110 THE OPEN AIK. 



boots for the winter. Very few in his place would 

 have been as thoughtful as that ; they would have 

 got boots somehow in the end, but not beforehand. 

 This life of animal labour does not grow the spirit 

 of economy. Not only in farming, but in navvy work, 

 in the rougher work of factories and mines, the same 

 fact is evident. The man who labours with thew and 

 sinew at horse labour crane labour not for himself, 

 but for others, is not the man who saves. If he 

 worked for his own hand possibly he might, no 

 matter how rough his labour and fare; not while 

 working for another. Eoger reached his distant 

 home among the meadows at last, with one golden 

 half-sovereign in his pocket. That and his new pair 

 of boots, not yet finished, represented the golden 

 harvest to him. He lodged with his parents when at 

 home ; he was so far fortunate that he had a bed to 

 go to ; therefore in the estimation of his class he was 

 not badly off. But if we consider his position as 

 regards his own life we must recognize that he was 

 very badly off indeed, so much precious time and the 

 strength of his youth having been wasted. 



Often it is stated that the harvest wages recoup 

 the labourer for the low weekly receipts of the year, 

 and if the money be put down in figures with pen and 

 ink it is so. But in actual fact the pen-and-ink figures 

 do not represent the true case; these extra figures 

 have been paid for, and gold may be bought too 

 dear. Eoger had paid heavily for his half-sovereign 

 and his boots ; his pinched face did not look as if he 

 had benefited greatly. His cautious old father, ren- 

 dered frugal by forty years of labour, had done fairly 



