He had admitted himself from the roadside through a turnstile, and
seemed to have a purpose of speaking with us.
And, by the bye, we were favored with many visits at Blithedale,
especially from people who sympathized with our theories, and perhaps
held themselves ready to unite in our actual experiment as soon as
there should appear a reliable promise of its success. It was rather
ludicrous, indeed (to me, at least, whose enthusiasm had insensibly
been exhaled together with the perspiration of many a hard day's
toil), it was absolutely funny, therefore, to observe what a glory
was shed about our life and labors, in the imaginations of these
longing proselytes. In their view, we were as poetical as Arcadians,
besides being as practical as the hardest-fisted husbandmen in
Massachusetts. We did not, it is true, spend much time in piping to
our sheep, or warbling our innocent loves to the sisterhood. But
they gave us credit for imbuing the ordinary rustic occupations with
a kind of religious poetry, insomuch that our very cow-yards and
pig-sties were as delightfully fragrant as a flower garden. Nothing
used to please me more than to see one of these lay enthusiasts
snatch up a hoe, as they were very prone to do, and set to work with
a vigor that perhaps carried him through about a dozen ill-directed
strokes. Men are wonderfully soon satisfied, in this day of shameful
bodily enervation, when, from one end of life to the other, such
multitudes never taste the sweet weariness that follows accustomed
toil.
Pages:
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109