In Winter Quarters 



thus far will understand that all this 

 discursive chat about a lot of things in 

 general, and nothing much in par- 

 ticular, does not constitute the begin- 

 ning and the ending of the real day's 

 work. Rather let it be known that 

 such attempts at diversion from the 

 daily grind represent only an effort 

 to relax the strain under which we 

 all labor in greater or less degree as 

 we seek to perform each his allotted 

 part. 



I have given perhaps my share of 

 time and thought to other things than 

 bees and birds and bulbs and books, 

 but now and then I just have to throw 

 the window open wide, and take a good 

 look at the waving trees and the distant 

 horizon, or run the risk of "blowing 

 up." And the fact that some other 

 people are similarly situated is the only 

 possible justification for a working-man 

 writing or reading a little something 

 now and then that makes no pretense 

 to being anything more than the chaff, 

 [214] 



