THE JOY OF A GARDEN. 21 



true to men who realize the dignity of manhood and 

 know that work is happiness 



" "Tis the primal curse, 

 But softened into mercy, made the spring 

 Of cheerful days, and nights without a groan ? " 



Oh yes, to the weary and the weak welcome as the 

 halt and the dispersal to the soldier footsore from the 

 long, hot, dusty march, or as the " easy all " to the 

 oarsman, when " forty strokes a minute is the pace we 

 go." Idleness, like fire, is a splendid servant, but a 

 cruel master. Idleness to labour overstrained is the 

 fallow which comes after the plough in autumn. Idle- 

 ness to the idle is the rank growth on neglected land of 

 worthless tares and weeds, whereof the mower filleth 

 not his hand, nor he that bindeth up the sheaves his 

 bosom : 



" An unweeded garden 



That grows to seed : things rank and gross in Nature 

 Possess it merely." 



Compensation and retribution are ever manifest in 

 the results of industry and sloth. The sleep of a 

 labouring man is sweet whether he eat little or much, 

 but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to 

 sleep : 



" Weariness 



Can snore upon the flint, while resty sloth 

 Finds the down pillow hard." 



"I was a happier man," it was said by one of our 

 merchant princes, " when I was hard at work as 



