There are mechanics who say that they will come Monday, but they do
not come until Wednesday. You put work in their hands that they tell
you shall be completed in ten days, but it is thirty. There have been
houses built of which it might be said that every nail driven, every
foot of plastering put on, every yard of pipe laid, every shingle
hammered, every brick mortared, could tell of falsehood connected
therewith. There are men attempting to do ten or fifteen pieces of
work who have not the time or strength to do more than five or six
pieces; but by promises never fulfilled keep all the undertakings
within their own grasp. This is what they call _"nursing" the job_.
How much wrong to his soul and insult to God a mechanic would save, if
he promised only so much as he expected to be able to do. Society has
no right to ask of you impossibilities.
You cannot always calculate correctly, and you may fail because you
cannot get the help that you anticipate. But now I am speaking of the
wilful making of promises that you know you cannot keep.
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