# IX: Gleaning explained — Greene Ferne Farm > Chapter companion for Greene Ferne Farm by Richard Jefferies. ## What happens Andrew Fisher, aged ninety, sits in his beehive chair at Warren House as the harvest season ends. The chapter contrasts the pastoral beauty of the landscape with the harsh reality of the gleaners—women bowed under bundles of sticks and weary infants, their hearts pinched with poverty. As the sun sets in a fiery crimson blaze, Felix St. Bees rides toward Warren House, encountering men digging by the roadside who suspect a buried body. The landlord tells him of Valentine's dark horse dying suddenly during a trial, likely from overtraining and foul play. Felix proceeds to Warren House, finds it eerily silent and dark, and enters to find Andrew Fisher in his chair. ## Themes in this chapter ### Labour and Class Struggle The gleaners are depicted as worn, faceless women whose hearts are 'pinched with poverty,' contrasting with Andrew Fisher's idle wealth. ### Time and Mortality Andrew Fisher's aging, the setting sun, the harvest's end, and the sunset's apocalyptic glow evoke the passage of time and approaching death. ### Nature and the Pastoral Ideal The chapter opens with rich descriptions of the harvest landscape, rooks, reeds, and the mill-wheel, but undercuts the pastoral with the gleaners' suffering. ## Character check-ins ### Old Andrew Fisher Sits in his beehive chair facing the western window, aged ninety, reflecting on his past as the harvest ends. ### Rev. Felix St. Bees Rides to Warren House, witnesses the sunset glory, learns of Valentine's horse's death, and enters the silent house. ### Val Browne His dark horse dies suddenly during a private trial; the landlord suspects foul play by the trainer. ### Geoffrey Newton Mentioned as one who backed Valentine's horse and lost money. ### Squire Thorpe Mentioned as one who backed Valentine's horse and lost money. ### May Fisher Mentioned as absent from Warren House; Felix remembers her from love. ## Key lines > Their backs were bowed beneath great bundles of gleanings, or faggots of dead sticks carefully sought for fuel, and they carried weary infants, restless and fretful. Their forms had lost all semblance to the graceful curve of woman; their faces were hard, wrinkled, and angular, drawn with pain and labour. The women were stooped under heavy loads of gathered grain or firewood, and held tired, fussy babies. They no longer looked feminine; their faces were tough, lined, and sharp from hardship and work. _Highlights the dehumanizing effect of poverty and labor on the gleaners._ > But the magic of it touched them not, for their hearts were pinched with poverty. The beauty of nature had no effect on them because they were consumed by their poverty. _Contrasts the pastoral ideal with the reality of class struggle._ > A dome of fire above reflected by the dull earth—a faint, phosphoric, shimmering rosiness among the grass blades. The sky was a fiery dome, and the dull ground reflected a faint, glowing pink among the grass. _Describes the spectacular sunset that Felix witnesses._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/greene_ferne_farm_se/chapters/ix-gleaning - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/greene_ferne_farm_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/greene_ferne_farm_se/chapters