Many Hands Make Light Work

The wheat harvest is almost in – all the stalks have been cut, bound into sheaves and stooked to dry, every sheaf now nearly loaded on the horse wagon – to be transported to the barn for threshing the grain from the chaff and making the daily bread. The hard work done predominantly by hand on this early 19^th century farm is nearly complete – thanks in large measure to the veritable adage that “many hands make light work.” The work load is lighter because every man, woman and child help out. Equally, the work is ‘lighter’ in its more refined sense of purpose and simple love of life. The children especially feed this notion with their hands-on playful connection with the leftover straw. Hardly a waste of effort, play is the work of children. In turn, they feed the hearts of the distant working adults whose hands also work to literally feed those little hearts of the foreground scene. It is a beautiful connection between all hearts and hands, ever expanding that deeper meaning of “many hands make light work.”