THE COUNTRY SUNDAY. 61 



to this the immense working power of these pluralist 

 giants, for you will generally find that the well-to-do cha- 

 peller with his third wife, or more, is a man who has raised 

 himself from very much nothing to very much some- 

 thing. By sheer force of labour and push he has lifted 

 himself head and shoulders above the village — a career, 

 too, conspicuous by strict integrity. Did he live in a 

 London suburb he would be pointed out to the rising 

 generation by anxious fathers as the very model for them 

 to follow. The village ought to be proud of them, but 

 the village secretly and aside hates them, being practical 

 commentaries on the general sloth and stupidity. This 

 energy of work, too, is like the saints of Utah, who 

 have made an oasis and a garden where was a desert 

 After labouring from morning till night they like the 

 sound of a feminine voice and the warmth of a feminine 

 welcome in the back parlour of rest. 



This four times married elder — what work, what a 

 pyramid of work, his life represents ! The young 

 labourer left with his mother and brothers and sisters to 

 keep, learning carpentering, and bettering his wages — 

 learning mason-work, picking up the way to manage 

 machinery, inspiring men with confidence, and beginning 

 to get the leverage of borrowed money, getting a good 

 name at the bank, managing a little farm, contracting for 

 building, contracting for hauling— onwards to a larger 

 farm, larger buildings, big contracts in rising towns, 

 somehow or other grinding money out of everything by 

 force of will, bending everything to his purpose by 

 stubborn sinew, always truthful, straightforward, and 

 genuine. Consider what immense labour this represents I 

 I do not think many such men can be found, rude and 

 unlettered, yet naturally gentleman-like, to work their 

 way in the world without the aid of the Lombard Street 



