Sullivan letter diary, 27 October 1915-9 October 1917 / Eugene Sullivan - Page 293
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[Page 293]
enjoy these privileges but my smattering of French enabled Jack Warne and I to secure a bed, in one of the farm houses, and the little french woman cannot do enough for us. She is a widow with three children, Louis, Augiste, and André, eleven, nine and five years old, and I spend many a spare half-hour in amusing the youngsters.They are well behaved and not at all spoilt so that one can enjoy their society.
The Madame's father is a very jovial old man of sixty odd years and he spends his whole day grafting in the fields, mostly reaping wheat, oats, and clover with a scythe. Most of their harvesting is done by hand; everyone in the household assisting, from old men and women of seventy or eighty, to young boys and girls of nine and ten.
School is closed during August and September to enable the youngsters to give a hand in the harvesting. Jack Warne and I went out with the old man a few days ago and assisted him in tying up the wheat in bundles and stacking it on the cart and also in unloading and stacking it in the barn.
All the women in the neighbourhood seem to be out working in the fields; some old grannies wearing little white caps; and others young women with bare brawny arms like a man, weilding [sic] their short-handled scythe most dexterously !
The cart they use for bringing in the wheat is only two wheeled although it is as long as any of our four wheeled vehicles which are used for the same purpose. It projects at least two yards beyond the axle at the front and rear. If one was to unload the front first the weight at the rear would lift the horse off the ground. I almost choked one of their horses by so doing.
A boy has just ridden past with five draught horses which have been working in the field. He is riding the first one and each of the others is tied to the tail of the horse in front. When driving one or two horses the french only use one rein. The two or four reins join into one just behind the horses' heads and the driver only has the one rein with which to guide them. I don't know how they manage it but probably the horses obey their voices