A Twentieth-Century Hero (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A Twentieth-Century Hero

Early Days at the Farm

The heart that is soonest awake to the flowers
Is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns. Thomas Moore

All the long July day the heat had been intense, and even at the approach of evening a haze, light as a gossamer veil, still hung over the land foretelling hot days to follow. In the meadow fields the cattle stood deep in buttercups and dog-daisies, they had ceased to browse, and, as they stared reproachfully down the dusty road, were flicking their tails lazily to ward off worrying gnats. It was past milking hour, and Hetty Marrington of Ivy Farm had not come to milk them.

For once Hetty was not punctual. The languorous atmosphere had disposed her to idle, and she found it pleasanter to swing to and fro, with slow rhythmical movements, on the gate of the neglected farm-house, than to trudge down the dusty road with a heavy pail upon her arm.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.