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"Wife, make us a dinner; spare flesh, neither corn, Make wafers and cakes, for our sheep must be shorn; At sheep-shearing, neighbours none other things crave, But good cheer and welcome like neighbours to have." We have in many villages and towns a feast called "the Wakes," which is one of the oldest of our English festivals.
January reveals a rich man at his table, dining alone, with his servitors and dogs about him; February's scene is white with snow a small farm with the wife at the spinning-wheel, seen through the door, and various indications of cold, without; March shows the revival of field labours; April, a love scene among lords and ladies; May, a courtly festival; June, haymaking outside a fascinating city; July, sheep-shearing and reaping; August, the departure for the chase; September, grape-picking for the vintage; October, sowing seeds in a field near another fascinating city a busy scene of various activities; November, beating oak-trees to bring down acorns for the pigs; and December, a boar hunt the death.
"Majella!" he exclaimed, "think you I would send you into the fold of the wolf? My wood-dove! It is in Jim Farrar's corral I left my pony. I was there last night, to see about his sheep-shearing in the autumn. And that is the last I know. I will ride back as soon as I have rested. I am heavy with sleep."
First of all there was the sower's feast, that would be about the end of April; then came the sheep-shearer's feast, there'd be about fifteen of us as would sit down after sheep-shearing, and we'd be singing best part of the night, and plenty to eat and drink; next came the feast for the reapers, when the corn was cut about August; and, last of all, the harvest home in September.
And, as further illustrating the tendency to divide time by natural phenomena and natural events, it may be noticed that even by our own peasantry the definite divisions of months and years are but little used; and that they habitually refer to occurrences as "before sheep-shearing," or "after harvest," or "about the time when the squire died."
Their haste to begin on the Ortega sheep-shearing had suddenly faded from their minds. Only Alessandro hesitated. "It is a good six hours' ride to Ortega's," he said to the men. "You'll be late in, if you do not start now." "Supper will be ready in an hour," said Ramona. "Please let them stay; one hour can't make any difference." Alessandro smiled.
Out in the flock there was a white sheep which she called hers, since she had brought it up as a lamb when its mother would not own it, as is sometimes the way with sheep silly things! It was shearing-time now and she wanted that wool. Sheep-shearing is not an easy thing for a girl to do.
George's aversion to bloodshed is matter of history; it was also his creed that a good hiding did nobody any harm. Now it was sheep-shearing time and McLaughlan was short of hands; he came into the mine to see whether out of so many thousands he could not find four or five who would shear instead of digging. When he put the question to George, George shook his head doubtfully.
Juan did not see his way clear at the moment to any fitting rejoinder to this easy assumption, on Alessandro's part, of the equal superiority of Indians and Mexicans in the sheep-shearing art; so, much vexed, with another "Humph!" he walked away; walked away so fast, that he lost the sight of a smile on Alessandro's face, which would have vexed him still further.
He has not been shaved since last sheep-shearing, and has a short black pipe in his mouth, and the tobacco smells like nigger-head or pig-tail. He wears a coarse check shirt without a collar, a black silk neck-cloth frayed at the edge, that looks like a rope of old ribbons.
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