He has nothing to do but to slumber in the cane chair and receive his tithe of the harvest.

She has nothing to do but to sit under the shadow of the weeping ash and dream dreams, or write verses.

Such, at least, might be the first impression.
The publication from which she is so earnestly making notes is occupied with the management of bees, and she is so busy because the paper is only borrowed, and has to be returned.

Most of the papers and books that come to the vicarage have to be hastily read for the same reason.

Mrs.F---- is doing her very best and hardest to increase the Rev.F----'s income--she has tried to do so for some years, and despite repeated failures is bravely, perhaps a little wearily, still trying.