The Hired Man All day I saw him cutting thistles in the field, and as I watched, it made my own heart ache to see him bend so long in that fierce heat, I could not rest until he took his noon day break. That afternoon, the heat was greater yet, but still he stiffly bent and swung his hook; and almost all the headland weeds were cut at tea time, when I went outside to look. One patch of thistles yet remained to do, when with slow step he walked towards the gate, I saw him lay his tools beneath the hedge and pause, and seem to hesitate. And when they said, next day, he'd gone away, I thought of his slow step upon the hill; no one else would undertake such toil and in the field I see the uncut thistles still. Cathleen Benson |