RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31861, 13 December 1968, Page 21

RANDOM REMINDER

HOSPITALITY

If he did not look quite like Ruth among the corn, he was a striking figtire, the man in the turnip field. He was picking turnips, and putting them into a handsome, large wicker basket. His car was parked beside the fence. And after he had been working for a while, and as he edged' up the field, he noticed that there was another man, clearly a visitor, wearing a faultless white collar and tie, and also engaged in picking turnips and putting them

into a receptacle. They passed the time of day. The first man remarked on the fine quality of the turnips, and the man with the tie agreed that they were extremely good. The first man asked the man with the tie if he came to the field often. The man with the tie said that he did. The first man announced that he had been there 10 times, and that the farmer who owned the field was a bit foolish to let people come and take his turnips away. The man with the tie said he wasn't too sure about that, because he

happened to be the farmer. Some sort of justice was done. For the farmer, who had been in his Sunday best and had been asked by his wife to bring in a few turnips, was able to go back with a good load of them, and a handsome, large wicker basket. He also returned with an imperishable memory of the departure of his uninvited guest whose flight made mockery of time, distance and fences. It was rather like one of those fade-out, diminish-ing-circle bits from a Donald Duck cartoon.