How everyone did work! The harvest season was so short that there was not a single minute to waste if the precious grain was to be put under cover before the fall storms came. Rain, wind, and sunshine were good for grain all through the long months of the growing season, but rain, wind, and too much sunshine were anything but good for grain that was tall and ripe. And so the moment the grain was ripe enough to be cut, the whole family went into the fields and worked from daylight until dark. They hastened to get their harvest in before the storms overtook them, or before the warm sun over-ripened the seeds, so that they fell to the ground to be blown away by the slightest breezes.

The men with sickles went ahead. They held a bunch of grain with one hand, swung the sickle with the other, and let the stalks fall to the ground as they cut their way across the field. Each man with a sickle was followed by another worker who gathered up the fallen stalks, tied them into bundles, and tossed them back to the ground. The men who had the scythes with the long handles and blades did not need to hold the grain as they cut it. They used both hands to swing the scythe, and they cut a wider path through the grain as they worked their way across the fields.