St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-09-11
Waiting Service.

1t is wonderful what large part of
our life is absorbed even i'll the little
''waitings" which happen every day
We have all heard of the French law
yer who wrote the whole of an impor-
tant work on Jurisprudence during the
minutes, rarely numbering more than
fifteen ut time, while he waited for
his wife to Join him for social Occa-
sions. The writer has known busy
lady, an active professional woman,
and the mother of household, who
kept her family provided with hand
knit stockings, the product of waste
''odds and ends of time" when, as she
herself put it, sit would have been
quite impossible to do anything else"
We question whether the superior
richness of some lives is not entirely
due to IA facalty-largely capable of
develOpment-Of utilizing fragments of
time, which others would allow to slip
through their fingers. 1t is common
saying that busy people have most
leisure. The man who has most let
tiers is the man who generally answers
by return of post. When an Indian
chief heard somebody eXcusing the
performance of IL certain duty on
the score that ''there was no time" he
wittily remarked, 81 suppose each of
lis has all there is
One peculiar trial besets most of the
little inevitable daily waitings. They
generally seem so unnecesSary-nay,
are quite unnecessary, so far as those
who impose them are concerned. Com
mittccs should not wait for the mem
Der who is always late. Excursions
should start without the loitcrcr who
contrives to miss the appointed train.
1t is IL habit which spreads with deadly
rapidity. Busy people, who can be
punctual only by pains and manage
ment, are apt to relax their efforts when
they find they are always wasted by
some idler.
1t is always well to have some little
by-work for waiting scasons-some
thing which will therefore tend to keep
us sweet and smooth, when otherwise
we should be only too liable to fret and
chafc. But the manner of too many of
our waitingS fOrbids our emulation of
the example of the French lawyer, or
the busy professional woman. We
cannot write, or knit, or sew, or sketch,
in other peoples rooms, in railway sta
tons, or in the street. \ book is II
more manageable resource. We knew
Il doctor who made himself Il splendid
German scholar while driving his car
riagc from patient to patient. But
then his unOccupied intervals could be
reckoncd on. With most of us it is
not so. Generally the time, place, and
manner of our waitings are infinitely
various.
Different kinds of waiting must be
taken each on its own merits. For
waitingS in our own house there should
he certainly some resource which is
our waiting work." For other wait
ingS there should be always the prompt
question, "What can do ?" to he fol-
lowed 10y the equally prompt execution
of the decision, once it is arrived at.
Often II conversation can he entered
into. with some other waiting one and
it is wonderful how soon IL converSa-
ton may bc made interesting and per-
tinent if we give our minds to that end,
instead Of to desultory chat. Often
there is something to he observed and
learned from our surroundings, and
scarcely an observation or Il fact can
he stored away in our minds but is sure
to come out again some day, and to
make itself useful in way we cannot
now dream Of Edward Garrett, in
the OuiNer