pass, of the toilsome lives of those beside
him, of all the work which they had done with their poor, knotted
hands, of the tracks which they had worn on the earth towards their
graves, with their weary feet, and suddenly he seemed to grasp a new
and further meaning for that verse of Ecclesiastes.

He seemed to see that labor is not alone for itself, not for what it
accomplishes of the tasks of the world, not for its equivalent in
silver and gold, not even for the end of human happiness and love,
but for the growth in character of the laborer.

"That is the portion of labor," he said. He spoke in a strained,
solemn voice, as he had done before. Nobody heard him except his
wife and mother. His mother gave a sidewise glance at him, then she
folded her cape tightly around her and stared at the fireworks, but
Fanny put her hand through his arm and leaned her cheek against his
shoulder.

THE END

End of Project Gutenberg's The Portion of Labor, by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PORTION OF LABOR ***

***** This file should be named 18011.txt or 18011.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/0/1/18011/

Produced by Jeff Kaylin and Andrew Sly

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
redistribution.

*** START: FULL LICENSE ***

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
PL