Page:Tales in Political Economy by Millicent Garrett Fawcett.djvu/29

 ing line, they now saved their own skin, the tools were not injured, their carpentering was well done; and in return for the services of the carpenter, every man and woman gave him a share of what he or she was most skilful in producing or most fortunate in finding. The advantage everyone enjoyed from this division of labour was apparent: the carpenter had no need to leave his trade in order to go hunting or fishing; he had very little skill in these pursuits, and had sometimes been out all day without bringing home enough for supper. Here was folly and waste of time! If he had stayed at home he could have finished Jack Collins's hut, and made a strong bench for Mrs. Collins; while Jack, who knows the ways of every bird that flies and every fish that swims, would bring back enough game and fish to last all the next day for himself, his wife, the carpenter, and half-a-dozen others; and Mrs. Collins, the swiftest of knitters, whose bench would have been a strange production if she had made it herself, would have made a pair of strong socks for the carpenter in return for the bench. It was there-