Useful and useless work

The dilapidated cottage in a country side was inhabited by a family all of whom, except the father were healthy. The father was ill owing to exposure at workand in the draughty cottage partly repaired and their meals improved, was cheerfully welcomed until one year, passing with a skilled joiner, he learned that father and mother died of illness and grief respectively. His friend had been for two months elaborately fitting the penels of one door in london, but had he occupied at an opportune time, three days of that period on the cottage, the parents would not have died.