164 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



the depth of winter, the only time when the 

 real countryman would have the time to leave 

 his home, or the inclination to do so. The rest 

 of the year would be pretty fully taken up. In 

 my own case, it happens that unlike most men 

 who have to look to the earnings of the year 

 for bread and butter, I can throw all city work 

 overboard when the spring opens, and not set 

 foot in town before the snow flies. To most 

 men, and to all business men, such an arrange- 

 ment is impossible ; the merchant cannot inter- 

 rupt his work for so long a time with any cer- 

 tainty that he will be able to pick it up again ; 

 the clerk in a shop or a factory must be at his 

 post all the year around, or not at all ; the 

 lawyer has to "keep track" of his clients' 

 affairs, or he would soon find himself without 

 clients. The world's machinery cannot stop, 

 and the engineers must be at their posts. 

 There are very few occupations outside of cer- 

 tain departments of journalism which can be 

 taken up and thrown down at will. The mer- 

 chant, the clerk, the lawyer, the doctor, must 

 remain at their posts pretty much the year 

 around, and this rule obtains all the more 

 strictly with subordinates. 



