LITTLE 

 JOURNEYS 



recent article, Wallace quotes a little story from Tol- 

 stoy: A priest seeing a peasant in a field plowing, ap- 

 proached him and asked, " How would you spend the 

 rest of this day if you knew you were to die to-night ? " 

 QThe priest expected the man, who was a bit irregu- 

 lar in his church-going, to say, " I would spend my 

 last hours in confession and prayer." 

 But the peasant replied, " How would I spend the rest 

 of the day if I were to die to-night ? why, I 'd plow ! " 

 Q Wallace holds that it is better to plow than to pray, 

 and in fact, rightly understood, good plowing is prayer. 

 All useful effort is sacred, and nothing else is or can be. 

 Q Wallace believes that the only fit preparation for the 

 future lies in improving the present. 

 Please pass the dotage. 



110 



