AUSTERE PURITAN GARDENS 87 



laboring in. unity for a common store. Each was 

 careful to do little, lest his labor be not fully recom- 

 pensed; each lagged in order that none should under- 

 work him; each kept an eye upon his neighbor, and 

 burned within that he should share in the profits who, 

 according to careful estimate, had not shared equally 

 in the toil; each was absorbed in a mental calculation 

 to determine whether the balance was not rising on 

 his own side: in the face of all which, even the lash 

 of self-preservation was insufficient to sting into an 

 activity which should assure plenty. 



The assignment of a "parcell of land . . . only 

 for present use," became almost as unsatisfactory 

 after trial as the community planting of the first year, 

 for each man got a different tract each year which 

 led to unendurable injustice. So in 1624 "they made 

 suite to the Gov r to have some portion of land given 

 them for continuance, and not by yearly lott, for by 

 that means, that which ye more industrious had 

 brought into good culture (by much pains) one year, 

 came to leave it ye nexte, and often another might in- 

 joye it ... which being well considered was 

 granted. And to every person was given only one 

 acere of land, to them and theirs, as nere ye towne 

 as might be, and they had no more till ye seven years 

 were expired." This provision was a precaution for 

 greater safety than they could have enjoyed if scat- 



