244 THE FACE OF THE FIELDS 



Blessed is the man who has his mill-work to 

 do, perfunctory, necessitous, machine-work to do ; 

 twice blessed the man who has his mill-work to 

 do and who loves the doing of it ; thrice blessed 

 the man who has it, who loves it, and who, be- 

 sides, has the varied, absorbing, self-asserting, self- 

 imposed labors about his own barn to perform ! 



There are two things in the economy of un- 

 perverted nature that it was never intended, I 

 think, should exist : the childless woman and the 

 choreless man. For what is a child but a woman 

 with a soul? And what is a chore 1 ? Let me 

 quote the dictionary : 



" Chore, char, a small job ; especially a piece 

 of minor domestic work, as about a house or barn ; 

 . . . generally in the plural." 



A small, domestic, plural job ! There are men 

 without such a job, but not by nature's intention ; 

 as there are women without children, and cows 

 without cream. 



What change and relief is this small, domestic, 

 plural job from the work of the shop ! That work 

 is set and goes by the clock. It is nine hours long, 

 and all in the large or all in the infinitesimally 

 small, and all alike. It may deal with millions, 



