putterings 041 < 042 > 043 index
But the life is so narrow, their interests so small...
“I might live here a hundred years and not know one of them.”
“You know the Pearsons and one tramp already.”
“So I do,” laughed Mabel. “I wonder if they really enjoy life, puttering about on their farms.”
“It’s much less tiresome than some of the puttering about that we have to do in society.”
“Of, of course. But the life is so narrow, their interests so small...”
— Arthur Sherburne Hardy, His Daughter First (1903) : 306
306 (one of two scans at hathitrust)
—
Arthur Sherburne Hardy (1847-1930),
engineer, educator (of engineering and, later at Dartmouth, mathematics), editor, diplomat, novelist, and poet.
wikipedia