The Second Generation | Page 2

master there not

by reason of money but because he was first in brain and in brawn; not
because he could hire but because he could direct and do.
In the front rank of the ring of on-looking workmen stood a young man,
tall as himself and like him in the outline of his strong features,
especially like him in the fine curve of the prominent nose. But in dress
and manner this young man was the opposite of the master workman
now facing him in the dust and sweat of toil. He wore a fashionable suit
of light gray tweed, a water-woven Panama with a wine-colored ribbon,
a wine-colored scarf; several inches of wine-colored socks showed
below his high-rolled, carefully creased trousers. There was a seal ring
on the little finger of the left of a pair of large hands strong with the
symmetrical strength which is got only at "polite" or useless exercise.
Resting lightly between his lips was a big, expensive-looking Egyptian
cigarette; the mingled odor of that and a delicate cologne scented the
air. With a breeziness which a careful observer of the niceties of
manner might have recognized as a disguise of nervousness, the young
man advanced, extending his right hand.
"Hello, father!" said he, "I came to bring you home to lunch."
The master workman did not take the offered hand. After a quick
glance of pride and pleasure which no father could have denied so
manly and handsome a son, he eyed the young man with a look that bit
into every one of his fashionable details. Presently he lifted his arm and
pointed. The son followed the direction of that long, strong,
useful-looking forefinger, until his gaze rested upon a sign: "No
Smoking"--big, black letters on a white background.
"Beg pardon," he stammered, flushing and throwing away the cigarette.
The father went to the smoking butt and set his foot upon it. The son's
face became crimson; he had flung the cigarette among the shavings
which littered the floor. "The scientists say a fire can't be lighted from
burning tobacco," he said, with a vigorous effort to repair the rent in his
surface of easy assurance.
The old man--if that adjective can be justly applied to one who had

such strength and energy as his--made no reply. He strode toward the
door, the son following, acute to the grins and winks the workmen were
exchanging behind his back. The father opened the shut street door of
the cooperage, and, when the son came up, pointed to the big, white
letters: "No Admittance. Apply at the Office."
"How did you get in here?" he asked.
"I called in at the window and ordered one of the men to open the
door," explained the son.
"Ordered." The father merely repeated the word.
"Requested, then," said the son, feeling that he was displaying
praiseworthy patience with "the governor's" eccentricities.
"Which workman?"
The son indicated a man who was taking a dinner pail from under a
bench at the nearest window. The father called to him: "Jerry!" Jerry
came quickly.
"Why did you let this young--young gentleman in among us?"
"I saw it was Mr. Arthur," began Jerry.
"Then you saw it was not anyone who has any business here. Who gave
you authority to suspend the rules of this factory?"
"Don't, father!" protested Arthur. "You certainly can't blame him. He
knew I'd make trouble if he didn't obey."
"He knew nothing of the sort," replied Hiram Ranger. "I haven't been
dealing with men for fifty years--However, next time you'll know what
to do, Jerry."
"He warned me it was against the rules," interjected Arthur.
A triumphant smile gleamed in the father's eyes at this vindication of

the discipline of the mills. "Then he knew he was doing wrong. He
must be fined. You can pay the fine, young _gentleman_--if you wish."
"Certainly," murmured Arthur. "And now, let's go to lunch."
"To dinner," corrected the father; "your mother and I have dinner in the
middle of the day, not lunch."
"To dinner, then. Anything you please, pa, only let's go."
When they were at the office and the father was about to enter the inner
room to change his clothes, he wheeled and said: "Why ain't you at
Harvard, passing your examinations?"
Arthur's hands contracted and his eyes shifted; in a tone to which
repression gave a seeming lightness, he announced: "The exams, are
over. I've been plucked."
The slang was new to Hiram Ranger, but he understood. In important
matters his fixed habit was never to speak until he had thought well;
without a word he turned and, with a heaviness that was new in his
movements, went into the dressing room. The young man drew a
cautious but profound breath of relief--the confession he had been
dreading