"I don't know why it is, but the present generation has a marvelous way of skimming around any kind of work with their hands.

They'll work their brains till they haven't got any more backbone than a caterpillar, but as for manual labor, it's old-timey and out of fashion.

I wonder how these farms would ever have been carved out of the backwoods, if the old Puritans had sat down on the rocks with their noses in a lot of books, and tried to figure out just how little work they could do, and yet exist." "Now, father," said Mrs.Wood, "you are trying to insinuate that the present generation is lazy, and I'm sure it isn't.

Look at Harry.

He works as hard as you do." "Isn't that like a woman ?" said Mr.Wood, with a good-natured laugh.
"The present generation consists of her son, and the past of her husband.