Blaise," translated by Henry
Naegely in _J.F. Millet and Rustic Art_.]

[Footnote 2: See chapters ii. and vi.]

XV

THE MAN WITH THE HOE

To the peasant farmer every month of the year brings its own labors.
From seed time to harvest there is a constant succession of different
tasks, and hardly is the harvest gathered in before it is time to
prepare again for planting. Before ploughing can be begun the fields
must first be cleared of stubble and weeds. Now in Millet's village of
Barbizon, this clearing of the fields was done, in his day, by means
of an implement called in French a _houe_. Although we translate the
word as hoe, the tool is quite unlike the American article of that
name. It looks a little like a carpenter's adze, though much larger
and heavier, the blade being as broad as that of a shovel. The handle
is short and the implement is very clumsy and fatiguing to use. Even
the stoutest peasant finds the work wearisome.

The man in our picture has paused for a moment's rest in this toilsome
labor, and leans panting on his hoe. In the heat of his toil he has
thrown off his hat and blouse, which now lie together on the ground
behind him. His damp hair is matted together on his forehead, his
brawny chest is exposed by the open shirt, his horny hands are clasped
over the hoe handle. Some distant object catches his eye. It may be a
farm wagon moving across the plain, or perhaps a bird flying through
the clear air. To follow the course of such an object a moment is a
welcome change from the monotonous rise and fall of the hoe.

It is a rough and uneven field in which the laborer works, rising here
and there in small hillocks, and thickly overgrown with brambles and
coarse tufts of herbage. When these weeds are loosened from the soil,
they are raked in little heaps and burned. In the field just back of
this is a circle of these bonfires, sending up their columns of smoke
towards the sky. A young woman is busy raking together the piles. In
the distance she looks like a priestess of ancient times presiding
at some mystic rites of fire worship. Far beyond, a shapely tree is
outlined against the horizon.

[Illustration: From a carbon print by Braun, Clement & Co. John Andrew
& Son, Sc. THE MAN WITH THE HOE]

To study this picture profitably, we must consider separately the
subject and the artistic qualities. These two elements in a work
of art are often confused, but are in reality quite distinct. Very