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DAY 45 | A PICTURE’S WORTH 1000 200 WORDS |
The Gleaners
JEAN-FRANÇOIS MILLET, 1857
Today, the word “gleaners” is only vaguely familiar to our ears. Perhaps we first heard it in the ancient love story of Ruth and Boaz. Since Biblical times, centuries before farmers had machinery to harvest their crops, workers reaped the fields with hand-held tools such as the scythe. As they hurried to gather the crops before rain or wind destroyed them, a scattering of wheat or barley was left behind. Traditionally, the local poor were invited to enter the fields after the harvest, gathering up or “gleaning” the remaining grain free of charge. Jean-François ...
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