Linette had the biggest bowl, without a doubt. Marilee carried her tiny bowl to the weighing station so the tare could be measured before they went into the field to scrounge for beans left unpicked by the mechanical pickers. Only one bowl per day was allowed and since you had to bring your own bowl, the harvest was limited by the size of the bowls you owned. It truly wasn’t a fair system and Marilee longed to trade bowls with Linette, had imagined doing so many times: “you only have one child, while I have five children. Can I use your bowl today?” But she had never dared approach Linette with this proposal.
Because of the size constraints, it was better to shell the beans right as they were picked, so Marilee sighed and got to work. As the women lined up to get weighed, Marilee noticed that Linette’s bowl was only half full. She plucked up her courage and asked if they could trade bowls the next day so that Marilee could get more beans. Linette laughed and told her she hated beans anyway. Of course Marilee could use her giant bowl.
The next day and the next and so on until the bean field had been picked clean, Marilee used Linette’s bowl, staying later than the other women but never leaving without a full bowl. Linette told her she was happy enough to leave early.
Marilee dried so many beans that she had to buy some extra sacks to hold them all. The entire village waited for their men to come back from their summer hunting trips. All hoped, of course, for a large provision of cured meat, but you never knew. Marilee didn’t really like the meat since you really didn’t know what kind of animal it was, and the men never said. She was very pleased to have more beans than she expected to have since you really didn’t even know whether the men would bring any meat at all.
As it happened, the men’s meat got stolen on their return journey, so they arrived with hardly any meat at all. Everyone was happy that they had made it home anyway and the summer garden produce was made into welcome home feasts. Soon enough winter would come. Marilee, who was very good at estimating harvest stores knew that Linette would run out of beans. She worried what she would do since it was highly likely Linette would have to go around asking for handouts and Marilee knew she had barely enough for her own brood. Well, winter would come when it would and Marilee would decide then. Might as well enjoy the vegetable feast while it was in front of her.
Superb shot of this robin - and your managed to get him with his mouth full!
Well done!
And this shot fits your story perfectly with the robin preparing just like Marilee did.
Well done!
And this shot fits your story perfectly with the robin preparing just like Marilee did.