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Chapter 3
1. While crossing a field he saw a man working with a heavy hoe.
2. And this man had been laboring for three days—and the field was still not prepared.
3. So he said to him, ‘Why not work with a plow? Your field would already be ready.’
4. But the man answered, ‘My field is so small and I am so poor that I can’t work with a plow.’
5. Now, there were also many other peasants there laboring with hoes;
6. But some who were richer were working with plows.
7. And he asked them, ‘Why do you work with this heavy old plow and not with the castle’s big one?’
8. They answered him, ‘Our fields are so small and we are so poor that we can’t rent the castle’s.’
9. So he told them, ‘When the Hour sounds, break down these walls.’
10. ‘Fill in these ditches, uproot the hedges—and make one single field;
11. ‘And take the big plow from the castle’s shed—and work the big field one time only.
12. ‘And so a few of you will do the work of all—with less trouble.
13. ‘And the others will not lack useful work—for there will be much to do.’
14. But the peasants asked him, ‘And what will the master of the castle say?’
15. And he said to them, ‘When the master of the castle hears the sounding of the Hour—his tongue will dry up in his mouth.
16. ‘If he has an evil heart, he will try to flee—but he won’t go far.
17. ‘If he is wise and can accept the inevitable—he will open his doors and lower the bridge of the moat.
18. ‘He will tell his servants, ‘Go, I no longer have servants—I no longer pay wages.
19. ‘Whoever wants to stay with me, stay, whoever wants to go his way, go—as for me, I am going to work at what I know and what I can.’
20. ‘But unfortunate the man swollen with pride—for the lowest of his lackeys will be his equal.’
21. And he told them this ‘parable’: ‘There was a poor man who was working—in the vineyard of a hard-hearted rich man.
22. ‘And this rich man mistreated the poor man—calling him lazy and making his slaves beat him.
23. ‘But the poor man accepted everything with resignation saying in his heart: How will I live if my master doesn’t let me work in his vineyard?
24. ‘Now, there came an educated man who told him and showed him—that the vineyard didn’t belong only to the rich man.
25. ‘But that winegrower had the same right over it as the rich man—and this right was: to work it and enjoy its fruits.
26. ‘So the poor man rejoiced and began to eat the fruits of the vine—which he hadn’t dared to do until then.
27. ‘But the rich man came up and was irate and yelled: Lazy bum! Who permitted you to stop working—and to eat the fruits of my vine?
28. ‘The poor man answered: The vine is not yours alone—but we both have the same right over it.
29. ‘If you want to eat its fruits, work it like me—for you have no other right than that, which is also mine.
30. ‘Then the rich man became angry and said to his slaves: Whip this insolent bastard until he’s unconscious!
31. ‘But don’t kill him—because I need someone to work my vineyard instead of me.
32. ‘But the poor man seized his hoe and struck the rich man over the head—and he who was called master fell dead and his slaves fled in fear.
33. ‘Now, this was just as well because for him who commands it is less bitter to die than to become equal to his serf.’
Chapter 2 * Chapter 4
Black Lung
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