AUSTERE PURITAN GARDENS 87 
laboring in unity for a common store. Each was 
careful to do little, lest his labor be not fully recom¬ 
pensed; each lagged in order that none should under¬ 
work him; each kept an eye upon his neighbor, and 
burned within that he should share in the profits who, 
according to careful estimate, had not shared equally 
in the toil; each was absorbed in a mental calculation 
to determine whether the balance was not rising on 
his own side: in the face of all which, even the lash 
of self-preservation was insufficient to sting into an 
activity which should assure plenty. 
The assignment of a “parcell of land . . . only 
for present use,” became almost as unsatisfactory 
after trial as the community planting of the first year, 
for each man got a different tract each year—which 
led to unendurable injustice. So in 1624 £c they made 
suite to the Gov r to have some portion of land given 
them for continuance, and not by yearly lott, for by 
that means, that which ye more industrious had 
brought into good culture (by much pains) one year, 
came to leave it ye nexte, and often another might in- 
joye it which being well considered was 
granted. And to every person was given only one 
acere of land, to them and theirs, as nere ye towne 
as might be, and they had no more till ye seven years 
were expired.” This provision was a precaution for 
greater safety than they could have enjoyed if scat- 
