Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-02-09
little I'ONaa

The busiest people have the most
time Perhaps one might say rather
that those who accomplish most work
seem to have most leisure. One may lie
busy. yet get very little done, very much
to his own surprise.
One young woman puzzled over the
fact that although apparently she had
very little 10 do, ii took all her time to do
it, and she never knew what it was to
have "A days real leisure, while her next
neighbor, with far more calls on her time
seemed TO be ready for anything. She
was never too busy TO join a walking
party or take a drive, or 10 read a book
in fact, she reada great deal.
"And J." said this puzzled young wo-
man, telling the facts to an elderly
friend, Just get time to skim the maya
zines, and although | don't say | can
take a drive, if l do | must leave some
thing undone. | haven't real leisure
for it,"
The friend who heard the lament said,
my dear you are not alone in your ex-
perience. | was myself in just your
state, dissatisfied to see my days 20 by,
doing just a few things that others
seemed to get through in half the time,
y ti u dI > tlItu NuCn HlGHl tdlHC Will
doing the little. | was determined to
find out the cause, and having a visitor,
begged her to tell me if she could see
that | wasted time. / ought to have
known better than to ask the question:;
what friend dares be quite sincere when
to be SO is to find fault?
However, my friend gave me an
inkling Of the truth when she said: II
notice you waste a great many steps in
putting things away. You seldom do it
with one movement; you walk half across
the kitchen to put something on the
table, when one step more, sometimes
twoor three less, would put it in its final
resting place.
Il observed after this, and found that
l could save myself a good deal OF fatigue
and some time by cultivating the habit
OF avoiding two movements to do one
thing.
But this | knew was not the whole
secret, and in order to find out exactly
what | did with my time, | thought |
would keep an account book, only. in.
stead of dollars and cents, the record
should be of hours and minutes. noted
down the exact time ! began or left off
each task. That told me the tale. OF
course the time between ending one task
and beginning the next was lost, and !
found that sometimes ten minutes, m
times half an hour would elapse; and
adding up these odd minutes l found that
some days the time so lost really was
longer than the time employed.
con looking back over my days, | saw
that | would allow myself to be attracted
after [ had finished a piece Of work, by a
few words in a newspaper, pick 1T up and
read it standing; or. looking through the
window, | would watch anything that
caught my eye, GO out and tie up a
flower or gather a bouquet. 1t was not
always Just wasted time, but m of the
things | envied ONE was an occasional
hour TO work among the flowers. If |
snatched the time to do it out Of time and
place. it gave me no pleasure. 1t only
added 10 my driven feeling.
Il kept my little book a month. BY
that time | had learned TO guard agaigst
the little foxes that had stolen my leis-
ure. Henceforth | went from one thing
to another until my mornings work was
done, not hurrying, only steadily dove
failing one thing in with another and no
one with the same amount Of work had
more time than L."
Her listener saw daylight; she too had
a habit Of drinking in the beauties of
outdoor life out of time and season, Of
snatching bits Of reading. then rushing to
make up for lost time in consequence.
When asked to spend an afternoon in the
woods the memory Of some piece OF sew
ing which she left undone to go spoil,
her pleasure.
She laughed a little.
Thank you SO much for giving me
your experience. see now have sim
ply dawdled over my work. "-Catherint
Owen, in Home Maker.
Dakota wants a state name suggestive o.