NoiseNoiseNoise

A man is employed at an estate as a servant. He is a carpenter by trade, and has been employed under the title of servant for this purpose. He bears the title of servant, but performs none or few of the duties of the other servants; he is, first, when he wakes up, a carpenter; he is, last, before he sleeps, a carpenter. When he is asked in town who he is and what his profession is, he says he is so-and-so's servant. He does occasionally perform the duties of a servant, and he wears the uniform of a servant. When he enters his workroom, he puts the clothes of a carpenter on over them. If the estate goes bankrupt, he will have to find work elsewhere, like all the other servants. When he advertises himself, he will most often advertise as a servant; it is the more popular and common of his two functions. But he is a carpenter, and wherever he goes, under the title of a servant, he slips back into this role and is allowed to. He is paid the same as all the other servants. And he serves, does he not? He is a servant. Just not as the others in the house are.

The things he makes, even, are not the things a carpenter usually makes, perhaps. But they are given places and paid for and more is asked for, and so he earns his keep. They do not question why he makes chairs and desks and frames for them; but they wonder why he kneels in sawdust all day for this sort of work rather than waiting on one of inhabitants or tutoring the children.

In his spare time, he slings his tired body upon his bed, or else crafts more things for the estate. He has never been seen to craft anything for himself, nor does he seem to own any bit of woodwork to show that he has ever made anything and kept it. It is often wondered how he learned to shape and carve wood. They wonder at it, but not too much. They assume he is simply a man of few possessions.

But this lack of woodwork is the only speaking detail given regarding the carpenter's investment in his craft. He keeps none of his work for himself because he invests nothing in it that he wants to keep. They call him a humble man; he is not. He is greedy and he is silent. He makes only what he can give away. They may call some of his work art, but it is not, not to him, at least; the primary function of his woodworking is a profession; the primary function of this profession is to take the place of another profession--that is, that of a servant, the sort whose title he bears but whose duties he does not perform.

I will explain this later. Or delete it. In a couple of hours. Tonight. Satellite.