Read "The Robe" by Lloyd C. Douglas online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
It was early morning but already promising to be another hot day. The swarthy overseer of the vineyard, temporarily at ease, lounged against the gatepost and yawningly watched the labourers--four score or more of men, women, and grown-up children--as they cut the huge purple clusters; carefully, for this fruit was going to a select market.
Some distance down the highway a little wisp of dust was rising from the lazy feet of a shaggy grey donkey attached to a decrepit high-wheeled cart filled with hay. A slim youth walked ahead, impatiently tugging at a long lead-strap. At intervals the donkey stopped and the tall boy in the knitted cap would brace his feet and pull with all his weight, his manner suggesting complete exasperation.