104 MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 



can afford to wait Two of them will sometimes 

 wait nearly half a day while a comrade goes 

 for a tool. They are patient and philosophi 

 cal. It is a great pleasure to meet such men. 

 One only wishes there was some work he could 

 do for them by the hour. There ought to be 

 reciprocity. I think they have very nearly 

 solved the problem of Life: it is to work for 

 other people, never for yourself, and get your 

 pay by the hour. You then have no anxiety, 

 and little work. If you do things by the job, 

 you are perpetually driven : the hours are 

 scourges. If you work by the hour, you gently 

 sail on the stream of Time, which is always 

 bearing you on to the haven of Pay, whether 

 you make any effort, or not. Working by the 

 hour tends to make one moral. A plumber 

 working by the job, trying to unscrew a rusty, 

 refractory nut, in a cramped position, where the 

 tongs continually slipped off, would swear ; but 



