COMMUTER'S THANKSGIVING 245 



but seldom pays in more than ones and twos. 

 And too often it is only for wages; too seldom 

 is it for love — for one's self. 



Not so this small domestic job. It is plural 

 and personal, to be done for the joy of doing it. 

 So it ought to be with these Freshmen themes 

 that I go on, year after year, correcting; so it 

 ought to be with the men's shoes that my honest 

 neighbor goes on, year after year, vamping. But 

 the shoes are never all vamped. Endless vistas 

 of unvamped shoes stretch away before him 

 down the working days of all his years. He never 

 has the joy of having finished the shoes, of hav- 

 ing a change of shoes. But recently he reshingled 

 his six by eight hencoop and did a finished piece 

 of work; he trimmed and cemented up his apple 

 tree and did a finished piece of work; he built a 

 new step at the kitchen door and did a finished 

 piece of work. Step and tree and hencoop had 

 beginnings and ends, little undertakings, that 

 will occur again, but which, for this once, were 

 started and completed ; small, whole, various do- 

 mestic jobs, thrice halting for him the endless 

 procession, — the passing, the coming, the tramp- 

 ling of the shoes. 



