking of Ivy7 and wondering if the soles of her boots were thick enough; and Zacky, wedged between them, planned a big hunt for conkers the next day. On the front seat, Mus’ Beatup sucked at his pipe and schemed a dash for the Rifle Volunteer before closing time. “If the War goes on much longer, there’ll be no more beer, so I mun git wot’s to be had. It’s those Russians, and be hemmed8 to them; reckon they’ll maake peace and never care if the War goes on a dunnamany year. It’s the sort of thing you’d expect of chaps wot went teetotal by Act of Parliament.”
Harry9 drove the old gelding, and as the trap lurched from farm to farm he marked those which had cut their grain, and which had not. They had reaped the Penny field at Cowlease, and the old bottoms of Slivericks stood [194] shocked beside the stream. Egypt Farm, with late hardy10 sowings, had not started—Worge started to-morrow.
That visit to Hastings had been a holiday before the solemn business of the year. For a long time he had planned his reaping—trudging the fields each day, fingering the awns, rubbing the straw. He must not cut too early or too late. Last year the oats had stood till they shed their seed, this year they must be caught in just the right moment of wind and sun.
On the whole the crops promised well. The old grounds of the Volunteer and the Street field had borne splendidly—the ploughed grass-lands not so well, except for Forges field, which, for some obscure reason, had brought forth11 a rich yield from its sour furrows12. On the whole the wheat promised better than the oats, which in spite of the varieties he had chosen had thickened in the clays, and grown unwieldy with sedge leaves and tulip roots.
The problem of harvesting had worried him for a long time, for Mus’ Beatup absolutely refused to buy a steam reaper-and-binder; he wurn’t going to take no risks in war-time, and Harry must make what shift he could with the old horse machine, which had trundled slowly round the few acres of earlier Worge harvests, and must even trundle round the width of this new venture. In vain Harry pointed13 out the labour needed for binding—he must get help, that was all; the family would turn to, as it always did in harvest time. The absence of Ivy was a hard blow—for she practically did the work of a man—but he found an unexpected substitute in the curate, who with the other country clergy14 had been episcopally urged to lend a hand in harvest time. Mr. Poullett-Smith had watched young Beatup’s effort with an approval which condoned15 his wobblings between Church and chapel16, and felt, moreover, that his help might send a balance down [195] on the Church side. He was a little scandalised to find soon after that Harry had also drawn17 in the Rev18. Mr. Sumption—the curate’s offer put it into his head; besides, it was just the sort of thing one asked of Mr. Sumption—it seemed far more his job than preaching or praying.
The other helpers would just be the family, this time including Nell, for where her parson went she could go also, in spite of stained and welted hands. Elphick and Juglery could do about one man’s work between them, and there was a boy over school age on the loose in the village, who was hired for ten shillings and his meals.
Harry had written to Tom and told him of his maturing plans, but either his marriage had breached19 him from Worge, or the fact that the disciple20 had gone so much further than his master had made his anxious ardour cool away. His latest communication had been a field postcard, which, as he had forgotten to put a cross against any of its various items, presented a bewildering and conflicting mass of information, which Harry flipped21 into the coals with a wry22 smile.
However, he was able to stand alone, for he dared the chances of his new deeds. Oafish23 as he looked in his Sunday suit and gasper collar, the adventure of harvest was upon him as he jolted24 the old trap home under the moon. “Behold, the fields stand white to harvest” ... the words drifted like a cloud over his brain. These fields that he had prepared, that his plough had torn and his harrow broken, were fields of battle like the fields in France. On them he had fought, for the same reason as Tom fought the Germans, all the treacheries and assaults of nature, her raiding winds, her storming rains, her undermining rottenness in the soil, her blasting of thunder and choking of heat.
“Reckon to-morrow’s our Big Push,” he said to his father, rather proud of the metaphor25, and was careful [196] that the old horse did not hurry stablewards too quickly, lest they should be home before the closing of the Rifle Volunteer, and lose a soldier thereby26.

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1
scattering
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n.[物]散射;散乱,分散;在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的;分散在不同范围的;广泛扩散的;(选票)数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式);散布;驱散 | |
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2
drooping
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adj. 下垂的,无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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3
cone
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n.圆锥体,圆锥形东西,球果 | |
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4
standing
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n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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5
congestion
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n.阻塞,消化不良 | |
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6
sordid
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adj.肮脏的,不干净的,卑鄙的,暗淡的 | |
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7
ivy
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n.常青藤,常春藤 | |
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8
hemmed
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缝…的褶边( hem的过去式和过去分词 ); 包围 | |
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9
harry
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vt.掠夺,蹂躏,使苦恼 | |
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10
hardy
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adj.勇敢的,果断的,吃苦的;耐寒的 | |
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11
forth
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adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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12
furrows
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n.犁沟( furrow的名词复数 );(脸上的)皱纹v.犁田,开沟( furrow的第三人称单数 ) | |
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13
pointed
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adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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14
clergy
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n.[总称]牧师,神职人员 | |
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15
condoned
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v.容忍,宽恕,原谅( condone的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16
chapel
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n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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17
drawn
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v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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18
rev
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v.发动机旋转,加快速度 | |
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19
breached
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攻破( breach的现在分词 ); 破坏,违反 | |
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20
disciple
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n.信徒,门徒,追随者 | |
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21
flipped
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轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 ); 按(开关); 快速翻转; 急挥 | |
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22
wry
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adj.讽刺的;扭曲的 | |
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23
oafish
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adj.呆子的,白痴的 | |
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24
jolted
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(使)摇动, (使)震惊( jolt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
metaphor
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n.隐喻,暗喻 | |
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26
thereby
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adv.因此,从而 | |
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