Dr. Stiggins:
last three years; he's a handy man, and naturally I don't pay him full wages, as he's getting rather weak now. You can't expect a man to pay a full day's wages for a half-day's work—at least, not out of the Parables. After all, if you only give a man a penny a day it's hardly worth while paying a fellow to keep the time-sheet. You don't often find out the Good Book in a mistake, do you, doctor? But I wish I knew how the owner of that vineyard managed to keep down wages as he did. The unions wouldn't stand it now for a moment. But I suppose we shall know all about it when we get to heaven."
My friend was a shrewd man-of-the-world, and I often derived great benefit from listening to such keen commentaries as these on the Scripture story. But on this occasion to which I am referring, he grew almost beside himself with indignation as he told me that he was threatened with "trouble" because he persisted in keeping on his unfortunate assistant, who was slowly dying of consumption.
92
