Their days were measured by small labors. They watered the herb patch, hands dark with soil; they mended a fence, shoulder to shoulder; they sorted lettuce in the shade of the pear tree and pressed the bruised leaves into compost. Work here was tactile and immediate: splints of wood, the drag of a rake, the steady drag of the wheelbarrow over packed earth. Sweat beaded and dried on skin, and with it came the honest fatigue that named the day's purpose.
