248 THE FACE OF THE FIELDS 



of chores. He should have the wholesome reality 

 of a buck-saw twice a day; he might be saved if 

 he could be interested in chickens ; could feed 

 them every morning, and every evening could 

 " pick up the eggs." 



So might many another millionaire. When a 

 man's business prohibits his caring for the chick- 

 ens, when his affairs become so important that 

 he can no longer shake down the furnace, help 

 dress one of the children, or tinker about the 

 place with a hammer and saw, then that man's 

 business had better be put into the hands of a re- 

 ceiver, temporarily ; his books do not balance. 



I know of a college president who used to 

 bind (he may still) a cold compress about his 

 head at times, and, lying prone upon the floor, 

 have two readers, one for each ear, read simul- 

 taneously to him different theses, so great was the 

 work he had to do, so fierce his fight for time — 

 time to lecture to women's clubs and to write his 

 epoch-making books. 



Oh, the multitude of epoch-making books ! 



But as for me, I am a Commuter, and I live 

 among a people who are Commuters, and I have 

 stood with them on the banks of the Ohio, ac- 



