Little Knife Grinder

The boy sets one foot on the treadle and presses a blade against the turning stone. He wears a wide green hat with a curled brim, a yellow shirt, brick-red trousers and a stained apron. His cart is worked out in full: timber frame, pierced flywheel, scissors and a knife hung on their brackets, a water can above from which two white birds are drinking. A cleaver and a tipped oil can lie in the grass at his feet.