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| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-01-21 17:43:05 -0800 |
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| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-01-21 17:43:05 -0800 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..280cbb7 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #68492 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68492) diff --git a/old/68492-0.txt b/old/68492-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index d9eb012..0000000 --- a/old/68492-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5279 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The story of iron, by Elizabeth I. -Samuel - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The story of iron - -Author: Elizabeth I. Samuel - -Release Date: July 10, 2022 [eBook #68492] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Amber Black, Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was - produced from images made available by the HathiTrust - Digital Library.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF IRON *** - - - -[Illustration: SEVEN MINUTES LEFT] - - - - -[Illustration] - - The Story of Iron - - BY - ELIZABETH I. SAMUEL - - Author of - “The Story of Gold and Silver” - - ILLUSTRATED BY - VELMA T. SIMKINS - - THE PENN PUBLISHING - COMPANY PHILADELPHIA - 1920 - - - - - COPYRIGHT - 1914 BY - THE PENN - PUBLISHING - COMPANY - - [Illustration] - - - - - _To - P. K. P._ - - - - -Contents - - - I. BILLY BRADFORD 9 - - II. OLD IRON 19 - - III. A MOUNTAIN OF IRON 29 - - IV. THE FOUNDRY 37 - - V. THE GREAT IRON KEY 52 - - VI. A SURPRISE OR TWO 62 - - VII. IRON CUTS IRON 75 - - VIII. TRAITOR NAILS 90 - - IX. BILLY STANDS BY 102 - - X. WILLIAM WALLACE 112 - - XI. THE TREASURE ROOM 123 - - XII. THOMAS MURPHY, TIMEKEEPER 142 - - XIII. IRON HORSES 156 - - XIV. THE GIANTS 171 - - XV. THE PYGMIES 186 - - XVI. WHAT MR. PRESCOTT SAID 203 - - - - -Illustrations - - - PAGE - - SEVEN MINUTES LEFT _Frontispiece_ - - HE FILLED IT WITH MOIST SAND 45 - - THERE WERE MEN POLISHING AND POLISHING 80 - - “HERE IS HIS SWORD” 136 - - “THE MOST FEARFUL THING EVER MADE” 181 - - “HE’S STILL LOOKING AT THE GATE” 205 - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -THE STORY OF IRON - - - - -CHAPTER I - -BILLY BRADFORD - - -“I wisht,” said Billy Bradford, standing, hands thrust deep in his -trousers pockets, in the middle of the path, and looking across the -broad river at the mountains beyond, “I wisht----” - -“William Wallace, come here,” called a voice from the door where the -path ended. “It’s time for you to start with your uncle’s dinner.” - -Billy turned quickly, drew his hands out of his pockets, and in a -moment was at the door. - -Billy Bradford might stand still, looking away off at the mountains, -and wish, but William Wallace was quite another boy. There had been a -time when Billy hadn’t felt that there were two of him. Then he had -lived in the country. That was before the day that his father, hand on -Billy’s head, had smiled at him for the last time, saying, “Billy, my -little man.” - -Then Uncle John had drawn him gently away, and Aunt Mary had kissed -him, and they had brought him to the little house by the river. - -That was two long years ago. Now, William Wallace had to carry dinners, -six dinners a week, to the big foundry, a whole mile away. That was why -there seemed to be two of him, one to do errands, and another to think. - -“You must be very careful not to fall,” said Aunt Mary, as she gave -him the bottle of soup, wrapped in two newspapers to keep it hot. Then -she gave him the pail, saying, “Uncle John will work better all the -afternoon because you are carrying him a hot dinner.” - -“I shall be glad of that,” said Billy, looking up at her and smiling, -as he always did, when he was doing anything for Uncle John. - -Aunt Mary herself liked to do things for Uncle John, so she smiled -back, at least she thought she did; but she didn’t know so much about -smiles as Billy did. He had been used to the kind that go all over a -face and end in wrinkles everywhere. - -Billy’s smile lasted till Aunt Mary said, “Now hurry, William Wallace.” - -That stopped his smile, but he settled the bundle a little more -carefully under his arm and started on his way. - -The day was warm, even for June. Part of the way there wasn’t any -pavement, and, where there was, it was very rough; so, while he was -walking along, Billy had plenty of time to think. He had a great many -things to think about, too, for his birthday was coming the very next -day, and then he would be thirteen years old. - -The thing that was most on his mind was what he could do to earn some -money. He was thinking especially about that, because, the night -before, when they had supposed that he was asleep in the little corner -room, he had heard Aunt Mary say that the money in the bank was getting -very low. Then Uncle John had said, “Sh! sh! Billy may hear.” - -June made Billy want to be out in the country. Things were so mixed up -that he couldn’t seem to straighten them out at all, but he trudged -steadily on, because the William Wallace part of him always kept at -things. Finally he gave up thinking and whistled hard, just to help his -legs along. - -At last he turned the corner, and there was the great mill with the -square tower almost in the middle; and, at the right, the long, low -building with the tall smoke-stack. That was the foundry where Uncle -John worked. - -Billy went through the wide gate just as the whistle blew; and, in a -minute, he could see Uncle John come to the door. He didn’t look as -if he had been working all the morning in damp, black sand. The men -in the foundry said that dirt never stuck to John Bradford. “Clean -John Bradford,” they called him. Clean and good he looked to Billy, as -he stood there in his bright blue overalls and the gray cap that was -almost the color of his hair. - -“Hot soup, sir,” said Billy, handing him the bundle. - -“Sure to be hot, if you bring it,” said Uncle John, his blue eyes -smiling down at Billy. “Might burn a boy, if he fell and broke the -bottle, eh, Billy, my lad?” - -“Pail, sir,” said Billy, his eyes growing bright, until he smiled so -hard that he forgot all about his troubles. - -Somehow Uncle John seemed to understand a great many things. Even if it -was only the risk that a boy took in carrying a bottle of hot soup, it -made Billy feel comfortable to have him understand. - -“Now,” said Uncle John, “we’ll go out back of the mill, and have a good -talk. Been doing anything this morning, Billy?” - -Then Billy told him about the errands that he had done for Aunt Mary -and about his hoeing the two rows of potatoes out by the fence. - -“Well done, Billy,” said Uncle John. “Here’s a bench waiting for us. -Had your own dinner?” - -Billy nodded. Then he said, “Uncle John, do you like to work in the -foundry?” - -“As to that,” answered Uncle John, taking a sandwich from the pail, -“I do. It’s hard work, and it doesn’t make a man rich; but there’s -something about making things that keeps a man interested. It takes -a pretty good eye and a steady hand to make the molds come out just -right. They have to be right, you see; for, if they weren’t, things -wouldn’t fit together. I like to think that I’m helping things in the -world to go right. - -“Just why are you asking me that? Can it be that you’re thinking of -being a man, Billy? - -“Something’s going to happen to-morrow,” he continued, looking very -wise. “I’ve been thinking we’d better celebrate.” - -“Celebrate!” exclaimed Billy. - -“Yes,” said Uncle John, nodding his head emphatically. “Just as soon -as I’ve finished this good dinner, we’ll go to the office to get -permission for you to come to see me work, and to wait until we pour.” - -“Honest?” said Billy, for he had wanted and wanted to see how iron -could ever be poured out of a ladle. “Honest and true?” - -“Honest and true,” said Uncle John, as he handed Billy one of the -molasses cookies that Aunt Mary always put in the bottom of the pail. - -“Ready,” said Uncle John, putting the cover on his pail. - -Back they went to the foundry, then across the yard, and past lame Tom, -the timekeeper, down the narrow corridor to the office where they found -the young superintendent at his desk. - -“Why, Bradford,” he said rising, and looking at Billy so hard that it -made his cheeks feel hot, “why, Bradford, I didn’t know that you had a -son.” - -“I haven’t a son, sir,” said John Bradford. “This is my nephew, William -Wallace Bradford.” - -Billy’s cheeks cooled off very fast, and his heart seemed to move down -in his side; for it was the very first time that Uncle John had ever -called him by his whole name. - -“You couldn’t deny that he belongs to you, even if you wanted to,” said -the superintendent, “for his eyes are a real Bradford blue. Anything -like you except his eyes?” he added quizzically. - -“I’m glad that he belongs to me, Mr. Prescott,” answered John Bradford, -putting his hand on Billy’s shoulder. “He’s a good boy, too. Can’t say -just what I was, when I was thirteen.” - -“There’s some difference between a boy and a man, I’ll admit,” said the -superintendent; “but what I’m driving at is that I need an office boy, -this very minute, and I should like a Bradford boy. What do you say, -Bradford?” - -“Eh, Billy, my lad?” said Uncle John. - -Even in the moment that they had been standing there, something in -the tall, broad-shouldered man, who looked earnestly down at him, had -touched Billy’s hero-spring. As soon as he heard the question, he -knew that he wanted to be Mr. Prescott’s office boy. So, forgetting -all about his birthday and everything else, he said, with his William -Wallace promptness, “I’ll begin right away, sir.” - -“Well then, William,” said the superintendent, in his firm, business -tone, “as my office boy, you must keep your eyes and your ears open, -and your lips shut. Understand?” - -Then, before Billy could answer, Mr. Prescott gave him a letter, -saying, “Post that on the train.” - -Billy darted through the door, and the superintendent sat down at his -desk. - -“Thank you, sir,” said John Bradford; and, just then, the whistle blew. - -Billy did more errands that afternoon than he had ever done in a whole -day; several times he had to put on extra whistle power to keep his -legs going. But he was proud and happy that night when they told Aunt -Mary the news. He saw the look of relief that came into her face; and, -though that made him glad, it made him a little sorry, too. - -After supper he went out in the path to look once more at the mountains -growing dim and blue in the summer twilight. He knew, now, what he had -not known in the morning; and that was, how he was going to help to -take care of himself. - -He stood there until his aunt called, “William Wallace, it’s time to -come in.” - -Then his wish of the morning--the wish of his heart asserted itself -once more; and, as he turned to go into the house, he said, half in a -whisper: - -“I wisht she’d call me Billy.” - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER II - -OLD IRON - - -“Days don’t always come out as we expect they will,” said Uncle John, -as he and Billy started out together the next morning. “But it’s your -birthday, just the same. Shut your eyes and hold out your hand.” - -“Ready.” - -Billy, opening his eyes, saw his uncle holding a jack-knife, which -dangled from a chain. - -“Just what I wanted,” exclaimed Billy, taking the knife. - -“Thought it would be handy for an office boy,” said Uncle John, beaming -with satisfaction. - -“I’m going,” said he, as Billy put his dinner pail down on the sidewalk -and opened both blades, “to give you something else, something to carry -around in your head, instead of in your pocket. It’s an office boy -motto: Whatever you do, do it right, just as right as you can.” - -“That isn’t any new news,” said Billy, looking rather disappointed; -“you told me that a long time ago.” - -“Come to think of it, I did,” said Uncle John. “It’s good for any boy, -any time; but it’s specially good for an office boy. I should like to -talk it over, but we shall have to hurry now.” - -Together they went through the gate, and stood in line, while lame Tom, -the timekeeper, made marks against their names. Then Uncle John said -cheerily, “Meet me behind the mill when the noon whistle blows.” - -“Sure, sir,” said Billy. - -Billy went on, through the great door, down the narrow corridor, and -had a “good-morning” all ready to say when he opened the office door. -Of course he didn’t find anybody there. The office didn’t seem to be in -very good order; but nobody had told him what he was expected to do. - -So he looked around for a moment. Then he put his pail on a stool -in the corner, and picked up a pencil that lay on the floor under -Mr. Prescott’s desk. The point was broken. That made him think of -his knife. Then he looked for a waste-basket, for Aunt Mary was very -particular about not having shavings and lead on the floor. On the top -of the waste-basket he found a duster. Billy knew a duster when he saw -it, for dusting was one of the things that Aunt Mary had taught him to -do. - -When the pencil was done--it was very well done, for he used both -blades of his knife to do it--he put it on top of Mr. Prescott’s desk, -and began to dust in good earnest. - -When the postman came in, he looked a little surprised, but all he said -was: - -“New boy, are you?” - -“Yes, sir,” answered Billy. - -Then he put the letters in one pile and the papers in another, and -was putting a finishing touch with his duster on the rungs of Mr. -Prescott’s chair when he came in. - -Billy was so busy that he didn’t hear him till he said, “Good-morning, -William.” - -“Good-morning, sir. Where shall I empty the waste-basket?” - -“Really,” said Mr. Prescott, “unexpected pleasure, I am sure--barrel -outside.” - -Billy had hoped that Mr. Prescott would notice how well he had -sharpened the pencil; but he put it into his pocket without saying a -word. - -Perhaps he did see more than he seemed to, for, when the expressman -came in with a package, Mr. Prescott said, “William, cut the string.” - -When Billy took out his knife, Mr. Prescott glanced up from his papers, -saying, “Unexpected pleasure, really.” - -Billy was beginning to feel that being an office boy wasn’t a bit -social, when Mr. Prescott said: - -“William, why is a jack-knife called a jack-knife?” - -“I don’t know, sir.” - -“Frenchman named Jacques first made them,” said Mr. Prescott. - -Billy wanted very much to tell him where his knife came from; but he -didn’t feel sure that office boys were supposed to have birthdays. - -Then the stenographer came; and, before Billy knew it, it was noon, and -he went to meet Uncle John behind the mill. - -“Birthday coming on pretty well, Billy?” asked Uncle John, as they both -opened their pails. - -“Sure,” answered Billy, who was so hungry that he couldn’t stop to talk. - -“Sorry we couldn’t celebrate,” said Uncle John. “Mustn’t give up the -idea though, Billy. As you go around on errands, you’ll see a good many -things. Some day we’ll piece them together. Watch for a chance and -it’ll come some day.” - -Billy, fast nearing the bottom of his pail, paused a moment to say, -“Uncle John, were you ever an office boy?” - -“Not just that,” answered Uncle John. - -“There’s a lot to it,” said Billy. - -“I suppose there is,” said Uncle John, gravely. “There is to almost -anything, if you do it right.” - -After that, Billy’s days went on, one very like another. It seemed to -him that there was no end to the things he had to learn. He had very -little time to spend in wishing, though every night he went out for a -good look at the mountains. But he was beginning to think about the -kind of man that he would like to be; and every day he was a little -more sure that he wanted to be like the young superintendent. - -He was so short himself that he was afraid that he would never be -as tall as Mr. Prescott. So he began to stand as tall as he could, -especially when he was in the office. Then he tried to remember to -breathe deep, the way that the teacher at school had told the boys to -do. But he wondered, sometimes, when he looked at Mr. Prescott’s broad -shoulders, whether he had ever been as small as most boys. - -The day that Billy had his first little brown envelope with three -dollars and fifty cents in it, he stood very tall indeed. That night, -at supper, he handed it to Aunt Mary, saying: - -“That’s for you to put in the bank.” - -“For Billy,” said Uncle John, looking up quickly and speaking almost -sternly. “I’m the one to give Aunt Mary money.” - -Then he said gently: “It’s a good plan, Billy, to put your first money -in the bank. You’ll never have any more just like that.” - -The thing that first excited Billy’s curiosity, as he went about on -errands, was the big pile of old iron in the mill yard. There were -pieces of old stoves, and seats from schoolhouses that had been burned, -and engines that had been smashed in wrecks, and old ploughs, and -nobody knew what else--all piled up in a great heap. - -One day, when he carried an order to the man that tended the furnace -in the cupola where they melted the iron, he saw them putting pieces -of old iron on the scales; and he heard the man say to his helper: “We -shall have to put in fifty pounds extra to-day.” - -It seemed to Billy that it wasn’t quite fair to put in old iron, when -they were making new machinery. So, one noon, he asked Uncle John about -it. - -“Using your eyes, are you, Billy? That’s quite likely to set your mind -to working. - -“I suppose you’ve heard them talking around here about testing -machinery. That isn’t the first testing. They test iron all the way -along, from the ore in the mine to the sticks of pig iron piled up in -our yard.” - -“Some of it is in cakes,” said Billy. - -“Is that so?” asked Uncle John, as he took another sandwich out of his -pail. “Now I think of it, they did tell me that cakes are the new style -in pig iron. - -“Well,” continued Uncle John, “there are men testing and experimenting -all the time; and some of them found out that old iron and pig iron -together make better new iron than they can make from pig iron alone. -Since they found that out, scrap iron has kept on going up in price. - -“Did you happen, Billy, to see any other heaps lying around?” - -“I saw a pile of coke, over in the corner,” answered Billy. - -“Somewhere,” said Uncle John, “there must have been a heap of -limestone. They use that for what they call a flux. That unites with -the waste things, the ashes of the coke and any sand that may have -stuck to the pig iron. Those things together make slag. The slag is so -much lighter than the iron that it floats on top, and there are tap -holes in the cupola where they draw it off. Limestone helps the iron to -melt, that’s another reason why they use it.” - -“I saw some scales,” said Billy. - -“Those,” said Uncle John, “are to weigh the things that they put into -the cupola. There are rules for making cast iron. It all depends on -what kind of machinery we want to make. - -“First, in the bottom of the cupola, they make a fire of shavings and -wood, with a little coal; then they put in coke, pig iron, scrap iron, -and limestone, according to the rule for the kind of iron that they -want to make. - -“Those heaps all pieced together, Billy?” - -“Sure,” answered Billy; and, then, the whistle blew. - -Deep down in his heart, Billy didn’t like that whistle. He didn’t tell -Uncle John, because William Wallace scorned anybody who felt like that. -William Wallace said that being on time--on time to the minute--was -only just business. Nevertheless, Billy missed being free. Aunt Mary’s -errands hadn’t been timed by the clock. - -There was another reason why he didn’t tell Uncle John how he felt. - -“Stand by your job, every minute that you belong on it,” was one of the -things that Uncle John had said so many times that it almost worried -Billy. - -But, before the summer was over, Billy was glad that he had kept that -on his mind. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER III - -A MOUNTAIN OF IRON - - -Whether, if it hadn’t been for Billy’s new jack-knife, he and Thomas -Murphy would have become friends, no one can say. It seems very -probable that something would have made them like each other. - -Sitting on a high stool to check time or in a chair to watch the great -door had grown so monotonous that Tom really needed to have somebody to -talk to. - -Then there wasn’t any boy in the mill for Billy to get acquainted with; -and Billy saw Tom oftener than he saw any of the other men. So it seems -very natural that Billy and Tom should have become friends. - -If they hadn’t, things wouldn’t have turned out just as they did; and -whatever else might have happened, it was really the jack-knife that -brought them together. - -Billy had been in the mill about two weeks when, one morning, just as -Tom was finishing making a mark after Uncle John’s name, snap went the -point of his pencil. - -Billy heard it break, and saw Tom put his hand into his pocket. Billy -knew, from Tom’s face, before he drew his hand out, that there wasn’t -any knife in his pocket. - -So Billy put his dinner pail down, and pulling his knife out by the -chain, said quickly: - -“I’ll sharpen your pencil, Mr. Murphy.” - -Billy had been practicing on sharpening pencils. He worked so fast that -the men behind had hardly begun to grumble before the pencil was in -working order, and the line began to move on again. - -Though he did not know it, Billy had done something more than merely to -sharpen Tom’s pencil. When he said, “Mr. Murphy,” he waked up something -in Tom that Tom himself had almost forgotten about. - -He had been called “Tom Murphy” so long, sometimes only “lame Tom,” -that Billy’s saying “Mr. Murphy” had made him sit up very straight, -while he was waiting for Billy to sharpen the pencil. - -Mr. Prescott thought that he really appreciated Tom. He always said, -“Tom Murphy is as faithful as the day is long”; but even Mr. Prescott -didn’t know so much about Tom as he thought he did. If Billy and Tom -hadn’t become friends, Mr. Prescott would probably never have learned -anything about the “Mr. Murphy” side of Tom. - -After that morning, Billy and Tom kept on getting acquainted, until one -day when Uncle John had to go out one noon to see about some new window -screens for Aunt Mary, Billy went to the door to see Tom. - -Tom, having just sat down in his chair, was trying to get his lame leg -into a position where it would be more comfortable. - -“Does your leg hurt, Mr. Murphy?” asked Billy. - -“Pretty bad to-day, William,” answered Thomas Murphy with a groan. “If -it wasn’t so dry, I should think, from the way my leg aches, that it -was going to rain, but there’s no hope of that.” - -“It’s rheumatism, isn’t it?” asked Billy, sympathetically. - -“Part of it is,” answered Tom, “but before that it was crush. I hope -you don’t think I’ve never done anything but mark time at Prescott mill. - -“I suppose that you think you’ve seen considerable iron in this yard -and in this mill; but you don’t know half so much about iron as I did -when my legs were as good as yours. - -“Out West, where I was born, there are acres and acres and acres of -iron almost on top of the ground; and, besides that, a whole mountain -of iron.” - -Tom paused a moment to move his leg again. - -“Was there an iron mine in the ground, too?” asked Billy sitting down -on the threshold of the door. - -“Yes, there was,” answered Tom. “If I had stayed on top of the ground, -perhaps I shouldn’t have been hurt. Might have been blown up in a -gopher hole, though, the way my brother was.” - -“O-oh!” said Billy. - -“Never heard of a gopher hole, I suppose,” continued Tom, settling back -in his chair, as though he intended to improve his opportunity to talk. - -“That’s one way that they get iron out of a mountain. They make holes -straight into a bank. Then they put in sacks of powder, and fire it -with a fuse. That loosens the ore so that they can use a steam shovel. -Sometimes the men go in too soon.” - -“I wish,” said Billy with a little shiver, “that you would tell me -about the mine.” - -“That’ll be quite a contract,” said Thomas Murphy, clasping his hands -across his chest, “but I was in one long enough to know. - -“You’ll think there was a mine down in the ground when I tell you that -I’ve been down a thousand feet in one myself. - -“I went down that one in a cage; but in the mine where I worked I used -to go down on ladders at the side of the shaft.” - -“Was it something like a coal mine?” asked Billy. - -“I’ve heard miners say,” answered Tom, “that some iron is so hard that -it has to be worked with a pick and a shovel; but the iron in our mine -was so soft that we caved it down. - -“If I had been working with a pick, perhaps I shouldn’t have been hurt. - -“When you cave iron, you go down to the bottom of the shaft and work -under the iron. You cut out a place, and put in some big timbers to -hold up the roof. Then you cut some more, and keep on till you think -the roof may fall. - -“Then you board that place in, and knock out some pillars, or blow them -out, and down comes the iron. Then you put it in a car and push it to -a chute, and that loads it on an elevator to be brought up. Sometimes -they use electric trams; we used to have to push the cars.” - -“It must be very hard work,” said Billy. - -“Work, William, usually is hard,” said Thomas Murphy. “Work, -underground or above ground, is work, William.” - -“But you haven’t told me, Mr. Murphy,” said Billy, “how you hurt your -knee.” - -“The quickest way to tell you that, William, is to tell you that the -cave, that time, caved too soon. I got caught on the edge of it. - -“After I got out of the hospital, I tried to work above ground; but the -noise of the steam shovels and the blasting wore me out. So, one day, I -took an ore train, and went to the boat and came up the river. - -“Finally, I drifted to Prescott mill, some seasons before you were -born, William.” - -“Have you ever wanted to go back?” asked Billy. - -“No, William, I haven’t. There’s nobody left out there that belongs to -me, anyway. My lame knee wasn’t the only reason why I left, William. I -heard something about the country that I didn’t like at all; I didn’t -like it at all.” - -“Weren’t the people good?” asked Billy. - -“Very good people,” answered Thomas Murphy firmly. “’Twas something -about the mountain that I heard. - -“There were always men around examining the mines. I never paid much -attention to ’em till one day I heard a man--they said he came from -some college--a-talking about volcanoes. He said that iron mountain was -thrown up by a volcano, said he was sure of it. - -“I never told anybody, William, but I cleared out the very next day. -You’ve never heard anything about volcanoes round here, have you, -William?” - -“No, Mr. Murphy,” answered Billy. - -“If you ever should, William----” said Thomas Murphy, leaning anxiously -forward. - -“If I ever do hear, Mr. Murphy,” said Billy, feeling that he was making -a promise, “I’ll tell you right away.” - -“Thank you, William,” said Tom. “You won’t mention it, will you?” - -“No, Mr. Murphy,” answered Billy. - -That was really the day when Billy and Thomas Murphy sealed their -compact as friends. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -THE FOUNDRY - - -“My friend, Mr. Murphy,” said Billy, one night after supper, when he -and Uncle John were sitting side by side on the steps. - -“Did I understand?” interrupted Uncle John, “Mr. Murphy?” - -“Yes,” answered Billy, “Mr. Thomas Murphy the timekeeper.” - -“Exactly,” said Uncle John. - -“Mr. Murphy,” Billy went on, “says that iron moves the world.” - -“I should say,” said Uncle John, deliberately, “that power generally -has to be put into an iron harness before anything can move; but Mr. -Murphy evidently knows what he is talking about.” - -“He says,” continued Billy, “that iron mills are very important places; -and that, for his part, he’s glad that he works in an iron mill.” - -“That’s the way every man ought to feel about his work,” said Uncle -John; “all the work in the world has to be done by somebody.” - -That remark sounded to Billy as if another motto might be coming; and, -being tired, he wanted just to be social. So he said: - -“Uncle John, did you ever see Miss King, the stenographer?” - -“Only coming and going,” he answered. - -“She’s a friend of mine, too,” said Billy. “She told me, to-day, that -she wants me always to feel that she is my friend.” - -“Everything going all right in the office, Billy?” asked Uncle John, -quickly. - -“Oh, yes,” answered Billy, with a little note of happiness in his -voice. “She told me that so as to make me feel comfortable. She’s -the loveliest woman I ever saw. Don’t you think, Uncle John, that -yellow-brown is the prettiest color for hair?” - -“I do,” said Uncle John, emphatically. Then, rising to go into the -house, he added, “That’s exactly what I used to call Aunt Mary’s hair, -yellow-brown.” - -“Oh!” said Billy wonderingly. Then it was time for him to go to -bed; but he lingered a moment to look at Aunt Mary’s hair that was -dark brown, now, where it wasn’t gray. There was something in his -“Good-night, Aunt Mary,” that made her look up from her paper as she -said: - -“Good-night, William Wallace.” - -Anybody can see that William Wallace is a hard name for a boy to go to -bed on. It was so hard for Billy that it almost hurt; but Billy had -lived with Aunt Mary long enough to be sure that she meant to be a true -friend. - -Whether or not Mr. Prescott was his friend, Billy did not know. Mr. -Murphy had told him one day when he was out by the door, waiting for -the postman, that Mr. Prescott was a friend to every man in the mill. -Billy supposed that every man was a friend back again. At any rate he -knew that he was; and he hoped that, some day, he would be able to do -something, just to show Mr. Prescott how much he liked him. - -The more he thought about it, the more it didn’t seem possible that -such a hope as that could ever come true. - -But anybody who liked anybody else as much as he liked Mr. Prescott -couldn’t help seeing that something bothered him. So Billy had a little -secret with himself to try to look specially pleasant when Mr. Prescott -came in from a trip around the mill. He had begun to think that Mr. -Prescott had given up springing questions on him when, one very warm -afternoon, Mr. Prescott looked up from his desk and said: - -“William, if you were to have an afternoon off, what would you do?” - -“I’d rather than anything else in the world,” answered Billy promptly, -“go out into the country.” - -“That being hardly feasible,” said Mr. Prescott, “what else would you -rather do?” - -“Next to that,” answered Billy, “I’d rather go into the foundry to see -Uncle John work.” - -“Well!” exclaimed Mr. Prescott, whirling around in his chair. “That’s -about the last thing that I should have thought of, especially on such -a hot day. May I inquire whether you are interested in iron?” - -Billy, with a quick flash of spirit, answered promptly, “I am, sir.” - -As promptly Mr. Prescott said, “I’m glad to hear it, William. You may -spend the rest of the afternoon in the foundry.” - -“Thank you, sir,” said Billy, very much surprised. Then he looked at -Miss King, and she nodded and smiled. - -Billy ran down the corridor, passing Mr. Murphy with a flying salute, -and hurried across the yard to the foundry door. - -Just then he remembered that he hadn’t a permit; but the foreman -appeared in the door saying, “The super has telephoned over that you’re -to visit us this afternoon.” - -Pointing across the room, he added, “Your uncle is over there.” - -Billy wanted to surprise his Uncle John, so he went carefully along the -outer side of the long, low room, past pile after pile of gray black -sand, until he came to the place where Uncle John was bending over what -seemed to be a long bar of sand. - -“Uncle John,” he said softly. - -“Why, Billy, my lad!” exclaimed he, looking up with so much surprise in -his face that Billy said quickly: - -“It’s all right, Uncle John. Mr. Prescott sent me to watch you work.” - -“Things,” said Uncle John, with a smile that made wrinkles around his -eyes, “generally come round right if you wait for them.” - -“What is that?” asked Billy, pointing at the bar. - -“That is a mold for a lathe,” answered Uncle John. “I’m nearly through -with it, then I’m going to help out on corn cutters. We have a rush -order on corn canning machines. You’d better sit on that box till I’m -through.” - -Billy looked at the tiny trowel in Uncle John’s hand, and saw him take -off a little sand in one place, and put some on in another, until the -mold was smooth and even. Then he tested his corners with what he -called a “corner slick.” - -“I never supposed that you worked that way,” said Billy, “but Miss King -told me that molders are artists in sand.” - -“Did she, though?” said Uncle John, straightening up to take a final -look at his work. “I’ll remember that. - -“Now we’ll go over where they are working on the corn cutters. It’s a -little cooler on that side.” - -“Where does black sand come from?” asked Billy. - -“It’s yellow,” answered his uncle, “when we begin to use it, but the -action of the hot iron, as we use it, over and over, turns it black.” - -Then came the work that Billy had waited so long to see. - -Uncle John took a wooden frame--he called it a drag--which was about -two feet square and not quite so deep. He put it on a bench high enough -for him to work easily. Then he laid six cutters for a corn canning -machine, side by side, in the bottom of the box. - -“Those,” he said, “are patterns.” - -Taking a sieve--a riddle--he filled it with moist sand which he sifted -over the cutters. Next, with his fingers, he packed the sand carefully -around the patterns. Then, with a shovel, he filled the drag with sand, -and rammed it down with a wooden rammer until the drag was full. - -“Now,” said he, taking up a wire, “I am going to make some vent holes, -so the steam can escape.” - -When that was done, he clamped a top on the box, turned it over, and -took out the bottom. - -Billy could see the cutters, bedded firm in the sand. - -Blowing off the loose sand with bellows, and smoothing the sand around -the pattern, Uncle John took some dry sand, which he sifted through his -fingers, blowing it off where it touched the cutters. - -“This sand,” he said, “will keep the two parts of the mold from -sticking together.” - -[Illustration: HE FILLED IT WITH MOIST SAND] - -Then he took another frame, a cope, which was like the first, except -that it had pins on the sides, where the other had sockets. Slipping -the pins into the sockets, he fastened them together. - -Taking two round, tapering plugs of wood, he set them firmly in the -sand, at each end of the patterns. - -“One of those,” said he, “will make a place for the hot iron to go in, -and the other for it to rise up on the other side.” - -Then he filled the second box as he had the first, and made more vent -holes. - -“Billy,” he said, suddenly, “where are those corn cutters?” - -“In the middle of the box,” answered Billy promptly, just as if he had -always known about molding in sand. - -“Now,” said Uncle John, “comes the artist part.” - -Lifting the second part off the first, he turned it over carefully and -set it on the bench. - -“There they are,” exclaimed Billy. - -“There they are,” said Uncle John, with a smile, “but there they are -not going to remain.” - -Dipping a sponge in water, he wet the sand around the edges of the -pattern. Then he screwed a draw spike into the middle of the pattern -and rapped it gently with a mallet to loosen it from the sand. - -“Pretty nearly perfect, aren’t they?” he said, when he had them all -safely out. “Now for some real artist work.” - -With a lifter he took out the sand that had fallen into the mold, -patched a tiny break here and there, and tested the corners. - -Last of all he made grooves, which he called “gates,” between the -patterns, and also at the ends where the iron was to be poured in. - -Then he clamped the two boxes together. “Now the holes are in the -middle,” said he, “and I hope that they will stay there till the iron -is poured in.” - -Billy, sitting on a box, watched Uncle John till he had finished -another set of molds. - -“That all clear so far?” asked Uncle John. - -“Sure,” answered Billy. - -“Think you could do it yourself?” broke in a heavy voice. - -Billy, looking up, saw the foreman, who had been watching Billy while -he watched his uncle. - -“I think I know how,” answered Billy. - -“If you won’t talk to the men,” said the foreman, “you may walk around -the foundry until we are ready to pour.” - -So Billy walked slowly around the long foundry. He saw that each man -had his own pile of sand, but the piles were growing very small, -because the day’s work was nearly over. The molds were being put in -rows for the pouring. - -He had walked nearly back to his Uncle John when he happened to step in -a hollow place in the earth floor and, losing his balance, fell against -a man who was carrying a mold. - -With a strange, half-muttered expression the man pushed his elbow -against Billy and almost threw him down. - -Billy, looking up into a pair of fierce black eyes that glared at him -from under a mass of coal black hair, turned so pale that William -Wallace then and there called him a coward. - -As fast as his feet would carry him Billy went back to Uncle John, who, -still busy with his molds, said: - -“Go out behind the foundry and look in at the window to see us pour.” - -Billy, for the first time in his life thoroughly frightened, was glad -to go out into the open air. - -Then he went to the window opposite the great cupola to wait for the -pouring. - -There at the left of the furnace door stood the foundry foreman, tall -and strong, holding a long iron rod in his hand. He, too, was waiting. - -Then, because Billy had thought and thought over what Uncle John had -told him about pouring, his mind began to make a picture; and when -sparks of fire from the spout shot across the foundry, the cupola -became a fiery dragon and the foreman a noble knight, bearing a long -iron spear. - -Only once breathed the dragon; for the knight, heedless of danger, -closed the iron mouth with a single thrust of his spear. - -Another wait. This time the knight forced the dragon to open his mouth, -and the yielding dragon sent out his pointed, golden tongue. - -But only for a moment; for again the knight thrust in his iron spear. - -At last the knight gave way to the dragon. - -Then, wonder of wonders, from the dragon’s mouth there came a golden, -molten stream. - -When the great iron ladle below was almost filled, the knight closed -once more the dragon’s mouth. - -Two by two came men bearing between them long-handled iron ladles. The -great ladle swung forward, for a moment, on its tilting gear, and the -men bore away their ladles filled with iron that the great dragon had -changed from its own dull gray to the brilliant yellow of gold. - -The molds, as they were filled, smoked from all their venting places, -till, to his picture, Billy added a place for a battle-field. - -By the time that the last molds were filled, some of the men began to -take off the wooden frames, and there the iron was, gray again, but, -this time, shaped for the use of man. - -“See,” said Uncle John, coming to the window, “there are our corn -cutters. Came out pretty well, didn’t they?” - -“Wasn’t it great!” exclaimed Billy. - -“Just about as wonderful every time,” said Uncle John. - -“What do they do next?” asked Billy. - -“Make new heaps of sand--every man his own heap--and in the morning, -after the castings have been carried into the mill, they begin all over -again.” - -“I’m so glad I saw it,” said Billy, drawing a deep breath of -satisfaction. - -That night he told Aunt Mary about what he had seen. And he thought -about it almost until he fell asleep. Almost, but not quite; for, just -as he was dozing off, William Wallace said: - -“You were frightened--frightened. You showed a white feather!” - -Half asleep as he was, Billy, tired of William Wallace’s superior airs, -roused himself long enough to say: “We’ll see who has white feathers.” - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE GREAT IRON KEY - - -July was hot. Everybody said so. The sun burned the grass in the yards -till it was brown, and no rain came to make it green again. All the men -were tired; some of them were cross. - -Mr. Prescott put in more electric fans. Then he played the hose to keep -the air cool, but the water supply was so low that he was ordered to -stop using the hose. - -One day he had an awning put up near the gate, and sent lame Tom -Murphy, the timekeeper, out there to sit. - -Tom, preferring the cool of the great door where he had always sat, -confided his trouble to Billy. - -“It’s my opinion,” he said, “privately spoken to you alone, that the -super sent me out here for something besides air. It’s been my opinion, -for some time, that there’s trouble somewhere.” - -“I suppose,” said Billy, assuming a business tone, “that you’re a -friend back again, aren’t you, Mr. Murphy?” - -Unconsciously sitting straighter in his chair, he answered, “I’m not -altogether clear as to your meaning, William.” - -“You told me yourself, Mr. Murphy,” said Billy, still speaking very -firmly, “that Mr. Prescott is a friend to every man in the mill. Aren’t -you a friend back again?” - -“I am,” answered the timekeeper emphatically. “You may depend on me in -all weathers, even to sitting out here in the sun.” - -“Then,” said Billy, “you and I, Mr. Murphy, are both friends, on our -honor as gentlemen--that’s what my father used to say.” - -“I am,” answered Thomas Murphy. - -Just then they heard the honk, honk of Mr. Prescott’s machine, and -Billy stood carefully aside for him to pass. - -Mr. Prescott, who was alone, said: - -“Things all right, Thomas? Jump in, William.” - -Billy, surprised beyond words, obeyed. - -Mr. Prescott, starting the car quickly, drove rapidly down the street. - -When they reached the square, Billy said: - -“Some letters, sir, to post. That’s where I was going.” - -“Very well,” said Mr. Prescott, stopping the car. - -“Ever in a machine before?” he asked, as Billy got in again beside him. - -“No, sir.” - -“Think I’ll take you with me then; I’m chasing an order. We’re nearly -out of coke.” - -They rode so fast that the air began to seem cooler. Billy, quite -willing to be silent with Mr. Prescott beside him, settled back in the -seat in blissful content. - -“Know anything about coke, William?” asked Mr. Prescott, breaking the -silence, suddenly. - -“No, sir, except that it’s gray, and that they burn it in the cupola.” - -“Oh, yes, I remember,” said Mr. Prescott; “you’re interested in iron. -Well, then, it’s time that you knew something about coke. - -“Long ago they used charcoal, that is, partly burned wood, in the iron -furnaces. That used up the forests so fast that, over in England, the -government had to limit the number of iron furnaces. - -“Then they tried to use coal. That didn’t work very well. Finally -somebody found that, if the coal was partly burned, that is, made -into coke, it would require less blast, and the iron would melt more -quickly. It was a great day for iron when coke came in.” - -The car sped on, and again Mr. Prescott lapsed into silence. - -The country didn’t look at all like the country that Billy dreamed -about. His was green. This was brown. But there were no hot, red bricks -to look at; that was something to be thankful for, anyway. - -“See anything new?” asked Mr. Prescott. - -“What are they?” asked Billy, pointing to long rows of something that -looked like large beehives. - -“Coke ovens; they call them beehive ovens. That overhead railway is -where they charge the ovens through the top. After the coal has burned -about two days, it is quenched with water. Then they draw it out at the -bottom as coke, and put in a new charge while the ovens are still hot.” - -After he got home that night--it was closing time when they reached the -square where Mr. Prescott left him--Billy couldn’t remember that Mr. -Prescott had said a word to him all the way back. But Billy was happy, -and rested, too. - -While they were walking to the mill the next morning Uncle John said: - -“Billy, my lad, I want to give you some confidential advice. You went -out riding with the superintendent yesterday, didn’t you?” - -“Yes, sir,” answered Billy. - -“But you’re the office boy, just the same, this morning?” - -“Sure, Uncle John,” answered Billy. - -“I thought you’d be clear on that,” said Uncle John, beaming with -pride. “I thought you’d be clear on that!” - -Billy began the day as an office boy, dusting and sharpening pencils -and sorting the mail. - -Miss King came in, looking cool and pretty in her white office dress, -with a bunch of sweet peas in her hand. - -“Beautiful, aren’t they, William?” she said holding them up in the -light. “See how the lavender ones have pink in them, and the pink have -white, and the white are just tinted with pink, so they all blend -together. I always pick some leaves, too; they’re such a soft, cool -green.” - -“Do you suppose,” asked Billy, “that they’d grow in a yard--just a -common yard?” - -“These grew in our back yard,” answered Miss King. “I’ll give you some -seed next year.” - -At that moment Mr. Prescott came in with a telegram in his hand. - -“Have to catch the nine-forty express,” he said. “Can’t get back for -three days, anyway. Open those letters, William.” - -Out came Billy’s knife, and he opened letters while Mr. Prescott -dictated to Miss King. - -“Don’t,” said Mr. Prescott, seizing his hat, “let anybody know that I -have gone if you can help it. Don’t tell them how long I shall be gone. -You and William must look after everything.” - -Then off he went, leaving Miss King and Billy looking at each other in -dismay. - -“Well,” said Miss King, after a moment, “we don’t know where he has -gone. So we can’t tell anybody that. And we don’t know when he is -coming back. - -“It isn’t very likely,” she added, with a reassuring smile, “that -anything will happen while he is gone.” - -Billy, who had never forgotten about keeping his ears open, thought -Miss King said “very” as if she weren’t quite sure about something. So -he said: - -“I’ll stay in here with you as much as I can.” - -“Thank you,” said Miss King, smiling. - -“There’s nothing to do, anyway,” she went on, half to herself, “except -to do things as they come along. So we’ll do that, William. - -“Please get me some water for the flowers.” - -Then she opened the typewriter and began to write very fast. - -The day went on very much like other days. The mill seemed almost to be -running itself. - -When they were leaving the office that night Miss King said cheerfully: - -“We’ve had a very pleasant day, haven’t we, William?” - -“Seems to me I haven’t worked so hard as usual,” answered Billy. - -The next day when Billy came back from the bank, soon after the noon -whistle had blown, lame Tom’s chair under the canopy by the gate was -empty. - -Billy, hurrying on to the main building, found that Tom’s chair by the -great door was empty, too. - -As he stepped inside, Tom appeared from behind the door. - -When he saw Billy an expression of relief came into his face. - -“I’m glad to see you, William,” he said. “Stand in the door a minute -and pretend I’m not talking to you.” - -Billy, wondering what could have happened, turned his back on Tom, and -waited. - -“William,” said Tom, in an almost sepulchral tone, “the great key is -gone.” - -Billy nearly jumped out the door. But, remembering that he was on duty -to look after things, he said: - -“You watch while I try to find it.” - -Even Billy’s young eyes could not find the key. He searched till he was -sure, then he said: - -“I’ll look again, Mr. Murphy, after you go out to the gate.” - -The key was one of Mr. Prescott’s special treasures, for it was the -very one that his grandfather had when he first built the mill. Several -times the door had been almost made over, but the key had never been -changed. - -It was an iron key--three times as long as Billy’s longest finger, with -a bow in which three of his fingers and almost a fourth could lie side -by side, and its bit was more than half as long as his thumb. It was so -large that Mr. Prescott sometimes called lame Tom “the keeper of the -great key.” - -Gone it was. Billy hunted till he was sure of that. He wanted to tell -Miss King about it, but he could not stop to tell her then, for he had -to distribute the orders for the afternoon. - -Here and there he went. Last of all he had to go into the foundry. He -was half-way down the room before he realized that he was on the side -where he must pass the man with the fierce eyes and the coal black -hair. Determined this time to be brave, he went steadily on. - -The man was standing still, bending over his drag, his shock of unkempt -hair hanging down over his eyes. He was so intent on his work that -Billy, so nearly past that he felt quite safe, looked down curiously to -see what pattern the man was using. - -There, all by itself, in the bottom of the box, lay the great iron key. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -A SURPRISE OR TWO - - -The sight of the key did something more than to make Billy’s eyes -open very wide; it struck to his legs. They grew so heavy that, for -a minute, he couldn’t lift them at all. But he kept on trying, and -finally succeeded in pulling up first one, and then the other, and in -starting them both. Then they wanted to move fast, and he had hard work -to slow them down to simply a quick walk. At last he reached the door, -and hurried across the yard and down the corridor to the office. - -When he opened the door, something struck to his feet, and fairly glued -them to the threshold. - -There at his desk, writing away hard, sat Mr. Prescott. - -Billy’s blue eyes, large from seeing the key, grew still larger, so -that, when Mr. Prescott finally looked up, he saw quite a different boy -from the Billy whom he had left only the day before. - -“Well, William,” he said, as he put down his pen, “having obeyed to -the letter--I might say to the period--my injunction to keep your lips -shut, suppose you open them.” - -Billy’s tongue seemed to be fastened to the roof of his mouth tighter -than his feet were to the floor, and he couldn’t seem to unfasten it. - -“Perhaps,” continued Mr. Prescott, “it might be as well, just at this -point, for me to inform you that surprise is one of the persistent -elements of business. I met another telegram, so you meet me. What has -happened?” - -When Billy finally reached the desk and began to tell him about the -key, Mr. Prescott whirled around in his chair and put his right thumb -into the right armhole of his vest. - -Before Billy had finished, though his tongue, having started, went very -fast, Mr. Prescott put his other thumb in his other armhole, and leaned -back in his chair till his shoulders seemed almost to fill the space -between the desk and the railing. - -“Well,” he said, when Billy had finished, “as you are the one in -possession of the original facts, what do you think had better be done?” - -If Mr. Prescott had only known it, Billy didn’t like him very well -when he talked that way. But of course nobody can like anybody every -minute of the time; for even a best hero is more than likely to have -disagreeable spots. Billy’s father had told him that, and Billy was -very much like his father in the way he had of forgetting disagreeables -pretty soon after they happened. Just that minute, anyway, his whole -mind was on that great iron key. - -Besides, when Mr. Prescott talked that way, he always hit the man-side -of Billy. Possibly Mr. Prescott knew that. - -“I think, sir,” answered Billy, almost before he knew what he was -saying, “that I can get the key.” - -“Oh, you do, do you?” said Mr. Prescott. “Will you be so kind as to -tell me about what time to-day you will deliver it?” - -Billy looked at the clock. - -Miss King’s keys kept right on--clickety-clickety-click. - -Billy changed his weight to his other foot before he answered: - -“About four o’clock, sir.” - -Mr. Prescott looked at the clock, then he took up his pen, saying: - -“It is now nearly half-past three. It would be a pity, in such an -important matter, for you to fail for lack of time to work out any -little theory that you happen to have originated. Suppose we make it -half-past four o’clock.” - -As Billy started for the door Mr. Prescott added: - -“Having opened your lips, you may close them again, a little tighter -than before. Understand?” - -“Yes, sir,” answered Billy. - -“Mind,” called Mr. Prescott, when Billy had almost closed the door, -“you are to return at half-past four, key or no key.” - -“Sure, sir,” answered Billy. - -Things don’t always look the same on both sides of a door. Billy found -that out as soon as he was alone in the corridor. But Billy had a -theory, though Mr. Prescott may have thought that he was joking, and -it was built on so firm a foundation that William Wallace offered, at -once, to help him work it out. - -Billy hadn’t visited Uncle John that day in the foundry simply for -nothing. He had it all figured out in his mind that, as soon as the -black-haired man had finished using the key for a pattern, he would put -it back in the door; and Billy had said four o’clock because that was -about the time when the molds were supposed to be ready. - -When a man knew as much about molding as Mr. Prescott did, it did seem -as if he might have figured that out himself. - -Billy looked around for a place where he could hide to watch the door. -There wasn’t anybody in sight, so he took plenty of time to decide. - -Half-way down the corridor, on the right hand side, was a small closet -that had been built up on the floor, by itself, so that Mr. Prescott -could have a place to keep his motor clothes. - -Billy went into that, and tried, by leaving the door part way open, to -fix a crack through which he could watch the door. Finding that the -crack was too far out of range, he started down the corridor to find -another place. - -He had just about decided to try hiding behind the tool room when he -heard a step, and, looking up, saw Thomas Murphy, the timekeeper. - -“It’s a great relief, William,” said Tom, “to see a friend like you. -Does the super know about the key?” - -Billy looked at Tom, and Tom looked at Billy. Bad as Tom felt, Billy -felt three times worse. Billy had three things on his mind: first of -all, he mustn’t tell a lie; then, he must keep the secret; and, if Tom -Murphy stayed by that door, the man wouldn’t bring back the key. - -Billy and William Wallace both thought as fast as they could. Billy got -hold of an idea first. Perhaps by asking Tom a question he could throw -him off the track, and could keep from telling a lie. - -So he said: “Had you made up your mind, Mr. Murphy, when it would be -best to tell him?” - -“No, William,” answered Tom Murphy, in a hopeless tone, “I hadn’t. I’ve -turned that thing over and over in my mind, and I’ve turned it inside -out; and all the answer that I can get to it is that there’ll be no Tom -Murphy any more a-keepin’ time at Prescott mill.” - -“But you didn’t lose the key, Mr. Murphy,” said Billy, very -sympathetically, now that his first danger was over. - -“That I didn’t,” said Tom Murphy. “It’s been a rule and a regulation -that that key was to stay in that door from morning to night. That key -ought _not_ to have been left in that door.” - -“No,” said Billy, “excepting that everybody knows how much Mr. Prescott -thinks of that key.” - -“That’s just it,” said Thomas Murphy, pulling his old chair out from -behind the door, and sinking into it with a sigh of relief. - -“What would you,” he asked as he stretched out his lame leg, and -clasped his hands across his chest, “what would you advise, as a -friend? Don’t leave me, William,” he exclaimed, as Billy stepped -outside. - -“I won’t,” said Billy, stepping forward far enough to see the clock. - -Fifteen minutes gone! Where had fifteen minutes gone? - -“Do you think, William,” asked Thomas Murphy, as Billy went back to -him, “that, if the super never finds that key, there will be any Thomas -Murphy any more a-keepin’ time at Prescott mill?” - -“You know,” said Billy, “that Mr. Prescott is a friend to everybody. -I think,” he added slowly, because he was trying to keep still and at -the same time to be wise, “I think he would be--more of--a friend--to a -man--than to a key.” - -“His grandfather’s key?” said Tom solemnly. - -“His grandfather’s key,” repeated Billy, backing toward the door, and -stepping out. - -Five minutes of four! - -Looking over at the foundry, Billy saw a man with shaggy black hair -who, with his right hand pressed close against his side, was stepping -back into the foundry door! - -Billy himself stepped quickly back. - -“William,” said Thomas Murphy, “you seem to be unusually oneasy.” - -“It’s a very warm day,” said Billy. - -“If it seems hot to you in here,” said Thomas Murphy, settling still -further back in his chair, “what do you think it has been to me -a-sittin’ out under that canopy in the sun?” - -Billy grew desperate. “Mr. Murphy,” he said, “it seems to me--do you -think, Mr. Murphy--I mean--don’t you think that Mr. Prescott expects -you are sitting out there now?” - -“That may be,” answered Thomas Murphy. - -“Don’t you think,” said Billy, growing more and more desperate, “that -it would be a good plan for us to go out there together?” - -“Sometimes,” said Thomas Murphy, in an injured tone, “a man’s best -friends can make things very hard for him.” - -“Can I help you to get up?” asked Billy, going up to Thomas Murphy, and -putting his hand on his arm. - -“No, William,” said Thomas Murphy, moving his arm with more decision -than was really necessary. “Thomas Murphy is still able to rise without -the assistance of a--a friend.” - -Slowly Thomas Murphy drew himself from the depths of the chair. - -Billy, backing out the great door, saw the clock. - -Ten minutes more gone! - -“Hurry up!” said William Wallace. “Hurry up!” - -“I tell you, Mr. Murphy,” said Billy in his most friendly tone, “I’ll -go out under the canopy. Then, if Mr. Prescott does come out, he’ll see -that there’s somebody at the gate.” - -“Very well,” said Thomas Murphy, lowering his lame leg carefully down -the step. “Very well.” - -Billy, glad of a chance to work off his feelings, ran out to the gate -as fast as he could. - -Slowly, very slowly, Thomas Murphy came across the yard. - -Billy, that he might not seem to be watching, stood with his back to -the mill. - -About the time that he thought Thomas Murphy would reach the gate, -he heard a sudden exclamation. Turning around, he saw Thomas Murphy, -timekeeper of Prescott mill, lying flat on his face. - -Quarter-past four stood the hands of the clock. Never in his life had -Billy seen them move so fast at that time of the day. - -Hurrying back he asked, “Can I help you, Mr. Murphy?” - -“Thank you, William,” answered Thomas Murphy, holding out his hand for -help. “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” - -As Billy bent over to help Thomas Murphy, he saw something that, for a -moment, made him so excited that he couldn’t have told whether he was -standing on his head or his heels. - -A black-haired man was creeping along the wall toward the door of the -mill! - -When he was sure that he was standing on his heels, Billy looked at the -clock. - -Seven minutes left! - -He helped Thomas Murphy to his chair. He even took time to say, “Mr. -Murphy, there are some things that I have been wanting to ask you about -iron.” - -“Anything,” said Thomas Murphy, safe in his chair, “anything that I -know is at your service, William.” - -Then Billy said, “Mr. Prescott told me to come back at half-past four.” - -“I should say,” remarked Thomas Murphy, “that you’ll have to hurry, -William. Near as I can see the hands of that clock, it’s hard on to -that now.” - -Billy did hurry, and soon had the key safe in his hands. - -As he went quickly down the corridor, William Wallace gave him some -special advice: - -“Don’t explain. Business is business. Just deliver the key.” - -When Billy went into the office, Mr. Prescott glanced at the clock. - -“Punctuality, William,” he said, “is a desirable thing in business.” - -He took the key just as if he had been expecting it. - -“Thank you, William,” he said. - -Then, seeming to forget Billy, he began to look the key over, stem, -bit, and bow, touching it here and there, and holding it carefully, as -if it were something that he valued very much. - -Realizing, at last, that Billy was waiting, he said: - -“Surprise, as I was saying, is one of the elements that must be -reckoned with in business.” - -When he said that, he used his firm, business tone. - -But his voice was very gentle as he looked straight into Billy’s eyes, -and added: - -“This time, William, the surprise is mine.” - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -IRON CUTS IRON - - -About the middle of the next forenoon, as Billy was going through the -gate, Thomas Murphy leaned forward confidentially, and said: - -“William, that key was in that door when I went to lock it last night.” - -“Yes,” said Billy, hurrying on, “I saw it there when I went home.” - -Billy didn’t care to discuss the matter. - -The truth was that he thought it very strange that Mr. Prescott should -have put the key right back in the lock. Business seemed to him to have -some queer places in it. - -But it had pleasant places, too, for, when Billy came back, he met Mr. -Prescott, just starting on his trip around the mill. - -“William,” he said, “when a boy makes practical use of a visit to a -foundry, I think it would be a good idea for him to go over a mill, -don’t you?” - -That was a long speech for Mr. Prescott. There wasn’t any time lost, -however, for Billy didn’t answer. He didn’t have to, because his face -told, right away, what he thought about it. - -Miss King, looking up, nodded and smiled. - -Off they went: tall, broad man; boy that was growing taller and -slenderer every day. - -Billy threw back his shoulders, and drew a long, deep breath. Part of -it was satisfaction; the rest was a desire to be strong and broad like -Mr. Prescott. - -“That,” said Mr. Prescott, as they passed a huge drum which was turning -over and over and making a great noise, “is a rattler. There’s some -sand left on castings after molding. Put small ones in there with -pieces of wood. Rub each other off.” - -Mr. Prescott went on, seeming to forget Billy, as he spoke here and -there to his men. - -Billy followed close, for he knew that Mr. Prescott was likely, any -moment, to spring a question on him. - -They were half-way over the mill before Mr. Prescott spoke again. Then, -stopping suddenly before a large lathe, he said: - -“John Bradford makes our best beds and slides. See him?” he asked, -turning to Billy. - -“He was making something long,” answered Billy. - -“We make lathes,” said Mr. Prescott. “Good ones; all kinds.” - -In the next room he stopped again. - -“Different kinds of iron,” he said. “Some much harder than others, like -tool steel. Iron cuts iron. That’s a planing machine: automatic plane -cuts any thickness.” - -Billy stopped beside the mighty planer, moving over the large casting -as easily as if the iron had been wood and the fierce chisel only a -carpenter’s plane. - -They went on a little further, then Mr. Prescott turned suddenly. -“William,” he asked, “how long is an inch?” - -He certainly had sprung it on Billy, but Billy’s spring worked too. - -“About down to there,” he answered, marking his left forefinger off -with his right. “No,” he said, moving his mark up a little higher, -“about there.” - -“You were nearer right the first time,” said Mr. Prescott. “Now, listen -to me. Iron can cut iron to within a fraction of a thousandth of an -inch.” - -Billy’s eyes opened till they showed almost twice as much white as blue. - -“Automatic index registers. Man watches index. - -“Look at that,” he said a moment later. “See that machine cutting a -screw.” - -That seemed to be something that especially interested Mr. Prescott, -for he stood a moment to watch the tool that was cutting into the -round bar of iron, making, in even and regular grooves, a huge screw. -Automatically, too, there came down on it a steady stream of oil. - -“Why’s that?” asked Billy. - -“The oil keeps the iron from becoming too hot,” answered Mr. Prescott. -“Heat expands iron. If we didn’t keep it cool, the screw wouldn’t be -the right size when it is done. - -“Cold naturally works the other way. Ever hear about the iron bridge -where the parts wouldn’t quite come together, so they put ice on to do -the job?” he asked, but he kept right on, without waiting for Billy to -answer. - -Billy saw other machines boring holes and rounding corners. It seemed -as if iron could cut iron into any shape that anybody wanted. - -Then there were men polishing and polishing, until they could fairly -see their faces in the iron. Billy could hardly believe that the gray -iron of the foundry could ever have become such silver-shining iron. - -Still Mr. Prescott kept on, Billy close behind. - -“This,” said Mr. Prescott, stopping in a room almost at the end of -the mill, “is the assembly room. Here is where the machines are put -together.” - -[Illustration: THERE WERE MEN POLISHING AND POLISHING] - -“Over there,” he said, pointing across the room, “they are putting a -lathe together. There will be between sixty and seventy pieces in it -when it is done. See, they have arranged all the parts.” - -Billy looked wonderingly at the great base and slide, and then at the -rods and screws and handles and nuts. He didn’t see how anybody could -tell how they went together. - -When he asked Mr. Prescott, he said: - -“They have drawings that they follow till the men can do it almost -without referring to the drawing.” - -“What’s that?” asked Billy, pointing to a queer thing over beyond the -lathe. - -“That,” answered Mr. Prescott, “is one of our special orders. It is a -corn canning machine.” - -Billy’s eyes grew so bright that Mr. Prescott said: - -“Do corn canners interest you more than lathes?” - -“That’s what Uncle John was making the day that I went to watch him; he -made some of the knives.” - -“Here they are,” said Mr. Prescott, “where they were made to go. I -think, myself, that this is rather an interesting machine. They put the -corn in at one end, and it comes out in cans at the other, and nobody -touches it.” - -“It’s wonderful,” said Billy, going over once more to look at the parts -of a lathe that were assembled, ready to be put together, “how all the -parts fit, when so many different people make them.” - -“If every man in this world would do his work as faithfully as our men -do, things in the world would fit together much better than they do,” -said Mr. Prescott. - -That sounded like Uncle John. It was the first time that Billy had -thought that Mr. Prescott and Uncle John were a little alike. - -A moment later, Mr. Prescott pushed back a sliding door, and they both -went into the new part of the mill. - -“This,” said Mr. Prescott, “is to be the new assembly room. We have -needed it for a long time. I shall be glad when it is done.” - -Then he turned so suddenly that he almost ran into Billy. - -“Any questions, William?” he asked. - -Billy’s face must have given his answer again, for Mr. Prescott pushed -an empty box toward Billy. - -Finding one for himself he turned it over, and, sitting down opposite -him, said: - -“Fire away.” - -“What,” asked Billy, “is the difference between iron and steel?” - -“If you were to put that question as it ought to be put,” answered Mr. -Prescott, pushing his box against the wall, and leaning back with his -hands in his pockets, “you would ask what is the difference between -irons and steels. - -“If I were to talk all day, I couldn’t fully answer that question; but -perhaps I can clear things up for you just a little. - -“In the first place, every mining region produces its own variety of -ore--so there are a great many kinds of iron to start with. In the next -place, the kind of iron that you get from the ore depends largely on -how you treat it. - -“I suppose that you have seen a blacksmith shoe horses, haven’t you?” - -“Yes,” answered Billy. “I knew a blacksmith up in the country.” - -“Well,” said Mr. Prescott, “how did he work?” - -“He heated the shoe red-hot on the forge, and then hammered it into -shape on the anvil.” - -“Blew bellows, didn’t he?” queried Mr. Prescott. - -“Sure,” answered Billy. “Sometimes he used to let me do that.” - -“Well, then,” said Mr. Prescott, “just remember three things: fuel, -blast, and hammer--power, of course, behind the hammer. It’s the -different variations that men have been making on those three things -that have brought iron where it is to-day. - -“Iron ore has so many things besides iron in it that the problem has -always been how to get the impurities out. - -“The old blacksmiths used to put it in the fire and hammer it; put it -back in the fire and hammer again, until they worked most of the other -things out. They made what is called forge iron. - -“Then an Englishman, named Cort, found a way to burn and roll the -impurities out. The thing they particularly wanted to get rid of was -carbon, because that makes iron too brittle to use for a great many -things. - -“They worked away till a man--Sir Henry Bessemer--found a way to burn -out all the carbon, and to make a kind of steel called Bessemer steel. - -“Steel is, technically, an alloy of iron and carbon. The point is to -have the carbon added to the iron in just the right proportion to make -the kind of steel that you may happen to want. - -“Bessemer--he was an Englishman, too--invented a converter to put -carbon back into iron, that is, to make iron into steel. - -“When it comes to telling you about steels, I can’t do that to-day; -there are too many kinds. - -“You may not know it, William, but you are living in the age of steel. -Industry depends on iron, for almost all the tools in the world are -made of steel. - -“Cast iron, like ours, is more brittle than steel, because it has much -more carbon in it; but it is useful for many things. I shall stand -right by cast iron.” - -Then he said, half to himself: - -“Sometimes I wish the other fellows hadn’t discovered quite so much. I -should have liked to have a hand in it myself.” - -Then Billy put the question that he had been trying to find a chance to -ask. - -“Mr. Prescott,” he began, but stopped a moment, as though he were -having some difficulty in getting his question into shape. “Do -volcanoes ever throw up mountains of iron?” - -“Trying to get back to the beginning, are you?” asked Mr. Prescott. -“Planning to be a geologist?” - -But seeing that Billy was too serious, just then, to be put off -lightly, Mr. Prescott went on: - -“That’s a good question. The geologists tell us, and I suppose that -they are right, that there was once a chain of active volcanoes up in -the Lake Superior region, and that is why there is so much iron up -there now. - -“There are some volcanoes in the world now, but the volcanoes that the -geologists talk about became extinct--dead, you know--long before the -earth was ready for man. Nobody knows how many thousands of years ago. - -“Noon!” he exclaimed, as the whistle blew. “What a short morning this -has been!” - -As soon as Billy could get to Uncle John he told him where he had been. - -“I thought,” said Uncle John, nodding his head, “that that chance would -come some day, Billy. Watch for a chance, and it generally comes.” - -Not until Billy went out the gate that night did he have an opportunity -to speak to Thomas Murphy. - -He let Uncle John go on a few steps ahead, then he said in a low tone: - -“Mr. Murphy, there were volcanoes out there J-ologists say so; but -they’re dead; been dead thousands of years.” - -Thomas Murphy, listening with eager ears, looked gravely into Billy’s -eyes. - -“All of ’em, everywhere?” he asked earnestly. - -“Those old volcanoes,” answered Billy, so impressed with Tom’s -seriousness that he made each word stand out by itself, “are all dead, -everywhere.” - -The look of relief that came into Tom’s face almost startled Billy. - -Then, seeing that Uncle John was waiting for him, Billy said quickly: - -“Just as soon as I can get a chance, Mr. Murphy, I want you to tell me -some more of the things that you know about iron.” - -Thomas Murphy, suddenly freed from his fear, straightened up as, with -the air of an expert, he said: - -“That’s a large subject, William.” - -“You and Tom Murphy,” said Uncle John, when Billy overtook him, “seem -to be pretty good friends.” - -“I promised to tell him something,” said Billy. - -But that was all he said, for just as truly as Thomas Murphy knew that -work is work, did Billy Bradford know that secrets are secrets. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -TRAITOR NAILS - - -For several days Billy was so busy that he had to resist all of Tom -Murphy’s attempts to make him stop to talk. - -Then one noon, as he was going through the gate, Tom said: - -“Why don’t you bring your dinner out here, William? Then we can have -that talk about iron.” - -Much as he wanted to be with Uncle John, Billy really was anxious to -hear what Thomas Murphy had to say about iron. So he answered: - -“I think, Mr. Murphy, that that would be a good plan.” - -When Billy came back, Thomas Murphy, eager of his opportunity, was -putting the cover on his own pail. - -Then, sitting up straight in his chair, and swelling with oratorical -pride, he began: - -“William, I told you that iron is a large subject. The more a man -thinks about it, the larger it gets. - -“Here,” he said, waving his left hand, “is our mill. What do we make? -We make lathes, corn canners, and--and--all sorts of things. What do we -make them of? Iron. - -“What carries them all over the country? Iron engines. What do those -engines run on, William? Iron rails. What carries ’em across the ocean? -Iron ships. - -“What makes our flour? Iron grinding machines. - -“What heats our houses? Iron stoves. What----” - -Pausing a moment for breath, he thrust his thumbs under his suspenders. -Happening to hit the buckles, he began again: - -“What holds our clothes together? Iron buckles, iron buttons,” he said -with emphasis. - -Pausing again, he looked up. - -“What,” he said, pointing dramatically at the telephone wire, “carries -our messages from land to land, from shore to shore? Iron.” - -He paused again. Seeing that he had Billy’s attention, Tom looked at -him a moment in silence. - -“William,” he said so suddenly that Billy fairly jumped, “those very -shoes that you are a-standin’ in are held together by iron nails!” - -Then, leaning forward, with his elbows resting on the arms of his -chair, he concluded: - -“William, as far as I can see, if it wasn’t for iron, we should all be -just nothin’, nobody.” - -Billy, drawing a long breath, said: - -“You’ve certainly done a lot of thinking, Mr. Murphy.” - -“I thank you, William,” said Thomas Murphy, “for a-seem’ and a-sayin’ -that I’ve been a-thinkin’.” - -Tom had set Billy to thinking, too. By night there were several things -that Billy wanted to know. - -It was so hot that Aunt Mary surprised them by setting the table out in -the hall. There wasn’t room for them to sit at the table, so she handed -them the things out on the steps. - -“That was a good idea, Mary,” said Uncle John, when they were through. -“I’m glad that you worked that out.” - -Billy, looking up into her face, said: - -“It was real nice, Aunt Mary.” - -Aunt Mary smiled. Billy, watching her, thought that her smile had moved -just a little further out on her face. So he said again: - -“It was _real_ nice, Aunt Mary.” - -Was he wrong, or did her smile move still a little further out? - -“Uncle John,” said Billy, “are ships made of iron?” - -“Why, Billy, you’re not going to sail away from us, are you?” said -Uncle John, almost unconsciously putting his hand on Billy’s. “Ships -are made of steel.” - -“Mr. Prescott,” said Billy, “explained to me about steel, and about -forges.” - -“When this country was first settled,” said Uncle John, “men had little -forges to make iron, just as their wives had spinning wheels to make -wool for clothes. - -“When they began to make nails--they couldn’t build houses without -nails--there was a forge in almost every chimney corner. Children, as -well as grown people, used to make nails and tacks in the long winter -evenings. People then took nails to the store to pay for things, as in -the country they now take eggs. - -“That old forge iron was never very pure. It did the work that they had -to do, but the world needed better iron, and more of it. It took a good -while to find out a better way. The men that finally succeeded worked -hard and long. You ought to begin to read up about those men. - -“Of course it closed out a good many blacksmiths, but it helped the -world along. Guess they found, in the end, that it helped them along, -too.” - -Then Billy told Uncle John what Thomas Murphy had said about being -“nothing and nobody.” Aunt Mary came out to know what they were -laughing about, so he told her the story. - -“Mind you, Billy,” said Uncle John, “I’m only laughing at the way -he put it. Murphy is right. He seems to be unusually clear on the -usefulness of iron.” - -Only a day or two later Billy had occasion to remember what Tom Murphy -had said about the nails in his shoes. - -In spite of all his efforts to grow broad, Billy was growing taller -and slimmer every day. His legs were getting so long and his trousers -so short, that Billy was beginning to wish that he could have some new -clothes. But that wasn’t his greatest worry. - -There generally is one worry on top. This time it was shoes. They were -growing short, but, worse than that, the sole of the right one was -beginning to look as if it were coming off at the toe. - -He and Aunt Mary looked at it every morning, for she hadn’t quite money -enough for a new pair. Uncle John still made Billy put his money in the -bank--“Against a rainy day,” Uncle John said. - -Billy had tried, as hard as he could, to favor his right shoe. Of -course he couldn’t walk quite even: it made him hop a little. But he -had only two days more to wait, and he thought that he could manage it. - -Probably he would have succeeded, if it hadn’t happened that Mr. -Prescott needed some change. He told Billy to “sprint” to the bank for -three rolls of dimes and two rolls of nickels. - -Billy made good time on his way to the bank, handed in his five-dollar -bill, took his five rolls of money, and started back. - -He made good time on his way back until he reached the bridge, about -three minutes’ walk from the mill gate. Then he hit a board that had -been put on as a patch, and off came that right sole, so that it went -flop--flop--flop. - -He had to hold his feet very high in order to walk at all; but he -flopped along, until he stubbed his left toe and fell down flat. - -The fall was so hard that it threw one roll of dimes out of his pocket. -Just as he had stretched out till he almost had the roll, it began to -turn over and over, and went off the edge of the bridge into the river. -Billy saw it go. - -Pulling himself up quickly, he put both hands into his pockets to hold -the rest of the money in, and hurried on as fast as he could. - -As he flopped through the gate, he half heard Tom Murphy say: - -“Those nails kinder went back on you, didn’t they, William?” - -When Mr. Prescott took the money, Billy held up his foot so that Mr. -Prescott could see his shoe, then he told him about the money. - -Mr. Prescott seemed to take in the situation, and he seemed not to mind -much about the money, for he said: - -“We shall have to charge that up to profit and loss.” - -Billy found a piece of string to tie his sole on, and, that very night, -as soon as he got home, Aunt Mary gave him a pair of new, rubber-soled -shoes. - -That was Thursday. The next Monday--Mr. Prescott paid the men on -Monday--when Mr. Prescott gave Billy his little brown envelope, Billy -said: - -“If you please, sir, I shall feel better if you will take out the -dollar that I lost.” - -Then something happened. It seems as though Satan must have got into -Mr. Prescott’s mind, and must have had, for a moment, his own wicked -way. That seems to be the only way to explain how a man like Mr. -Prescott could say such a thing as he did to a boy like Billy. - -Mr. Prescott thought that Billy said, “I shall feel better” because his -conscience was troubling him. He looked down at Billy’s new shoes. - -“New shoes,” he said rather gruffly. - -It didn’t sound a bit like Mr. Prescott. - -Billy wanted to tell him how long Aunt Mary had been saving up money to -buy those shoes, but he had been practicing so hard on keeping his lips -shut that he didn’t say anything. - -“Take your envelope,” said Mr. Prescott. - -After Billy had started for the door, Mr. Prescott added: - -“I rather think that the firm can stand a pair of shoes.” - -Billy’s back was toward him. Perhaps, if he had been looking right at -Billy, he wouldn’t have said it; but say it he did. - -Billy didn’t, just then, take it in. He said, “Good-bye, Mr. Prescott,” -as he always did when he went home. - -Miss King’s keys kept going--clickety-clickety-click. - -There was another side to it. When a good man like Mr. Prescott grows -interested in a boy, and, about the time when he feels pretty sure that -the boy is all right, something happens, especially about money, the -man feels terribly. Then any man is likely to say hard things. - -Billy had never even heard about such a thing as “conscience money,” -but Mr. Prescott had had an experience with a man whose conscience -didn’t work at the right time. - -Billy felt uncomfortable when he went out the door; but he was fully -half-way home before he realized that Mr. Prescott thought that he -had told a lie about the roll of dimes; thought that he had---- Billy -couldn’t finish that sentence. - -He hardly spoke to Uncle John all the way home. Then, though Aunt Mary -had a special treat--the little cakes covered with white frosting, the -kind that Billy liked best--he could hardly eat one. - -He felt worse and worse. Of course Uncle John knew that something was -wrong, but he knew that a boy can’t always talk about his heartaches. -Then, if it were business, he didn’t want to tempt him to tell. So -Uncle John didn’t ask any questions. - -They sat on the steps a long time--so much longer than usual that Aunt -Mary called: - -“William Wallace, it’s time to come in.” - -When she said that, Uncle John said he was so thirsty that he should -have to go in to get some water. - -Billy heard Uncle John call Aunt Mary into the kitchen to find him a -glass. Then he came out again, and sat down close by Billy. - -They sat there till long after the clock struck nine. Then Billy said: - -“Uncle John, if anybody thought something b-b--something about you, and -it wasn’t so, what would you do?” - -“I would,” answered Uncle John, slowly, “keep right on working, and -leave that to God.” - -Then he put his arm around Billy’s shoulders, drew him up close, and -said again, slowly, “I would leave that to God.” - -After they had sat a minute longer, they both went into the house. - -Billy wished that night, even more than usual, that he and Uncle John -might say their prayers together, the way he and his father used to do. -But he did the best he could alone. - -He said his prayers very slowly and very carefully. Then he said them -all over again, and climbed into bed. - -After the house was dark, Billy heard Uncle John come to his door. -Billy didn’t speak, but he heard Uncle John say something. Perhaps, -though he said it very softly, Uncle John hoped that he would hear him -when he said softly: - -“Eh, Billy, little lad!” - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -BILLY STANDS BY - - -When Miss King came into the office the next morning she had a large -bunch of bachelor’s buttons in her hand. They were blue--all shades of -blue--and they looked very pretty against the clear white of her dress. -She had hardly taken off her hat before the telephone rang hard. - -Billy heard her say, “Yes, Mr. Prescott.” - -“Mr. Prescott says he’s not coming to the office till after lunch,” she -said, turning to Billy. “It’s something about the new part of the mill. - -“We got along all right the other day, didn’t we? I was anxious all for -nothing, wasn’t I, William? - -“Now, please get me some water for the flowers, and we’ll settle down -to work.” - -Billy didn’t feel, that morning, much like talking to anybody, not even -to Miss King, so he didn’t say anything. - -When he brought back the tall glass vase, Miss King took three of the -bluest flowers and broke off the stems. - -“I should like to put these in your buttonhole, William,” she said. -“They’ll look pretty against your gray coat. - -“August is late for bachelor’s buttons; we shall have to make the most -of these. Really,” she went on, as she fastened them with a pin on the -under side of his lapel, “they’re just the color of your eyes.” - -Miss King didn’t usually say very much. It was a surprise to Billy to -have her keep on talking. - -“How nice the office looks, William! We never had a boy before that -knew how to dust in anything but streaks.” - -“My Aunt Mary,” said Billy, speaking at last, “is very particular. She -showed me how to dust.” - -Then Miss King sorted the orders, and Billy started out with them. - -It was still very hot. The latest thing that Mr. Prescott had done to -try to make the office a little cooler was to move a pile of boxes and -to open an old door at the other end of the corridor opposite the door -with the great key. - -That door hadn’t been opened for a long time. Hardly anybody had -realized that there was a door on that side. It opened over the end of -an old canal that had been used in his grandfather’s day. Filling up -that “old ditch,” as Mr. Prescott called it, was one of the things that -he was planning to do. - -When he had the door opened, he put up a danger notice, and left in -place, across the door, an old beam that had once been used as a safety -guard. - -Billy stood in the corridor a moment, and looked back through the old -door. If it ever rained, that would be a pretty view. - -But the old willow beyond the ditch was green on one side, even if it -was dead on the other where its branches stuck out like--like---- - -Billy, trying to decide what they did look like, began, almost -unconsciously, to walk toward the door. - -By the time that he decided that the branches looked like the antlers -of two great deer, standing with their heads close together, Billy -reached the door. - -He stood a moment looking down at the old canal. He was surprised to -see how far below the door the canal really lay. The dry spot at the -end had some ugly stones in it, too. Just as well to have a place like -that filled in. - -Looking again at the old willow, Billy turned and went slowly back down -the corridor and out the great door. - -When Mr. Prescott finally came back, Billy was on his afternoon rounds. - -Things were very quiet, but that was to be expected at that time of the -day. - -Were things unusually quiet? - -Just then Mr. Prescott heard a faint cry. In an instant he was at the -door. - -Somebody was crying, “Fire!” - -Who was he? Where was he? Why didn’t he call louder? - -He met Billy, who was fairly flying back from the other end of the -yard, with his hands at his throat as if he were trying to make the -sound come out. - -“The new part is on fire!” he cried; “the new part of the mill is on -fire!” - -Mr. Prescott rushed to the fire alarm. - -Billy kept on to the office and burst in, crying, “The new part is on -fire!” - -Miss King started for the door. Mr. Prescott had given her orders what -to do if there ever should be a fire. - -Billy himself was part way down the corridor when something in his head -began to say faintly: - -“Stand--by--your--job--every--minute--that--you--belong--on--it!” - -Though Billy slowed down a little, he did not stop, but kept right on -until he reached the door, and had one foot out. - -Then the graphophone in his mind began again, a little louder than -before: - -“Stand--by--your--job--every--minute--that--you--belong--on--it!” - -Billy drew his foot back. He felt as though he must do something, so he -shut the great door. He turned and stood against it for a minute. Then -he started slowly down the corridor. - -The graphophone had stopped; but Billy’s quick ears heard another -sound. Somebody was trying to open the great door! - -Billy remembered the little closet. He could see the office from that. -He hurried on, and had barely slipped into it when the door opened. - -In came the man with the fierce black eyes and the coal black hair, and -he was carrying something in both hands. - -Billy fairly held his breath. The door was a little too far open, but -he didn’t dare to touch it. - -The door _was_ too far open. It was open so far that, hitting it as he -passed, the man gave it an angry kick. - -The door went to so hard that Billy heard the click of the spring lock -as it fastened the door, and made him a prisoner in the closet. - -Keep still he must till the man was out of the way. That was the only -thing to do. Billy took out his jack-knife. It felt friendly, so he -opened it. - -Sooner than he expected he heard the man come out, heard him go heavily -down the corridor, and heard him close the great door. - -Cracks between the boards let in light enough for Billy to find the -lock. He began to pry away at it with his knife. He thought he had -started it a little, when snap went the blade. - -Then he tried the other, working a little more carefully; but, in a -moment, snap went that blade, broken close to the handle. - -He tried kicking the boards where he saw the largest cracks, but not a -board could he move. - -Then he grew so excited that he hardly knew what he was doing. - -What was going on in the office? Was that on fire? He threw himself -against the sides of the closet, one after the other. - -He wasn’t sure whether it was his head or the closet that began to -rock. It seemed to be the closet. - -Once more he threw himself against the back of the closet. That time he -was sure it was the closet that rocked! - -He threw himself three times, four times, five times. Suddenly he -landed on his head in the top of the closet on a heap of clothes. Light -was coming in from somewhere. His head was rocking so that he could -hardly move, but, in a minute, he managed to turn and to crawl out of -the bottom of the closet, where the cleats had given way. - -It was easier, just then, for him to crawl than it was to walk. So he -crawled across to the office, reached up, and opened the door. - -Surprised he certainly was, for everything seemed to be all right. - -Billy, beginning to feel pretty sore in several places, pulled himself -up into Mr. Prescott’s chair. - -Then he heard a faint tick, tick, tick. - -No, it wasn’t the clock. Billy had kept his ears open too long not to -know that. - -Where was it? What was it? It seemed very near! - -Billy looked under the desk. Nothing there but the waste basket. - -His heart was going thump, thump. But, when a boy is standing by his -job, he doesn’t stop for a thumping heart. - -Billy didn’t. He took hold of the basket. It was very heavy. The -ticking was very near. - -Then Billy knew! - -It was what Uncle John called an “infernal machine,” with clock works -inside! - -Billy dug down among the papers till he found the thing. He took it in -both hands and pulled it out--it was a sort of box. He started for the -door. All he could think of was that he must take the infernal thing -away from Mr. Prescott’s desk. - -Out he went with it. The old door was still open. Billy, holding the -box in his arms, made a frantic dash for the door. - -When he reached it, he leaned against the old beam and, gathering all -his strength, threw the box over into the old dry ditch. He heard the -box fall. - -Then, with a creaking sound, the old beam broke from its rusty -fastenings and followed the box. - -After that there was another fall, for the boy that had thrown the box -went down with the beam. - -But that was a fall that Billy did not hear. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER X - -WILLIAM WALLACE - - -The next thing that Billy knew he was waking up, not wide awake, but a -little at a time. - -The room seemed very white, and there was somebody in white standing by -his bed. No, it wasn’t Miss King, for this woman had something white on -her head. - -Then he felt somebody holding his hand and saying, “Billy, little -Billy.” - -He woke up a little further. He tried to say, “Aunt Mary,” but the -words wouldn’t come. - -The woman in white took hold of Aunt Mary, and led her out of the room. - -Then he saw something large in the window. He wasn’t at all sure that -he wasn’t dreaming about mountains. But this mountain had a round top -and, while he watched it, it moved. Billy woke up enough to see that it -was somebody standing in the window. - -Billy knew only one person who could fill up a window like that. He -tried his voice again. This time he made it go. - -“That you, Mr. Prescott?” he said, his voice going up and up till it -ended in a funny little quaver. - -Then the mountain came over to him. It _was_ Mr. Prescott. - -Billy, looking up, spoke again, very slowly: - -“The dimes _did_ roll into the river, Mr. Prescott.” - -“Hang it!” said Mr. Prescott. “Of course they did!” - -The nurse nodded. “He’s kept talking about that,” she said. “We thought -perhaps you’d know.” - -Mr. Prescott started to go close to the bed. - -The nurse put out her hand. - -“Hang it!” said Mr. Prescott. “I was a brute. Can you ever forgive me, -Billy?” - -“Sure, sir,” answered Billy. - -His voice sounded so strong that the nurse told Mr. Prescott that she -was afraid he was exciting the patient. - -Billy said, “Please stay.” - -Then the nurse told Mr. Prescott that he might stay ten minutes if he -wouldn’t talk to the patient. - -Billy tried to smile at Mr. Prescott, but he was so tired that he shut -his eyes instead. - -Next time it was Uncle John who was holding his hand, but Uncle John -didn’t smile. - -“Uncle John,” said Billy, “what’s the matter with me?” - -“Just a few broken bones, Billy, my lad,” answered Uncle John. - -“Which ones?” asked Billy. - -“Just a left arm and a left leg.” - -“That all?” asked Billy. - -After that they wouldn’t let him see anybody. There were two nurses -instead of one, and three doctors--“specialists” Billy heard his own -nurse say. - -After that there were two doctors every day: a doctor with white hair, -and a doctor with light brown hair, parted in the middle. - -The doctor with the white hair seemed to think more about Billy than he -did about his bones, for he talked to Billy while he was feeling around. - -The young doctor seemed to think more about the bones. But Billy liked -him, too, for one day when they were hurting him terribly the young -doctor said: - -“You’re a game sort of chap.” - -Billy wasn’t quite sure what “game” meant, but he kept right on -gritting his teeth till they were through. - -The first day that the young doctor began to come alone, he said: - -“Nurse, how are the contusions getting along?” - -“They are much lighter in color, doctor, this morning,” answered the -nurse. - -“I don’t understand,” said the doctor, standing very straight and -putting his forefinger on his chin, “how a fall of the nature of -this one, practically on the left side, could have produced so many -contusions on the right.” - -“What are contusions?” asked Billy. - -The doctor began to talk about stasis of the circulation following -superficial injuries. - -“Show me one,” said Billy. - -When the nurse showed him one on his right arm, just below the -shoulder, Billy said: - -“Oh, one of my black and blue spots! That must have been when I was -playing caged lion.” - -That time the doctor and the nurse were the ones who didn’t understand. - -Then Billy laughed, a happy boyish laugh. He hadn’t laughed that way -since he and his father used to have frolics together. - -The doctor looked at him a minute, then he said: - -“Nurse, to-morrow this young chap may have company for half an hour.” - -“I’m glad to hear that, doctor,” said the nurse. “I’ll go right away -to tell Mr. Prescott. He’s fairly worn me out with telephoning to know -when we would let him come.” - -At ten o’clock the next morning Mr. Prescott came. - -After he had answered Billy’s questions about the fire, and had told -him that the new roof was almost finished, he took a newspaper out of -his pocket. - -He folded it across, then down on both sides, and held it up in front -of Billy. - -There it was, in big head-lines: - - “BILLY BRADFORD SAVES PRESCOTT MILL” - -Then Mr. Prescott read him what the paper said. They had even put in -about finding him with the flowers in his buttonhole. - -“Those,” interrupted Billy, “were Miss King’s flowers.” - -“Yes,” said Mr. Prescott; “she cried, right in the office, when she -read that.” - -Then Billy told Mr. Prescott about the closet, and all about the box, -and asked him to pull out the drawer in the little stand by his bed. - -There lay his jack-knife. Somebody had shut up all that was left of the -blades, and there was so little left that they couldn’t be opened. - -Mr. Prescott put the knife into Billy’s hand. - -“That was a good knife,” said Billy, looking at it with affection. - -“I think,” said Mr. Prescott, “that you really ought to let me have -that knife.” - -Billy hesitated a moment, then he said: - -“If you please, Mr. Prescott, I should like to keep that knife. It has -been a good friend to me.” - -Mr. Prescott took the little white hand, knife and all, in his own -strong, firm fingers. - -“I want it, Billy, because you have been a good friend to me.” - -Billy’s face flushed so suddenly red that Mr. Prescott was afraid that -something was going to happen to Billy. He called, “Nurse!” - -“I’m all right,” said Billy. - -He grew red again as he said: - -“Mr. Prescott, I want to tell you something.” - -Mr. Prescott said: “Let me fix your pillows first.” - -Of course he got them all mixed up, and the nurse had to come. She -looked at her watch, and then at Mr. Prescott, but she didn’t say -anything. - -Then Mr. Prescott sat close by the bed with Billy’s hand lying in his, -and Billy told him about William Wallace. - -Mr. Prescott looked a little surprised, then he said: - -“William Wallace seems to know a good deal, doesn’t he?” - -Billy, in honor, had to nod his head, but he grew very sober. Perhaps, -after all, Mr. Prescott would like William Wallace better than he liked -him. - -“I don’t really approve,” said Mr. Prescott, “of his calling you a -coward, though that sometimes makes a boy try to be brave. - -“One thing is sure, he can’t ever call you that again, can he?” - -Billy shook his head. - -“Personally,” continued Mr. Prescott, almost as if he were talking -business, “I had rather be saved by you than by William Wallace. Can -you guess why?” - -Billy shook his head again, but this time he smiled. - -“Because,” said Mr. Prescott, “you did it out of your heart. William -Wallace would have done it out of his head.” - -Billy smiled serenely. Everything--broken jack-knife, broken arm, -broken leg--was exactly all right now. - -“Really and truly,” Mr. Prescott went on, “there are two of everybody, -only most people don’t seem to know it: one is his heart, and the other -is his head. - -“If I were you, I would be on good terms with William Wallace--it -generally takes both to decide. I’d take him as a sort of brother, but -I wouldn’t let him rule.” - -“No,” said Billy. - -Then Mr. Prescott saw the nurse coming, and he hurried off. - -The next time that Uncle John came Billy asked him what had become of -the man--“the poor man,” Billy called him. - -“That man,” said Uncle John, his mouth growing rather firm, “was found -out in his sin. - -“He undertook a little too much when he set fire to one end of the -mill, and then tried to blow up the main office. That’s too much for -one man to do at one time, especially when he’s a man that leaves -things around.” - -“Oh!” said Billy. - -“Now,” said Uncle John, “he’s where he’s having his actions regulated.” - -“I hope,” said Billy, “that they’ll be good to him.” - -“Billy,” said Uncle John, very decidedly, “all that you are called upon -to do about that man is to believe that he couldn’t think straight. - -“But the way this world is made makes it necessary, when a man can’t -think straighter than to try to destroy the very mill where he’s -working, for some one else to do a part of his thinking for him. - -“That’s what the men that make the laws are trying to do. They are -trying to help men to think straight.” - -Billy was listening hard. It was a good while since he had heard one of -Uncle John’s lectures. - -“You know, Billy, my lad, that there are a lot of things we have to -leave to God.” - -“Yes, Uncle John.” - -“There are a lot more that we have to leave to the law. - -“The best thing for a boy like you and a man like me to do is to leave -things where they belong.” - -“All right, Uncle John, I will,” said Billy, giving a little sigh of -relief as if he were glad to have that off his mind. - -The next day when Mr. Prescott came, he told Billy that, the day after -that, he was to be moved to Mr. Prescott’s house on the hill. - -Billy looked a little sober. He had been thinking a great deal about -home. - -“I’m all alone in that big house,” said Mr. Prescott. - -“Then,” said Billy, “I’ll come.” - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE TREASURE ROOM - - -They took Billy to Mr. Prescott’s house in his machine. -They had to take a good many pillows and they planned to take an extra -nurse, but the young doctor said that he was going up that way, and -could just as well help. - -Billy and the doctor were getting to be very good friends. - -“He’s different,” Billy had confided to Uncle John, “but I like him a -lot.” - -“Nice people often are different,” said Uncle John. - -Billy was so much better that he had some fun, while they were putting -him into the auto, about his “stiff half,” as he called his left side. - -“You just wait till I get that arm and that leg to working,” he said. -“They’ll have to work over time.” - -They put him in a large room with broad windows, where he could look -down on the river and across at the mountains. There was a large brass -bed in the room, but Mr. Prescott had had a hospital bed sent up. - -“You’d have hard work to find me in that bed,” said Billy to the nurse, -“wouldn’t you?” - -It was a beautiful room. One of the maids told Billy that it had been -Mr. Prescott’s mother’s room, and that he had always kept it as she had -left it. - -For the first week Billy feasted his eyes on color. - -The walls of the room were soft brown; the paint was the color of -cream. There were two sets of curtains: one a soft old blue, and over -that another hanging of all sorts of colors. It took Billy a whole day -to pick out the pattern on those curtains. - -There was a mahogany dressing table, and there was a wonderful -rug--soft shades of rose in the middle, and ever so many shades of blue -in the border. - -There was a fireplace with a shining brass fender. And there were--oh, -so many things! - -Then Billy spent almost another week on the pictures. But when he -wanted to rest his eyes he looked at his old friends, the mountains, -lying far across the river. - -Mr. Prescott, too, liked the mountains. He came to sit by him in -the evening, and they had real friendly times together watching the -mountains fade away into the night, and seeing the electric lights -flash out, one after another, all along the river. - -Finally the doctors took off the splints. They had a great time doing -it, testing his joints to see whether or not they would work. - -Then Billy found that, as the young doctor said, there had been a “tall -lot of worrying done about those bones.” - -This time the white-haired doctor paid more attention to his bones than -he did to Billy. He didn’t say anything till he went to put his glasses -back in the case. Then he straightened up, and said: - -“I’m happy to tell you, young man, that those joints will work all -right after they get used to working again.” - -The next day Billy went down the long flight of stairs, with Mr. -Prescott on one side, and the nurse on the other, to the great library, -right under the room where he had been. - -“Feel pretty well, now that you’re down?” asked Mr. Prescott, after the -nurse had gone up-stairs. - -“Sure, sir,” answered Billy. - -“Then follow me,” said Mr. Prescott, opening a door at the end of the -library. - -Billy followed, but he had hardly stepped in before he stepped back. - -“Why, Billy,” said Mr. Prescott, coming quickly back to him, “I didn’t -mean to frighten you. We’ll stay in the library.” - -Now the doctor had told Mr. Prescott that Billy mustn’t be frightened -by anything if they could help it, for he’d been through about all a -boy’s nerves could stand. So Mr. Prescott drew Billy over to the big -sofa, fixed some pillows around him, and put a foot-rest under his leg. - -Then Mr. Prescott settled himself in a great chair as though he had -nothing in the world to do except to talk to Billy. - -“That,” said Mr. Prescott, “is my treasure room. When I go in there, I -think of brave men, and of how they helped the world along. What made -you step back?” - -“Because,” answered Billy, half ashamed, “I thought I saw a man in the -corner pointing something at me.” - -“I ought,” said Mr. Prescott, “to have thought of that before I took -you into the room. - -“I’ve been trying, for some time, to make that old suit of armor and -that spear look like a knight standing there, ready for action. I must -have, at last, succeeded, but I’m sorry that it startled you. - -“You see I’m naturally interested in weapons of war because they are -all made of steel or iron.” - -“Battle-ships, too,” said Billy. - -“Yes,” said Mr. Prescott. “But you mustn’t forget the great naval -battles that were won with ships of wood. - -“There’s one thing in that room,” Mr. Prescott went on, “that I am sure -you will like to see. It is my great-great-grandfather’s musket.” - -“Oh,” said Billy, “I didn’t know that you had a -great-great-grandfather.” - -“I did,” said Mr. Prescott, just as quietly as if Billy had been -talking sense. “He was a brave man, too. That is the musket that he had -when he was with General Washington at Valley Forge.” - -“Oh!” exclaimed Billy again. - -“Know about Valley Forge, do you?” - -“A little,” answered Billy, very humbly. - -“That’s enough to start on,” said Mr. Prescott. - -Billy could almost imagine that Uncle John was talking. Billy spent a -great deal more time every day than anybody realized in thinking about -his Uncle John. - -“Perhaps you don’t know, many people don’t,” said Mr. Prescott, “that -the first name of that place was Valley Creek. It was changed to Valley -Forge because a large forge plant was established there. It was one of -the first places in this state where they made iron and steel. - -“By the way, George Washington’s father was a maker of pig iron down in -Virginia.” - -“Oh!” said Billy. “There seem to be a lot of things to know about iron.” - -“There’s really no end to them,” said Mr. Prescott. “They begin way -back in history. Did you ever read about Goliath the giant?” - -“My father used to read those stories to me,” answered Billy, “out of a -great big Bible.” - -“Was it like this one?” asked Mr. Prescott, getting up quickly and -bringing him, from the library table, a great Bible, covered with light -brown leather. - -“That looks almost like ours,” answered Billy. - -“This,” said Mr. Prescott, “is the one my mother used to read to me. -There’s a great deal about iron in it,” he added, as he put it away -carefully. - -“To come back to Goliath,” said Mr. Prescott. “His spear had a head of -iron that weighed six hundred shekels. - -“Then there was that iron bedstead of Og, king of Bashan. Ever hear of -him?” - -“I don’t seem,” answered Billy, “to remember about him.” - -“Perhaps I shouldn’t have remembered,” said Mr. Prescott, “if I hadn’t -been so interested in iron.” - -“That,” said Billy, “was probably on account of your grandfather, and -your father,” he added quickly. - -“There’s a great deal about iron in the Bible,” said Mr. Prescott. -“Only four or five pages over in Genesis there is a verse about a man -named Tubal-Cain, who was a master-worker in brass and iron. - -“Then there are some things in mythology that you ought to know, now -that you’re interested in iron. One of them is that the old Romans, who -imagined all sorts of gods, said that iron was discovered by Vulcan. -They said, too, that he forged the thunderbolts of Jupiter. - -“Now, then, Billy, how about my treasure room?” - -“Ready, sir,” answered Billy, working himself out from among his -pillows. - -“Once,” said Mr. Prescott, walking close by Billy, “I went into a room -something like this, only it had many more things in it. The room was -in Sir Walter Scott’s house. He had one of Napoleon’s pistols from -Waterloo. - -“He called his room an armory. I generally call mine my ‘treasure -room.’” - -“I think I like armory better,” said Billy. - -“Then,” said Mr. Prescott, “will you walk into my armory?” - -“First of all,” said Billy, “I want to see that gun--musket.” - -“Here it is,” said Mr. Prescott. “There,” he added, pointing to a -picture in an oval brass frame, “is my great-great-grandfather.” - -“Oh!” said Billy. - -Then Mr. Prescott knew that Billy had never before seen a silhouette. - -“That kind of picture,” he said, “does make a man look as black as his -own hat, though it is often a good profile. I used to make them myself. -Some night I’ll make one of you. - -“Now that you’ve seen the musket, I think that you had better take a -look at this suit of armor that I have been trying to make stand up -here like a knight. - -“This coat of mail is made of links, you see. Sometimes they were made -of scales of iron linked together. - -“The work that those old smiths did is really wonderful, especially -when you remember that their only tools were hammer, pincers, chisel, -and tongs. It took both time and patience to weld every one of those -links together.” - -“I don’t think I understand what weld means,” said Billy. - -“When iron is heated to a white heat,” said Mr. Prescott, “it can be -hammered together into one piece. Most metals have to be soldered, you -know. The blacksmiths generally use a powder that will make the iron -weld more easily, because it makes the iron soften more quickly, but -iron is its own solder. - -“You’d better sit down here while I explain a little about this suit of -armor; then you’ll know what you’re reading about when you come to a -knight. - -“I suppose that every boy knows what a helmet and a vizor are; they -learn about that from seeing firemen.” - -“And policemen,” said Billy. - -“Only the helmets of the knights covered their faces and ended in -guards for their necks. I dare say that you don’t know what a gorget -is.” - -“No,” said Billy, “I don’t.” - -“That is the piece of armor that protected the throat. Here is the -cuirass or breast-plate, and the tassets that covered the thighs. -They’re hooked to the cuirass. And here are the greaves for the shins. -There are names for all the arm pieces, too, but we’ll let those go -just now. - -“This shield, you see, is wood covered with iron, and part of the -handle inside is wood. A man must have weighed a great deal when he had -a full suit of armor on, and he must have been splendid to look at and -rather hard to kill. - -“Those old smiths certainly made a fine art of their work in iron. They -got plenty of credit for it, too. In the Anglo-Saxon times they were -really treated as officers of rank. - -“When a man was depending on his sword to protect his family, he -naturally respected a man who could make good swords. The smiths sort -of held society together.” - -Billy, looking around the room, saw that one side had spears and -shields and helmets hung all over it; and on the wall at the end were -pistols, bows and arrows, and some dreadful knives. - -“Did all those,” he asked, pointing at the end of the room, “kill -somebody?” - -“Ask it the other way,” said Mr. Prescott; “did they all protect -somebody? Then I can safely say that they did, for any foe would think -twice before he attacked a man in mail. These things were all made -because they were needed.” - -“What do you suppose put the armorers out of business?” - -“I don’t know,” answered Billy. - -“Gunpowder,” said Mr. Prescott. “A man could be blown up, armor and -all.” - -“Then they had to make guns,” said Billy. - -“And they’ve been at that ever since,” said Mr. Prescott. - -“Come over to this cabinet, and I’ll show you my special treasure. - -“Shut your eyes, Billy, and think of walls in a desert long enough and -high enough to shut in a whole city.” - -Billy shut his eyes. “I see the walls,” he said. - -“Now, just inside the wall, think a garden with great beds of roses.” - -“Blush roses?” queried Billy. - -“Damask,” replied Mr. Prescott; “pink, pretty good size.” - -“That’s done!” said Billy. - -“Now, in that garden, think an Arab chief, a sheik, mounted on a -beautiful Arabian horse, and--open your eyes!” - -“Here is his sword!” - -“I saw him clearly!” exclaimed Billy, his eyes flying wide open. - -[Illustration: “HERE IS HIS SWORD”] - -“My!” he said, “but that’s a beauty!” - -“It is,” said Mr. Prescott. “Look!” - -Then he took the hilt in his right hand and the point in his left, and -began to bend the point toward the hilt. - -“Don’t,” cried Billy. “You’ll break it!” - -“The tip and the hilt of the best of the old swords were supposed to -come together,” said Mr. Prescott. - -“See, this has an inscription in Arabic.” - -“I have a genuine Toledo, too, but you’ve been in here long enough. -Let’s go back into the library. You may come in here whenever you like. -Mornings, I think, would be the best time.” - -When Billy was comfortably settled among his pillows, with the Damascus -sword on the sofa by him, Mr. Prescott said: - -“Men, in the olden time, thought so much of their swords that they -often named them, and had them baptized by the priest. The great -emperor Charlemagne had a sword named ‘Joyeuse.’ - -“Sometimes, too, the old bards sang about swords and their makers.” - -“Tell me,” said Billy, “how they made swords.” - -“The people way over in the East understood the process of converting -iron into steel, but in those days they had plenty of gold and very -little steel, so swords were sometimes made of gold with only an edge -of steel. - -“The steel swords were made by hammering little piles of steel plates -together. They were heated, hammered, and doubled over, end to end, -until the layers of steel in a single sword ran up into the millions. - -“Now, we’ll come back to the present time, and I’ll show you something -that I brought home yesterday to put in my treasure room.” - -Billy watched eagerly, while Mr. Prescott took a package from the -library table, and opened it. - -Then, in delight, he exclaimed: - -“The great iron key!” - -“The same,” said Mr. Prescott, “and glad enough I am to have it here. - -“When I gave Tom the new key, he didn’t look altogether happy. I think -the fellow really has enjoyed having the care of this one.” - -“I suppose,” said Billy, “that the new one is so small that he will be -afraid of losing it. They don’t make such large keys nowadays.” - -“That statement may be true in general,” said Mr. Prescott, “but the -fact is that the new key is as large as this.” - -Then Mr. Prescott stopped talking, but he looked right at Billy. - -“You don’t mean,” said Billy, after thinking for a minute as hard as he -could, “that you have had a key made, do you?” - -“That is the meaning that I intended to convey,” answered Mr. Prescott. -“But I’m not going to tease a fellow that is down-stairs for the first -time, so I’ll tell you, right away, that Mr. John Bradford made the -casting for the new key, and he used this for a pattern.” - -“Oh!” said Billy, smiling. - -“You didn’t like it very well, did you, Billy,” asked Mr. Prescott, -“when I put that key back in the door?” - -“No,” answered Billy, “I didn’t.” - -“Just at that time,” said Mr. Prescott, “a great many things had to be -considered. I decided that it was better to risk the key than to risk -letting the man know that we knew what had happened. - -“You never knew either, did you, how many nights after that I spent in -the office?” - -“Honest?” asked Billy, opening his eyes very wide. - -“Running a mill, I’d have you understand, Billy Bradford,” said Mr. -Prescott, “is no easy job.” - -“It doesn’t seem to be,” said Billy, just as earnestly as if he had -been a man. - -“I must go,” said Mr. Prescott. “I had almost forgotten that I am one -of the modern workers in iron. - -“Billy,” he said suddenly, turning as he reached the door, “did you -ever know anybody by the name of Smith?” - -Billy’s answer was a merry laugh. - -“You needn’t laugh, Billy Bradford,” said Mr. Prescott. “If you do, -perhaps I won’t tell you something.” - -“Do,” said Billy. - -“People,” said Mr. Prescott, coming part way back into the room, -“didn’t always have last names. When they came into fashion, all the -workers on anvils were given Smith for a last name. That’s where the -Smiths came from!” - -“Honest?” asked Billy. - -“Fact,” said Mr. Prescott, as he went through the door. - -When the nurse came down a little later, she found Billy fast asleep -among the cushions, and his hand was lying on the hilt of the Damascus -blade. - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -THOMAS MURPHY, TIMEKEEPER - -“There’s a garden,” said Mr. Prescott, the next morning. - -“_Is_ there a garden?” interrupted Billy, eagerly. - -“There’s a garden,” Mr. Prescott went on, in his steady, even tone, -“down behind this house, and I have decided to give a garden party. Are -there any ladies that you would like to invite?” - -“All the ladies that I have in the world,” said Billy, soberly, “are -Aunt Mary and Miss King.” - -“Then invite them,” said Mr. Prescott. “I think that, now you’re -well----” - -Billy waved his arm, and thrust out his foot. - -“Now you are well,” continued Mr. Prescott, “it will be a good plan for -you to have some company.” - -“When’s that party going to be?” asked Billy, very eagerly. - -“I thought,” answered Mr. Prescott, “that perhaps we could manage it -for to-morrow. - -“Do you think it will be best to have the ladies alone, or shall we -invite some men?” - -“All the men I have,” said Billy, “are Uncle John and the young doctor -and Mr. Thomas Murphy.” - -“How would it do,” said Mr. Prescott, “to have just your Aunt Mary and -Miss King? Your Uncle John can come at any time. Perhaps you would -enjoy Tom more if he were to come alone.” - -“I think,” said Billy, reflectively, “that would be a good plan.” - -Then Billy told Mr. Prescott what Tom had said about being “nothing and -nobody.” - -“That’s good!” said Mr. Prescott, laughing. Then he added gravely, -“Tom’s a faithful man.” - -There _was_ a garden. If Billy had ever dreamed about a garden, that -would have been the garden of his dreams. Billy had never seen a garden -like that. - -It didn’t show at all from the front of the house; neither could it be -seen from Billy’s windows; but there was a long garden with a round -summer house at the end. - -Because it was a city garden it had a high board fence on three sides. -The fence was gray. Against it at the end, just behind the summer -house, were rows of hollyhocks--pink, white, yellow, and rose--standing -tall and straight, like sentinels on duty guard. - -There were beds of asters, each color by itself, and great heaps of -hydrangeas, almost tumbling over the lawn. - -There were queer little trees. When Billy said that they looked like -the trees on Japanese lanterns, Mr. Prescott said that they were real -Japanese trees. - -Billy didn’t see the whole of that garden until after he had been in it -a great many times. After he did see it all, it became the garden of -his dreams. - -The next afternoon Mr. Prescott sent the auto for Aunt Mary and Miss -King, and they both came. - -Billy had never seen Aunt Mary look so well. She had on a lavender -and white striped muslin, with white lace and some tiny black velvet -buttons on it. Uncle John liked to have her wear lavender. - -Miss King had on a pretty white dress, a different kind from what she -wore in the office. Her hat was white, trimmed with blue, and her white -silk gloves went up to her elbows. - -Billy took them out through the drawing-room balcony, and down the -steps into the garden. - -They didn’t talk very much while they walked around, but a great deal -of politeness went on in the garden that afternoon. - -Aunt Mary smiled and kept calling him “Billy.” He counted till he got -up to ten times, then he was so busy showing them the flowers that he -forgot to count. - -When they went into the summer house where the waitress had set a -little table, they all sat down on the same side. That brought Billy -between Aunt Mary and Miss King. - -He helped them to ice-cream and cakes. There really wasn’t much helping -to do, for the ice-cream was made like strawberries, leaves and all, -only each one was about three times as large as strawberries grow. - -They sat there a long time, keeping on being polite; but not a bit of -the politeness was wasted, for they were all very happy when they were -through. - -Then Mr. Prescott came in the auto. After Aunt Mary and Miss King had -gone, Mr. Prescott said that he should like a strawberry, so Billy had -a chance to be polite to Mr. Prescott, too. - -Altogether, Billy had a delightful party. - -Mr. Prescott brought word that Thomas Murphy would come the next day, -because that would be Saturday, and the mill would be closed in the -afternoon. - -Thomas Murphy came, clean shaven, and dressed in his best. - -“Well, William,” he said, shaking Billy’s hand hard, “how are you, -William?” - -“Don’t you think, Mr. Murphy,” said Billy, “that I look pretty well?” - -“Better than I ever expected to see you, William, after that day.” - -“Mr. Prescott,” said Billy, “thinks we’d better not talk very much -about that.” - -“No, William,” said Thomas Murphy, “we won’t talk about the martyr side -of it. But there’s something we will talk about. That’s why I’ve come. -There are things, William, that you ought to know.” - -Seeing how warm Thomas Murphy was growing, Billy suggested that they -had better go out into the garden. - -“That’s a good idea, William,” said he, limping after Billy. - -After he was settled in a comfortable garden chair, Thomas Murphy hung -a handkerchief with a figured purple border over his knee, clasped his -hands across his chest, and began again. - -“William,” he said solemnly, “while you were a-lyin’ onconscious in -that hospital, I was a-thinkin’ about what you had asked me about bein’ -a friend to the super. - -“Every time I read that bulletin that was posted every day on that -door, ‘onconscious still,’ I thought some more. - -“The day that said ‘dangerous,’ I finished thinkin’. - -“‘Thomas Murphy, timekeeper,’ said I sharp, ‘it’s time that you did -something more than mark time; it’s time you found out whether you’re -a-markin’ friends or foes.’ - -“When the men came in the next morning, they just filed past that -bulletin. Then says I, ‘Thomas Murphy, act. The time to act has come.’ - -“Somethin’ in me said, ‘Suppose you should be a martyr like William.’ - -“‘Suppose I be a martyr,’ said I. ‘Am I a-goin’ to have William a-lyin’ -dangerous, and a man like me a-sittin’ still?’” - -Billy moved in his chair, and Thomas Murphy paused for breath. - -“That noon,” he continued, “I told Peter Martin to blow the whistle -three times. The super a-bein’ at the hospital, I gave the order -myself. What do three whistles mean, William?” - -“All men come to the gate,” answered Billy promptly. - -“They came,” said Thomas Murphy. “I got up on a box, so I could see the -whole of ’em. - -“‘Men,’ said I, ‘that boy, William, is lyin’ onconscious, dangerous. -He’s a-lyin’ there because the super had an enemy. - -“‘Where would you get the food you’re a-eatin’ and the shoes you’re -a-wearin’, if there wasn’t a mill to work in? Where would that mill be -if it wasn’t for the super’s money? - -“‘Are there any more enemies in this mill? - -“‘To-morrow mornin’,’ said I, an’ they knew I meant what I said, -‘there’ll be two marks agin your names; and one’ll tell whether you’re -a friend or a foe. The time has come. You are dismissed.’” - -“Was every man a friend?” asked Billy, leaning forward eagerly. - -“William,” answered Thomas Murphy, leaning forward, and punctuating his -words with his stiff forefinger, “every one of ’em, William. Every one, -to a man.” - -“I’m glad of that,” said Billy. “You were a true friend, Mr. Murphy.” - -“William,” said Thomas Murphy, sitting erect in his chair, “that’s what -the super said--his very words: ‘Thomas Murphy, you’re a true friend.’” - -Then Billy gave Thomas Murphy some ice-cream and cakes, and some ginger -ale. - -The last thing that Thomas Murphy said as he went out the garden gate -was: - -“William, when are you a-comin’ back to the office? All the men want to -see you, William.” - -Billy didn’t answer. He climbed up the steps, and then up the stairs. - -When he reached his room he went to the chair by the broad window where -he could look at the mountains. He had been wondering himself when he -was going back to the office. Every time that he had tried to ask Mr. -Prescott, something had seemed to stop him. Why didn’t Mr. Prescott -talk about it? When was he going home? - -That night as Billy lay on the seat in the broad window, he told Mr. -Prescott about Tom’s speech to the men. - -Then Mr. Prescott said: - -“I think that you and Tom Murphy did something for me, just then, that -nobody else could have done. Things were going wrong, and I couldn’t -stop them.” - -Billy said quickly, “I didn’t do anything.” - -“You were in the hospital,” said Mr. Prescott, “and the men knew why.” - -They talked on till the room grew dark. Finally Billy said: - -“Mr. Murphy asked me when I am going back to the office.” - -For a minute Mr. Prescott didn’t say anything. Then he said slowly: - -“Billy, while you’ve been with me, have you ever thought that you would -like to stay here all the time?” - -Billy waited a moment. - -“No, Mr. Prescott,” he said slowly. - -Mr. Prescott moved uneasily in his chair, but he didn’t say anything. - -After a little while Billy said: - -“This is too nice a place for a boy that works.” - -“See here, Billy Bradford,” said Mr. Prescott, sharply, “we’ll have -none of that! That sounds like William Wallace. He was telling you to -let me down easy, was he? - -“You may just as well understand, both of you,” he went on, firing his -words at Billy in the dark, “you may as well understand, once for all, -that you can’t tell, simply by looking at the house a man lives in, how -hard that man works. - -“Sometimes a man works so hard that he doesn’t know what sort of house -he _does_ live in. - -“That doesn’t mean,” he said calming down a little, “that I don’t care -about this house, for I do. It helps a man to live the right sort of -life.” - -Then he said, still more quietly: - -“There’s another thing I want you to understand. It’s Billy himself -that I want. I’m not talking to William Wallace. He is very well able -to take care of himself. If I’m not talking to Billy, I’ll not talk. -Which is it?” he demanded. - -“It’s Billy,” said Billy, very humbly. - -“Then give me a true answer, Billy Bradford,” he said gently. “It -has been very pleasant to have you here, Billy,” he went on, almost -persuadingly. “When you go I shall be all alone.” - -Billy waited. He must, in honor, tell the truth. - -Then his man-side came to help him, and he said slowly: - -“Next to Uncle John, I like you better than anybody.” - -He waited another moment before he finished: - -“But my father gave me to my Uncle John.” - -Mr. Prescott sat still so long that Billy began to wonder whether he -was ever going to say anything more. - -At last he said: - -“You do belong to your Uncle John. He has the first right. But I have a -right of my own. You’ve come into my life, and you’re not going out of -it.” - -Then Mr. Prescott sat silent so long that Billy wondered, again, -whether he ever would say anything more. - -Just as Billy had decided that that was the end, Mr. Prescott began -slowly, in a sort of far-away tone, as though he hadn’t quite come back -from a place where he had been off to think: - -“I’m going to be your brother, Billy Bradford.” - -Then he added, in a tone that men like Mr. Prescott use only when they -mean things hard: - -“Just as long as I live.” - -Mr. Prescott didn’t know it, but he had touched a place in Billy’s -heart that nobody had ever touched before. Nobody except Billy knew -that he had such a place. - -Billy waited a minute--a long minute, then he said slowly: - -“I’ve wished and wished and wished that I had a big brother of my own.” - -“Then,” said Mr. Prescott, “your wish has come true.” - -He said that as though he was as glad as he could be that he had worked -that thing out right. - -Then, getting up and going over to the nearest electric chain, he said -firmly, like the Mr. Prescott that Billy loved best: - -“That big brother is right here. His name is Henry Marshall Prescott, -and he’s here, right here.” - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -IRON HORSES - - -“You’ve been kept still so long, Billy Bradford,” said Mr. Prescott at -breakfast the next Tuesday morning, “that it seems to me it would do -you good to move around a little. Think so yourself?” - -“Seems that way to me,” answered Billy. - -“Last night,” said Mr. Prescott, “I called up that yellow-haired doctor -of yours----” - -“Dr. Crandon,” interrupted Billy, “is a friend of mine. His hair is -only light brown.” - -“Well then, begging your pardon, Dr. Crandon says he thinks, now that -the weather is cooler, a motor trip would do you good. - -“When I asked him whether he would like to go, he said that he would, -and that he could start by Thursday. With one on the front seat with -Joseph, there’s a seat to spare. I’ve been wondering----” - -Billy’s eyes were so full of wishing that Mr. Prescott asked: - -“Who is it, Billy?” - -“Of course--I don’t suppose--I should like----” said Billy floundering -around, because he wasn’t quite sure how Mr. Prescott would feel about -inviting Uncle John. - -“You needn’t,” said Mr. Prescott, “go through the formality of telling -me. There’s only one person in the world on your mind, Billy Bradford, -when your eyes look like that. - -“He’s the one I want myself, so you needn’t think you’ve got ahead of -me there. The only question is, how shall we manage it? Shall we ask -him, or shall we run away with him?” - -“Run away with him,” said Billy, half in surprise and half in assent. - -“Suppose,” said Mr. Prescott, “that you go out into the garden this -morning, and stay there till you’ve figured that out.” - -Then, just as though he were giving an order to one of his men, he -added, as he rose from the table: - -“You may report to me at noon.” - -Before the morning was over, Billy had decided that figuring things -out was very much harder than going on errands that other people had -planned. - -He sat in the summer house till he was tired. Then he walked around all -the paths. But settle it he would, for Uncle John must never, never -lose a chance like that. - -Settle it he did, and made his report: - -“We could tell him, the night before, that there was something special -that I wanted to ask him, and that he could come here at nine o’clock -and take his time about getting back to work----” - -“That,” interrupted Mr. Prescott, “will hit the case exactly. I’ll see -that he takes his time about getting back.” - -“And,” continued Billy, “I could go to see Aunt Mary this afternoon and -tell her about it, and get my bank book----” - -“Your what?” demanded Mr. Prescott. - -“My bank book. You see Uncle John’s blue serge suit will be all right, -but he’ll need a cap. Aunt Mary has to plan for things like that, so I -want my bank book.” - -“I’ve been thinking about motor clothes,” said Mr. Prescott. “I’ll look -in that closet at the office. There are some extra things there. I can -put some things of mine in the trunk. I wouldn’t bother, just now, to -draw any money. Know anything about the size of his hat?” - -“Yes,” answered Billy, “it’s only a size smaller than yours. You -remember that I looked in yours one day.” - -“Yes,” said Mr. Prescott, “I believe that looking at the size of hats -is one of your fads.” - -“My Uncle John,” said Billy, “isn’t so very tall, but he has quite a -large head.” - -Billy tried to say it offhand, but his pride showed, all the way -through. - -“Your Uncle John,” said Mr. Prescott, paying very close attention to -the chop that he was eating, “is both an unusual man, and an unusually -good-looking man.” - -Perhaps there were two people at that table who could make offhand -remarks! - -“The next thing,” said Mr. Prescott, leaning back in his chair, “is -what is to become of your Aunt Mary while your Uncle John is taking his -time to return.” - -“I wisht she could go up in the country,” said Billy. - -“How would it do for you to find out this afternoon where she would -like to go? Then we could talk it over to-night.” - -So, for the first time since his accident, Billy went back home. It -seemed to him that the auto had never run so slowly. - -Aunt Mary was very much surprised. She asked him, right off, whether he -had come home to stay. - -“Not yet,” answered Billy. - -After he had been into all the rooms, Billy said: - -“Aunt Mary, won’t you come out to sit on the steps? I want to talk to -you.” - -How good it did seem to be sitting on those steps! - -They talked and talked, and Aunt Mary grew very much excited over the -trip. - -“It’ll do him a world of good!” she said. “You don’t know how we’ve -both worried about you, Billy.” - -While she was talking, Billy was watching her; he was trying to decide -where her smile left off. - -When she said she could manage the part about Uncle John, Billy said: - -“Are you sure your face won’t give it away?” - -“Do I look as glad as that?” she asked, putting her hand up to her -face. “No,” she went on, “he’ll think it’s because you have been home.” - -Billy looked around. The potatoes by the fence had been dug, and Uncle -John had smoothed the ground all down again. He wouldn’t have been John -Bradford if he hadn’t done that. - -“Home’s the best place, isn’t it, Aunt Mary?” said Billy, with a little -sigh of happiness. - -Then he remembered that he must manage Aunt Mary, too. He must try to -get around it so that she wouldn’t suspect anything. When he thought of -the right way, it seemed very simple. - -“Aunt Mary,” he said, “if you had an automobile, where do you think you -would go first?” - -That surely ought to throw her off the track, for she could never -expect to have an automobile. - -It surely did throw her off the track. - -“Billy,” she said, “that’s a queer thing to ask me.” - -Then she said soberly: - -“Don’t you know, Billy, there’s only one place in the world where I -should want to go first?” - -“Up in the country,” said Billy, growing sober, too, “where--where you -got me?” - -Aunt Mary simply bowed her head. - -Wednesday afternoon Mr. Prescott dictated ever so many letters to Miss -King. The last was one to Mrs. John Bradford in which Mr. Prescott -begged that Mrs. Bradford would be so kind as to make use of the -enclosed, so that he might be relieved from concern about her while Mr. -Bradford was away with him. - -Then Mr. Prescott took from his pocket a ticket that had on it “to” and -“return.” After the “to” came a name, not very long, on the ticket, but -one that, when it reached Aunt Mary’s eyes, would read, The Place of -Places. - -“Here,” said Mr. Prescott, “is the enclosure. Please write that letter -first, Miss King. That must be posted to-night.” - -That was Wednesday night. Then Mr. Prescott went home and told Billy -that he must go to bed as soon as he had had his supper, so that he -would be ready to start in the morning. - -Thursday morning came. So did Joseph with the car. - -If ever a man looked pleased with himself, it was Mr. Henry Marshall -Prescott when he gave his motor coat a final pull with both hands, and -settled himself on the seat behind Joseph, with Billy between him and -his Uncle John. - -They certainly did look well. - -The young doctor knew all about automobile “togs,” as he called them. -So, of course, he was strictly up to date. - -There were some other up-to-date “togs” in that car. In point of fact, -there were a good many. They had been sent up to the office the day -before. Some of them were Billy’s. Being only a boy, he hadn’t thought -of having any special clothes, but he had on everything that Mr. -Prescott had been able to find “for a boy of thirteen.” - -Some of them were Uncle John’s. Even Dr. Crandon’s weren’t any nearer -up to calendar time than were those which Mr. Prescott had provided for -John Bradford. - -When he had helped John Bradford on with the coat, Mr. Prescott had -looked straight at Billy with a say-anything-if-you-dare expression. - -He knew, just as well as Billy did, that, though he had looked there, -those things never came out of the closet at the mill. - -When Uncle John put on goggles, Billy’s smile changed into a broad grin. - -That didn’t disturb John Bradford. When he did a thing, he liked to do -it all. - -That morning, when Billy had told him about the trip and about Aunt -Mary, he had taken time enough to smile a long, happy smile. Then he -had said: - -“Enjoy good things as they come along, and be thankful.” - -He had worked that motto hard for a great many years, and he was -ready to use it again. So he gave himself up to enjoying and to being -thankful. - -The car was a six cylinder--a big six, and Joseph was a steady driver. - -They had gone about twenty miles when Dr. Crandon said: - -“We are going along as smooth as glass.” - -“I,” said John Bradford, “am enjoying the way that we go up-hill. I -never could bear to see a horse straining every muscle to pull me -up-hill.” - -“I think,” said Mr. Prescott, “that horses ought to be thankful to the -men that make automobiles or any sort of iron horse.” - -Billy looked up at him. - -“Iron horses,” he said. “I never thought of it that way before. There -doesn’t seem to be any end to iron.” - -“How about steel, young chap?” asked Dr. Crandon, from the front seat. - -“That’s iron,” said Billy, “but I don’t know much about it except that -it makes tools and swords.” - -“And knives,” said Dr. Crandon, way down in his throat. - -“Oh!” said Billy. - -But nobody knew whether he said it to Dr. Crandon, or whether it was -because the car came to a sudden stop. - -“Puncture, sir,” said Joseph. - -However Mr. Prescott may have felt, and he probably did have some -feelings, he acted as though he didn’t mind in the least. - -“That grove looks inviting,” he said. “Suppose we have some lunch.” - -Then he unstrapped the lunch basket and, in a few minutes, they were -all sitting under the trees enjoying sandwiches and ginger ale. - -“Seems rather pleasant,” said Mr. Prescott, “to have a change. Dr. -Crandon, what were you saying about knives?” - -“Let me see,” said Dr. Crandon; “nothing, I think, except that they are -made of steel. I’m somewhat interested in the subject.” - -“Do you,” asked Billy, “know where jack-knives first came from?” - -“Yes, young chap, I do. I know where some of the best come from now. -I’ve been to Sheffield.” - -“Where’s that?” asked Billy. - -“England. You’ll often find the name on knives. I bought a steel ink -eraser the other day which the clerk told me was ‘genuine Sheffield.’ - -“About the time that Queen Elizabeth died, Sheffield was famous for -something else that you could never, never guess.” - -“What?” asked Billy. - -“Jew’s harps,” answered Dr. Crandon. - -“Now, Billy,” said Mr. Prescott, “you can add the marks on steel to the -sizes of hats.” - -“I will,” said Billy. - -“Look for Birmingham,” said Uncle John. “That’s famous for tools.” - -“And Toledo is the place for scissors,” added Mr. Prescott. - -“Speaking of marks,” said Dr. Crandon, “I have a sword marked with a -crown.” - -“A genuine Ferrara!” exclaimed Mr. Prescott. “I’m not going to covet my -neighbor’s goods, but if you should ever come across another, please -remember that I have only a Damascus and a Toledo.” - -“Only!” exclaimed Dr. Crandon. “Those ought to be enough to satisfy any -man. No special virtue in your not coveting my Ferrara. - -“The point and the hilt of mine will come together, just the same,” he -added with boyish pride. - -“Bradford,” said Mr. Prescott, “you’ve been keeping pretty still. -What’s in your mind?” - -“Just then,” answered John Bradford, “I was thinking about something -that my grandfather told me about his father.” - -“As I figure it,” interrupted Mr. Prescott, “he would be Billy’s -great-great-great-grandfather.” - -“Yes,” replied John Bradford. - -Billy, glancing at Mr. Prescott, smiled a satisfied sort of smile. - -“He,” said John Bradford, “came from Massachusetts. He said that they -used to fish up iron out of ponds with tongs such as oyster dredgers -use.” - -“Honest and true!” broke in Billy. - -“Fact, Billy. Don’t interrupt,” said Mr. Prescott, shaking his head at -Billy. - -“He said,” continued John Bradford, “that, many a time, he had fished -up half a ton a day.” - -“That bog ore,” said Dr. Crandon, “is very interesting. It is deposited -by infusoria--_gaillonella ferruginea_,” he added, trying to speak very -professionally, though the corners of his mouth were twitching with fun. - -Seeing that Billy was regarding him rather critically, he went on: - -“You see, young chap, that there is iron almost everywhere; and it is -very soluble in water, so it naturally goes into ponds; and those tiny -animals in some way make it over into bog ore. - -“The senior doctor was talking with me, the other day, about giving you -some iron.” - -“What for?” asked Billy abruptly. - -“It’s iron in your blood that makes your cheeks red; iron in red -apples; iron----” - -“Pardon me, doctor,” interrupted Mr. Prescott, “the tire is on.” - -“By the way, Bradford, I believe you’ve been told to take your time -about returning?” - -“So I understand,” answered John Bradford, smiling as he spoke. - -“Then, if you don’t mind, Bradford, we’ll motor on to a place where -these young fellows,” he said, waving his hand toward the doctor and -Billy, “may be able to learn a thing or two more on the subject of -iron.” - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -THE GIANTS - - -They stood on the dock of a river where great ships leave -their burden of iron ore. - -“There she comes!” exclaimed Mr. Prescott, pointing to a freighter that -was slowly drawing near. - -“No giants in sight yet,” said Billy. - -“It’s your eyes that are not seeing,” returned Mr. Prescott. “That boat -herself is a giantess. Watch.” - -Hardly had the great boat been made fast to her moorings before, in -some mysterious way, the hold of the ship opened wide from stem to -stern. - -Then somebody touched a lever somewhere, and over the hold swung a row -of buckets that, opening like two hands, grabbed into the ore, and -seizing tons of it, swung back to the dock. A touch of another lever -unloaded it into huge storage bins. - -“Billy Bradford,” said Mr. Prescott, “weren’t those the hands of a -giant?” - -“Sure, sir,” answered Billy, who stood staring in wonder. - -“That ore,” said Mr. Prescott, “came from a surface mine up in the pine -woods of Lake Superior, a thousand miles away. - -“Perhaps, gentlemen, you may like to know that the American supremacy -in iron is largely due to those open pit mines up in Minnesota. - -“Much of the ore in that region is so near the surface that a steam -shovel can easily strip off the ‘overburden’ of the soil and the roots -of pine trees. - -“When that was done, giant hands seized that ore, lifted it up, and -loaded it into bins, high up on the bluffs. - -“Then a man, not a giant, touched a treadle, and another kind of giant, -named ‘gravity,’ made the ore run from the bottom of the car into a bin. - -“Chutes from the ore bin ran into the hold of the steamer, and almost -before she had been tied to the dock she was ready to come down here. - -“Giants or not, Billy Bradford?” - -“Iron giants,” answered Billy. - -“Rather different, Mr. Bradford,” said Dr. Crandon, “from fishing ore -with tongs.” - -“We’ve moved along a great way since that time,” said John Bradford, -“and most of our progress has been due to iron.” - -“Giants don’t do all the work even now,” said Mr. Prescott. “They make -short work of iron mountains and surface deposits, but most of them -are too large to work underground; though we mustn’t forget that Giant -Electricity works down there with the men. - -“Giant Gravity helps too, for, when they work below the deposit, he -caves the ore down. Of course some ores are so hard that they can’t be -caved, so there is still some mining for the men to do.” - -“Was there,” asked Billy, trying to speak in a sort of offhand way, “an -iron mountain where this iron came from?” - -“There are some,” answered Mr. Prescott, “up in that region.” - -Billy had been paying very close attention to what Mr. Prescott had -been saying. There was something that he wanted especially to find out. -He felt very sure, now, that he was hearing about an iron mountain that -he had heard about once before. - -He felt very sure, but he wouldn’t ask any more questions, because that -was the secret that he had with Thomas Murphy. - -The others started for the car. But Billy stood a moment longer to look -at the giant hands that, having finished their work, were hanging idly -in the air. The hold of the ship, emptied of its burden, was already -beginning to close. - -“Beginning to believe in giants, aren’t you?” said Mr. Prescott, as -Billy stepped into the car. - -“The next giant will be a hungry fellow, and he is very, very tall; so -he eats a great deal.” - -“An iron-eater, is he?” queried Dr. Crandon. - -“We ourselves will have something to eat before we visit him,” said Mr. -Prescott, ordering Joseph to drive back to the hotel. - -“Mr. Prescott,” said Dr. Crandon, as they sat at table, “is iron ever -found in a pure state, like gold, for instance?” - -“It is practically never found in a pure state,” answered Mr. Prescott, -“except the meteoric iron, ‘the stone of heaven.’” - -Billy looked at him questioningly. - -“That was rather technical, wasn’t it, Billy? You see, I was talking to -a technical man. Just between you and me, meteoric iron comes down from -the sky, from what we call shooting stars. Sometimes large pieces are -found. I suppose that much of it falls into the sea. It is the purest -iron that has ever been found.” - -“What about magnetic iron?” asked Dr. Crandon. “Where does that come -from?” - -“At the present time,” answered Mr. Prescott, “most of it comes from -Sweden and Norway. It makes the best kind of steel. - -“Ages ago, the first was found in Magnesia,” said Mr. Prescott casting -a quick glance around the table. - -“The people there found certain hard, black stones which would attract -to themselves bits of iron and steel. So they named them magnets, -from Magnesia, the place where the stones were found,” finished Mr. -Prescott, with another look around the table. - -“It’s of no use, Prescott,” said Dr. Crandon, “you needn’t look at us. -We don’t any of us know even where to look for Magnesia. Don’t suppose -we could find it even if we had a map.” - -“I presume you remember, Crandon,” said Mr. Prescott, “the place that -boasted that ancient wonder of the world, the Temple of Diana.” - -“Ephesus!” said Dr. Crandon, quickly. “I do happen to know that Ephesus -is in Asia Minor.” - -“Then,” said Mr. Prescott, still keeping his face very grave, “I -should strongly advise your finding Ephesus first. That’s in the near -neighborhood of Magnesia.” - -“Thank you,” said Dr. Crandon gravely. “Though I did not know where -magnetic iron came from, I do happen to know that it is sometimes -called ‘lode-stone.’ - -“And I know, too, that Sir Isaac Newton--he’s the one, Billy, who ran -down Giant Gravity--had a ring set with a lode-stone that could lift -two hundred and fifty times its own weight.” - -“And I know,” said Mr. Prescott, “that I am very grateful to Dr. -Crandon for telling me about the new electro-magnet that I now have at -the mill. I feel very much easier, now, about my workmen’s eyes.” - -“Do you mean,” asked Billy, “that thing that you brought home that I -thought was a new desk telephone?” - -“It does resemble a telephone,” said Dr. Crandon, “only it has a tip -instead of a mouthpiece. It’s a great thing for taking bits of steel -out of eyes.” - -“Isn’t there such a thing,” asked John Bradford, “as a magnetic -separator?” - -“Glad to hear from you once more, Bradford,” said Mr. Prescott, with a -smile. “It has been some time since you have said anything.” - -“I have been having too good a time,” said John Bradford, “to want to -talk. I should like, now, to have you tell us about the separator.” - -“It is an electro-magnetic drum. When the finely crushed ore is poured -on it in a stream, the drum attracts the iron, while the earthy matter, -which is non-magnetic, falls off by the action of gravity. The iron is -carried on by the drum, until a brush arrangement sweeps it off into a -truck. - -“That is a case, Billy, where Giant Gravity and Giant Electro-magnet -fight over the ore, and each gets away with a part of it. - -“Perhaps I ought to explain to you that, when a bar of soft iron is put -inside an insulated coil of copper wire and a current of electricity is -passed through it, it becomes a powerful magnet. That is what we mean -by an electro-magnet. The advantage of that is that it ceases to be a -magnet when the current ceases, so it can be controlled. You will see -some before I am through showing you giants. - -“There is also an electric cleaner that collects the iron that is left -in the corners of cars. Those devices save iron. Strange as it may -seem, however, not all iron will respond to the magnetic cleaners.” - -“Is there,” asked Dr. Crandon, “any danger that the iron in the world -will be exhausted?” - -“I hardly think so,” answered Mr. Prescott. “The available ores, in the -single range that we were talking about this morning, run up into the -trillions of metric tons.” - -“I read something the other day,” said John Bradford, “about some iron -that had been found in Sweden, up beyond the arctic circle.” - -“That,” said Mr. Prescott, “is one of the most extensive deposits in -the world. The countries of the western part of Europe draw upon that -supply. - -“It is very likely that we haven’t found all the iron yet, and even -more likely that we shall find a way to make use of the poorer ores. - -“By the way, Billy, there is one kind of iron called ‘iron pyrites.’ It -looks so much like gold that it has deceived many a poor fellow into -thinking that he had found gold. It well deserves the name ‘fool’s -gold.’ It doesn’t even make good iron. I’ll show you some when we go -home. Now we’ll go to see the iron-eater.” - -Ten minutes later Billy exclaimed: - -“He’s tall!” - -“Not quite a hundred feet,” said Mr. Prescott. - -“He’s black!” said Dr. Crandon. - -“He roars!” added John Bradford. - -“And,” said Mr. Prescott, “even if he could be moved, he’s rather too -valuable for a circus manager to buy, for he cost a million dollars. I -really think he’s the most fearful thing ever made by man. The Germans, -though, did a great thing for iron when they evolved the blast furnace.” - -“Makes our cupola,” said John Bradford, as they stopped before the tall -iron stack, “look very small.” - -“Ours,” said Mr. Prescott, “is only a dwarf, but he does something like -the same work; only here they put in iron ore instead of pig iron. -Blast furnaces make pig iron.” - -[Illustration: “THE MOST FEARFUL THING EVER MADE”] - -“What diet,” asked Dr. Crandon, “do they give this giant?” - -“You’re bound to think professionally, aren’t you, Crandon? He’s -restricted to coke, iron ore, and limestone, but they feed him very -often. They see, too, that he has plenty of hot air to breathe. - -“The old problem used to be how to get heat enough to melt the ore. -That was solved by a Scotchman, who originated the use of the hot blast. - -“The gas produced by the furnace used to be wasted. Now they utilize -it in the hot-blast stoves. That accounts for some of the huge pipes -attached to the furnace. Come this way, and I’ll show you a stove. - -“Here it is, almost as tall as the furnace itself. This giant, also, is -encased in an armor of iron plates. If we could look inside, we should -see that it is almost filled with open brick work that resembles a -honeycomb. - -“They send hot gas over the brick work till the stove is hot, then they -shut off the gas and start the engine that blows in cold air. That, -heated by the bricks, is forced into the furnace. - -“One of those great pipes up there is where they draw off the slag. It -is so much lighter than the iron that it rises to the top, like cream -on milk. - -“Down here they draw off the iron. Sometimes they keep it hot for the -next process; sometimes it is made into pig iron.” - -“What,” asked Dr. Crandon, “becomes of the slag?” - -“That depends somewhat on the chemical composition of the slag. Some -kinds are broken up to be used as foundation for roads; others are -granulated by being run into water, and so made into cement. Over in -Germany, where the ores are rich in phosphorus, they grind up the -linings of the furnace to make phosphatic fertilizers for the farmers.” - -“Then,” said Dr. Crandon, “the making of iron involves the use of -chemistry, doesn’t it?” - -“It certainly does,” answered Mr. Prescott; “from the chemical -composition of ores to the finished product. We are learning a great -deal just now from the chemists about steel alloys. - -“I didn’t tell you that from the gas they sometimes save ammonia, tar, -and oils, before it is fed to the hot-blast stoves.” - -“By-products,” said Dr. Crandon, “seem to be a feature of modern -industry.” - -“It is high time,” said Mr. Prescott, “that waste should receive -attention.” - -“Before we leave this giant I must tell you that he already has a -dangerous rival--listen, Billy, for it’s almost a David and Goliath -story--in a little electric smelter. Some of them can be moved about -like a portable sawmill. - -“Up in Sweden, where the ores are among the purest in the world, they -use electric smelters and make steel direct from the ore.” - -“Any more giants?” asked Billy. - -“You’ll think so,” answered Mr. Prescott, “before I am through with -them; but we’ve seen enough for to-day. Next time I’ll show you giants -that have done something more than to make iron, for they have really -reduced the size of the world.” - -“Whew!” exclaimed Dr. Crandon. - -“Before that,” said Mr. Prescott, “I am going to introduce you to some -pygmies.” - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -THE PYGMIES - - -“Shall we need glasses, Prescott, in order to see your -pygmies?” asked Dr. Crandon, the next morning, while they were waiting -for the car. - -“I will agree to furnish all the glasses needed,” answered Mr. Prescott. - -Much as Billy wanted to know what Mr. Prescott was going to show them, -he had made up his mind to trust to his eyes to find out. - -John Bradford was learning so many things that he had long wanted to -know that he was simply enjoying things as they came along, and being -thankful. - -“To the office of the steel works, Joseph,” said Mr. Prescott. - -On past the great yard of the blast furnace they went, then along by -some high brick walls until they stopped in front of a two-story cement -building. - -Then they followed Mr. Prescott till he stopped at the head of the -stairs, and knocked at a door. - -“Come in,” shouted somebody in a cordial voice. - -“Hullo, Harry, old fellow!” said the owner of the voice, still more -cordially, as he came forward with outstretched hand. - -“This,” said Mr. Prescott, “is my classmate, Mr. Farnsworth, who is at -the head of the laboratory.” - -After he had introduced John Bradford and Dr. Crandon, he added, “And -this is Billy Bradford.” - -Then he said, “I’ve brought these friends of mine to see your show. -We’ve been to see some of the giants in the iron industry. Now I want -them to have a look at your pygmies.” - -“Pygmies they shall see,” said Mr. Farnsworth, with an appreciative -smile. “Hardly a technical term, but a good way, Harry, to get hold of -the facts. Pygmies they shall be. - -“Sit down, all of you,” he said, pointing to chairs by his low, broad -table. - -Pushing back the sliding door of a case behind the table, he took out a -tray containing small round pieces of iron and steel. - -“Shall I tell you about these specimens, or will you ask me?” - -“Just give us a general idea, Jack,” answered Mr. Prescott; “we might -ask the wrong questions.” - -“Then, Billy Bradford,” said Mr. Farnsworth, smiling at Billy, “I’ll -explain to you, and the others may listen. - -“You see we chemists analyze the ores before they are smelted; so we -know something about what kind of pig iron we shall have. But when we -want to know what kind of finished iron or steel we have from a given -process, we can’t tell much by analyzing it, so we have to depend on -our microscopes. - -“Metals crystallize, if they have just the right conditions. Each metal -has its own form; so, if you could find a single crystal, you would -recognize it by its form. - -“But when melted iron grows solid, the crystals are crowded so close -together that, when it is prepared for the microscope, and polished -like this, the surface looks as if it were made up of ‘crystal grains.’ - -“Sometimes crystallization takes place in steel if it is subjected to -long repeated jar. Many accidents in engines are due to that.” - -As he took the cover off his microscope, Mr. Farnsworth said: - -“I suppose, Harry, that your ‘pygmies’ are the elements that are found -in the various kinds of iron?” - -“The same,” answered Mr. Prescott. - -“Then I shall tell Billy Bradford that some of the pygmies are enemies -and others are friends; some need to be driven away, and others should -be invited to come in. - -“The most numerous enemies are the Carbon pygmies. The blast furnace -drives most of them off, but they have to be fought in the pig iron, -too. - -“Sulphur pygmies are about the worst of all, because they make the iron -brittle. They are practically the hardest to drive away. - -“Phosphorus pygmies haven’t a good reputation, but they are in much -better standing than the Sulphur enemies. - -“Now, if you’ll look in here--this is the purest and the softest -Swedish bar iron--you’ll see where the edges of the crystals come -together. These are friendly Ferrite pygmies, crowding close together. -_Ferrum_ is the Latin name for iron; you must remember that.” - -“If I didn’t know,” said John Bradford, when he took his turn, “I -should think I was looking at some sort of wood with a very fine grain.” - -“This,” said Mr. Farnsworth, changing the specimen, “has black and -white streaks in it; that means that the iron has begun to be steel. -When it has light patches like these in it, we know that it has taken -up more carbon, and has grown harder. - -“So it goes,” he said, showing one after another of the specimens. “You -can see for yourself that, if friendly pygmies stand in line, taking -hold of hands, that would make a good kind of iron to draw out into a -wire. If enemies stand around in groups, they make the iron easy to -break. - -“When we want steel for chisels, for example, we invite Tungsten to -come in; when we want certain parts for automobiles we call in some -Vanadium pygmies.” - -“So,” said Mr. Prescott, “while we need the giants to make the pig -iron, the real value of the iron and steel depends on the pygmies.” - -“That’s about the size of it,” said Mr. Farnsworth. - -“Anything the trouble with you, young chap?” asked Dr. Crandon. “You -haven’t spoken for ten minutes. Feel bad anywhere?” - -“No,” answered Billy. “I was just wishing I could know about all those -things.” - -“I’m glad it’s nothing worse than that,” said Dr. Crandon. - -“Now,” said Mr. Prescott, “we’ll start for some more giants. Coming, -Farnsworth?” - -“Sorry, not to-day. Call again!” - -“The steel mill comes next on my program,” said Mr. Prescott, when they -went out. “I want you to see a Bessemer converter, an open hearth, and -some crucibles, because that practically covers the different methods -of making iron and steel. - -“Here is the Bessemer converter. You see it is an iron cylinder made -of wrought iron plates, and it tapers off at the top in a conical end. -See. It is swinging down to be filled almost as easily as you can turn -your hand over. In a moment it will stand up again, twenty-five feet -tall. - -“Bessemer got hold of the idea that air could be used instead of fuel. -They say he risked his life in his experiments. He worked a long time, -but he won, and the Bessemer converters started the boom in steel. - -“See it come up again, with fifteen tons of hot pig iron in it. Down in -the bottom of the converter is a blast chest where the air is forced in -under pressure, after it has been blown into a tank by blowing engines.” - -“O-o-oh!” exclaimed Billy, as the top of the converter seemed to burst -into flame, and a shower of sparks came down. - -“That,” said Dr. Crandon, “is surely a fearful sort of thing!” - -Then the flame began to drop slowly, and they saw that the converter -itself was safe. - -“This process burns out all the carbon. Bessemer was trying to make -wrought iron when he started out. Now they put back the right amount of -carbon, and make the iron into steel. - -“It’s a chemical process. When the air strikes the hot metals the -oxygen unites with them, and they burst into flame. The whole process -takes between fifteen and twenty minutes.” - -“I am very sure,” said Dr. Crandon, “that I shouldn’t like to work -here.” - -“When we get to the open hearth process, which is the rival of the -Bessemer,” said Mr. Prescott, “I expect that none of you will want to -work there.” - -“For my part,” said John Bradford, slowly, “I prefer Prescott mill.” - -“So do I,” said Billy. - -“Which reminds me,” said Mr. Prescott, “to tell you that I have been -looking at some machines to help in the foundry. They will help about -lifting and ramming; but they won’t do away with the work of men. - -“Here we are, gentlemen, before a Siemens-Martin open hearth. This -is a continuous process. It was evolved by Sir William Siemens, a -German-English engineer, and his brother. Then a man named Martin, a -Frenchman, I understand, found a way to mix the iron and steel that are -put on the hearth, so it bears both the names. - -“We’ll just look in. It is a large, shallow basin, made of bricks, -partly filled with iron. Both hot air and gas are burned on top of the -iron. The process takes seven or eight hours; but it produces larger -quantities of steel than the Bessemer converters can do. - -“Then, too, it furnishes all kinds of iron and steel, for they sample -it as it burns, and draw off the steel at any percentage of carbon that -they want. - -“Cast iron has a great deal of carbon in it; steel has much less; and -wrought iron has almost none. - -“Now, we’ll go over to the crucible furnace.” - -They walked slowly across the yard. - -“There are no giants here,” said Mr. Prescott, “with the exception -of the furnaces in which they set the crucibles; and they are small, -compared with the furnaces that we have seen.” - -They found themselves in a long room lined with shelves of clay -crucibles, about eighteen inches in height. On the sides of the room, -under the shelves, were rows of small furnaces, each large enough for -two crucibles. - -“The crucible process,” said Mr. Prescott, “gives us our finest steels. -It is a simple melting together of iron and charcoal. The carbon of the -charcoal passes into the iron. When the crucibles are filled, they are -set in the furnace, and left for several days. - -“They make a special kind of crucible steel over in Sheffield.” - -While he was saying that, Mr. Prescott glanced at Billy, but Billy was -looking at the furnace, and did not hear what Mr. Prescott said. - -Mr. Prescott looked at him hard, as he said: - -“The home of the crucible is Sheffield.” - -“Sheffield,” said Billy, turning, “is where they make good jack-knives.” - -“Want to see a genuine Sheffield?” asked Mr. Prescott, putting his hand -into his pocket. - -That time he didn’t have to attract Billy’s attention, for Billy stood -waiting. - -“See,” said Mr. Prescott, pulling out a chain that had a knife on it, -and opening the blades. “See, it has Sheffield on both blades.” - -Billy’s eyes saw the “Sheffield.” Then they saw something else, for on -the side of the knife was a little silver plate, and on it--he had to -look twice--was “Billy Bradford.” - -“That’s a good knife,” said Billy. - -The three men smiled, each his very best smile. - -“Thank you, Mr. Prescott,” said Billy as he took the knife. Then he -smiled, too. - -“Now for the steel mill, and the last of our giants.” - -“Is the mill deserted?” asked Dr. Crandon, as they went in. - -“It’s much easier,” said Mr. Prescott, “to find the giants in a steel -mill than it is to find the men. If you look around you’ll find a few, -but they’ll be in most unexpected places.” - -“I see a man,” exclaimed Billy, “up in a cage!” - -“He’s controlling that crane,” said Mr. Prescott. “See it carry that -ingot of red-hot iron!” - -“This,” said Dr. Crandon, “passes belief. There’s a boy over there, in -a reclining chair, who is opening a furnace down on this side.” - -“Look at that!” exclaimed John Bradford, pointing to a crane like a -huge thumb and forefinger, which had picked up a red-hot ingot, tons in -weight, and was dropping it on a waiting car. - -“Let’s follow it,” said Mr. Prescott, pleased to see John Bradford so -excited. - -They followed it to a room filled with clanking rolls. - -Another crane swung the red-hot iron into the jaws of rollers. - -On went the fiery bolt, sometimes up on one roller, then down on -another, till at last they found that it had come out a finished rail. - -Then a huge, round steel magnet, lowered by a man in a derrick house, -picked up half a dozen rails; another lever sent the crane down the -overhead tracks; and the rails were dropped in order on waiting cars. - -“It used,” said Mr. Prescott, “to take a dozen men to load a single -rail. - -“Giants or not, Billy Bradford?” - -“Giants for sure,” replied Billy. - -“Fire-eaters!” exclaimed Dr. Crandon. “Let’s go!” - -“I’m ready,” said Mr. Prescott. “I’m glad that the work is so much -easier for the men, but I must confess that I don’t care to watch -red-hot iron shooting, almost flying around.” - -“I’m ready to go,” said Billy. - -“Joseph,” said Mr. Prescott, a few minutes later, “drive till you find -a country road.” - -That evening, as they sat together on the hotel veranda, Mr. Prescott -said: - -“I’ve been thinking,” then he stopped a moment to see whether Billy was -listening, “how much iron has done to make the world smaller.” - -Then, seeing that Billy’s eyes were opening wider and wider, he said: - -“The world is so much smaller than it used to be that I sometimes -wonder how much smaller it may grow.” - -“Isn’t it just as far around the world as it always was?” asked Billy, -looking first at Mr. Prescott, then at his Uncle John, and then back at -Mr. Prescott. - -“It’s of no use, Billy,” said Dr. Crandon, “to expect this man to tell -us anything straight out. He’s trying to train our minds. If we’re -going around with him, we shall have to submit to indirect methods of -obtaining information.” - -“If you’ll excuse me, Crandon,” said Mr. Prescott, “I’m not sure that -Billy won’t learn as fast by my ‘indirect methods’ as he will by the -kind of words that you are using.” - -“Even, I think,” said Dr. Crandon. - -Then the three men smiled, each in his own way. - -Billy didn’t smile. All his best heroes seemed to be showing -“disagreeable spots” at the same time. - -But Billy had only a minute of thinking that, for Dr. Crandon said, in -his most friendly tone: - -“I think I know what he’s driving at, so I’ll lend you a hand. It would -take a long time to sail around the world, wouldn’t it?” - -“Sure,” answered Billy, quite like himself. - -“But, if we were to start in an automobile, and drive to a train that -would take us to San Francisco----” - -“And then,” said Uncle John, “take a steamer across the ocean----” - -“And,” finished Mr. Prescott, “get back home in less than forty days, -wouldn’t that make the world smaller than if we had to sail and sail -and sail?” - -“Of course,” answered Billy. “Anybody can see that.” - -“And, if you were to go alone, Billy,” continued Mr. Prescott, in his -very friendliest tone, “you could wire me or ‘phone me or cable me -almost anywhere along the route. Wouldn’t that make the world seem very -small? - -“And what do all these things mean but iron--iron engines and iron -rails and iron wires and watches with steel springs and magnetic steel -needles in compasses that guide the great steamers through the paths of -the sea?” - -“Sometimes,” said Billy, in a half-discouraged tone, “I think there’s -no end to knowing about iron.” - -“That’s not very far from true, Billy,” said Mr. Prescott. “We could -sit here till to-morrow morning trying to mention things made of iron, -or by means of iron, and then we should be likely to forget many of -them. - -“If it weren’t for iron and steel implements and tools, men would have -hard work to earn a living. - -“Dr. Crandon, what does it seem to you that we should lose if we were -to lose iron?” - -“I’ve been thinking about the arts--surgery, too. We need iron for -sculpture, for music, for printing books and papers. We need iron, I -should say, for art’s sake.” - -“And you, Bradford?” - -“I’ve been thinking about agriculture. I never realized, before this -trip, how we really depend on iron for our food. That phosphatic -fertilizer set me to thinking about plows, mills, and all sorts of -things.” - -“I think,” said Mr. Prescott, “that the man was right who said that the -strength of nations depends on coal and iron far more than it does on -gold. - -“Another man said practically the same when he said that iron has given -man liberty and industry: tools and implements of peace, as well as -weapons of war. When you think it out, that seems to cover it all. - -“Now, Billy,” Mr. Prescott went on, “I know what you will say. You may -say it.” - -“Without iron,” said Billy, smiling up at Mr. Prescott, “we should be -just ‘nothin’, nobody.’” - -“My lecture course,” said Mr. Prescott, “is now finished. - -“To-morrow, I am going to show you where they try to make--do -make--something greater than iron.” - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -WHAT MR. PRESCOTT SAID - - -“At four o’clock, Joseph.” - -Billy looked at Mr. Prescott wonderingly. - -“Why four o’clock, questioner? Because, when I’m going to see a -place, I like to see it at its best. I like to see this place in the -afternoon, when the shadows have grown long. - -“No; no more questions.” - -At a quarter past four, Joseph stopped the car in front of a beautiful -wrought iron gate. - -“That’s a beauty!” exclaimed Dr. Crandon. “It reminds me of some of the -old mediæval work that I saw in Italy. What’s this, anyway?” - -Mr. Prescott shook his head. - -“All right, Prescott,” said Dr. Crandon, “I’ll wait.” - -“As for that gate,” said Mr. Prescott, “I may as well admit that I am a -bit proud of it. The men of my year put it there. - -“As for the place, I think,” said Mr. Prescott slowly, “I think I might -safely say that it is where they make, or try to make, a certain kind -of castings.” - -“Would it be fair, Prescott,” said Dr. Crandon with a smile, “for me to -say that you yourself are prone to think professionally?” - -“Quite fair, I assure you,” answered Mr. Prescott, with a bow. - -“I don’t see anybody making anything,” said Billy, in a disappointed -tone. - -“In the summer they have to rest both their machinery and their -material,” said Mr. Prescott. - -Then Billy knew that Mr. Prescott expected him to keep his eyes and his -ears open until he found out for himself where they were. - -“Let’s walk,” said Mr. Prescott. - -[Illustration: “HE’S STILL LOOKING AT THE GATE”] - -They were at the first corner when Billy exclaimed: - -“Where’s Uncle John?” - -“There he is,” said Mr. Prescott, turning around. “He’s still looking -at that gate. Don’t blame him much,” he added. - -Back Billy went. - -John Bradford was so absorbed in studying the gate that Billy had to -call him the second time before he turned. - -“Eh! Billy, my lad!” he said. “I should like to do a piece of work as -beautiful as that. That is true artist work.” - -Something in his tone made Billy say quickly: - -“You’re an artist yourself, Uncle John. Miss King said so.” - -“I should really like,” said John Bradford again, “to do such a piece -of work as that.” - -“When we get home,” said Billy, “why don’t you begin?” - -“Eh! Billy, my lad!” said Uncle John, but this time he said it with a -smile. - -“He was wishing,” said Billy when they overtook the others, “that he -could make an iron gate.” - -“I’ll confess, here and now,” said Mr. Prescott, “that I myself have -had aspirations of that sort.” - -“Is iron-work coming in again?” asked Dr. Crandon. “It seems to me -that, just lately, I have seen some very beautiful gates.” - -“I think so,” answered Mr. Prescott. “There are a few men who seem -to have caught the spirit of the old smiths, and to have seen the -possibilities in wrought iron. The man who made that gate is one of -them. He has invented a liquid, too, to prevent the rusting of the iron. - -“You see that a man who works in iron must be both an artist and a -smith--he must blow the forge and use the hammer. That gate in cast -iron would be almost ugly. In the Swedish wrought iron, it is truly -beautiful. - -“The old fellows knew much more about the artistic side of iron than we -do. Look at the old French locks--even a French king prided himself on -his ability to make locks. - -“There was a time when an apprentice to a locksmith had to make a -masterpiece lock before he could become a master. It usually took him -two years to do it, for he had to chase and chisel it from the solid. - -“I’ll tell you, Bradford, something that Billy Bradford doesn’t know. I -have a workshop of my own at home in the lower part of the house. - -“A long time ago I began an iron gate for the garden. When we go back, -Bradford, let’s finish it.” - -Billy, looking at his Uncle John, smiled serenely. - -Then Billy walked by Uncle John, while Mr. Prescott and Dr. Crandon -went slowly before them down the long avenue of elms. - -Billy listened to the two men as they talked. He found out that they -had both been to college, and then somewhere else. He couldn’t quite -make out what Mr. Prescott’s other place was; but it was somewhere -specially to study iron. - -This talk about college was all new to Billy. He liked the stories that -they told, one after another. He had never seen Mr. Prescott so happy. - -“That,” he said, stopping before a large brick building that looked -very old, “is where I used to room. Second story front. - -“Billy, look back.” - -Billy, turning, saw the great yard, green everywhere, with long shadows -of trees and buildings resting on it in the low light of the afternoon. - -“It’s like the city and the country put together,” he said. “It’s the -most beautiful place that I ever saw!” - -“Prescott,” said Dr. Crandon, “were you ever on a football team?” - -“He was captain,” broke in Billy. “He told me so!” - -“He’s captain still,” said John Bradford, in his slow, even way. - -They all looked at him a moment. - -“Good, Bradford, good!” exclaimed Dr. Crandon. “That’s what he is! I’m -inclined to think that football is a good training place for a captain -of industry.” - -“It’s all team work,” said John Bradford. “Some do one thing and some -another, but without a captain a team can’t win.” - -There were times when Uncle John said things that Billy couldn’t -understand. He did just then. But Billy knew, by the look that came -into Mr. Prescott’s face, that he was very much pleased. - -“It takes,” said Dr. Crandon, “two sets of men to make the world move -along: those who work with their heads, and those who work with their -hands. For my part, I believe that one set works about as hard as the -other.” - -“I’m truly thankful, Crandon,” said Mr. Prescott, “that there’s -somebody in the world who realizes that.” - -Then they all started down the avenue of elms. Mr. Prescott had slipped -his arm through John Bradford’s, and was talking to him earnestly. - -Dr. Crandon and Billy loitered along behind. - -“Mr. Prescott seems to be unusually fond of his ‘Alma Mater,’” said Dr. -Crandon. - -“What,” asked Billy, “does ‘Alma Mater’ mean?” - -“It’s a Latin name for a college,” answered Dr. Crandon. “I think that -‘cherishing mother’ is a pretty good way to translate it into English. - -“A college looks after you, and tries to make a man of you, something -the way your mother does, you know.” - -“All the mother I ever had,” said Billy, “was only a week.” - -“Oh, young chap, I’m sorry,” said Dr. Crandon, throwing his arm across -Billy’s shoulder the way college boys sometimes do. - -“I tell you what I’d do,” he added quickly; “I’d begin to think about -an ‘Alma Mater.’ You could work your way through, you know. I began -that way myself. - -“Don’t you do it, though, on less than three meals a day--square ones,” -he added with professional zeal. - -“I shall keep an eye on you, young chap. I surely shall!” - -Then he remembered that he had some letters to post, and hurried off to -the nearest box. - -Billy kept on walking toward Mr. Prescott and Uncle John, who were -coming slowly back under the beautiful trees. - -After he had gone a little way, Billy waited, in the middle of the -walk, for them to come up. - -Mr. Prescott still had his hand through Uncle John’s arm. How happy -Uncle John looked, and Mr. Prescott, too! - -When they reached him, they stopped. - -“I’ve found out,” said Billy. “This is where they make----” - -“Try to make,” corrected Mr. Prescott. - -“Men,” finished Billy. - -Then Mr. Prescott put his hand on Billy’s shoulder, and, looking right -down into Billy’s eyes, said slowly: - -“He’s your boy, Bradford, but he belongs to me, too. - -“We’ll work together, and we’ll see whether between us we can help him -to come to be a man.” - - - - - =The Stories in this Series are=: - - THE STORY OF COTTON - THE STORY OF GOLD AND SILVER - THE STORY OF LUMBER - THE STORY OF WOOL - THE STORY OF IRON - THE STORY OF LEATHER - THE STORY OF GLASS - THE STORY OF SUGAR - THE STORY OF SILK - THE STORY OF PORCELAIN - - - - -Transcriber’s Notes: - - - Minor errors and omissions in punctuation have been fixed. - In the list of Illustrations “He’s still looking at that gate” was - changed to “He’s still looking at the gate” - Page 180: “he does something the” changed to “he does something like the” - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF IRON *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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Samuel—A Project Gutenberg eBook - </title> - <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover" /> - <style> /* <![CDATA[ */ - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2,h3 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; - text-indent: 1em; -} - -.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} -.p4 {margin-top: 4em;} -.ph2 {text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - font-size: x-large; - margin: .75em auto;} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} - -div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} -h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} - -table { - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; - width: 70%; -} -.x-ebookmaker table {width:95%} -table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } -table.autotable td, -table.autotable th { padding: 4px; } - -.tdr {text-align: right;} - -.center {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;} - -.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -.small {font-size: 0.8em;} - -.big {font-size: 1.2em;} - -abbr[title] {text-decoration: none;} - -/* Images */ - -img.w75 {width: 75%;} -img.w50 {width: 50%} -img.w10 {width: 10%} -.x-ebookmaker table {width: 95%} - -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; - page-break-inside: avoid; - max-width: 100%; -} - -img.drop-cap -{ - float: left; - max-width: 10%; - margin: 0 0.5em 0 0; -} - -p.drop-cap:first-letter -{ - color: transparent; - visibility: hidden; - margin-left: -0.9em; -} - -p.drop-cap { - text-indent: 0em; -} -.x-ebookmaker img.drop-cap -{ - display: none; -} - -.x-ebookmaker p.drop-cap:first-letter -{ - color: inherit; - visibility: visible; - margin-left: 0; -} - -.upper-case -{ - text-transform: uppercase; -} - -/* Transcriber's notes */ -.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; - color: black; - font-size:smaller; - padding:0.5em; - margin-bottom:5em; - font-family:sans-serif, serif; } - - /* ]]> */ </style> -</head> -<body> -<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The story of iron, by Elizabeth I. Samuel</p> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The story of iron</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Elizabeth I. Samuel</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: July 10, 2022 [eBook #68492]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Amber Black, Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF IRON ***</div> - -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="Cover"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" class="w75" alt="Cover" /> -</span></p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="Illustration1"> -<img src="images/i_frontispiece.jpg" class="w75" alt="SEVEN MINUTES LEFT" /> -</span></p> -<p class="center caption">SEVEN MINUTES LEFT<br /></p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="TitlePage"> -<img src="images/pagetop.jpg" class="w50" alt="TitlePage" /> -</span></p><br /> -</div> - -<h1>The Story of Iron</h1><br /> - -<p class="center"><small>BY<br /></small></p><br /> -<p class="center big">ELIZABETH I. SAMUEL</p><br /> -<br /> - -<p class="center small"> -Author of<br /> -“The Story of Gold and Silver”<br /> -<br /> -<br /> -ILLUSTRATED BY<br /> -VELMA T. SIMKINS<br /> -</p> -<hr /> -<p class="center p4 big">THE PENN PUBLISHING<br /> -COMPANY PHILADELPHIA<br /> -1920</p> - -<hr class="p4 r65" /> - -<br /> -<p class="center">COPYRIGHT<br /> -1914 BY<br /> -THE PENN<br /> -PUBLISHING<br /> -COMPANY<br /> - -<span class="figcenter" id="PublisherMark"> -<img src="images/pubmark.jpg" class="w10" alt="PublisherMark" /> -</span></p> - -<hr /> -<p class="center p4 big"><i>To</i><br /> -<i>P. K. P.</i><br /></p> - -<hr class="p4 chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Contents">Contents</h2> -</div> - -<table class="autotable"> -<colgroup> - <col span="1" style="width: 5%"/> - <col span="1" style="width: 85%"/> - <col span="1" style="width: 10%"/> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">I.</td> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><span class="smcap">Billy Bradford</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">9</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">II.</td> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><span class="smcap">Old Iron</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">19</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">III.</td> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><span class="smcap">A Mountain of Iron</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">29</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">IV.</td> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><span class="smcap">The Foundry</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">37</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">V.</td> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><span class="smcap">The Great Iron Key</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">52</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">VI.</td> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><span class="smcap">A Surprise or Two</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">62</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">VII.</td> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><span class="smcap">Iron Cuts Iron</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">75</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">VIII.</td> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><span class="smcap">Traitor Nails</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">90</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">IX.</td> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><span class="smcap">Billy Stands By</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">102</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">X.</td> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><span class="smcap">William Wallace</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">112</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XI.</td> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><span class="smcap">The Treasure Room</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">123</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XII.</td> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><span class="smcap">Thomas Murphy, Timekeeper</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">142</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XIII.</td> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><span class="smcap">Iron Horses</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">156</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XIV.</td> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><span class="smcap">The Giants</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">171</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XV.</td> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><span class="smcap">The Pygmies</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">186</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XVI.</td> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><span class="smcap">What <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott Said</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">203</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Illustrations">Illustrations</h2> -</div> - -<table class="autotable"> - <tr> - <td></td> - <td class="tdr">PAGE</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><a href="#Illustration1"><span class="smcap">Seven Minutes Left</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr"><i>Frontispiece</i></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><a href="#Illustration2"><span class="smcap">He Filled It With Moist Sand</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">45</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><a href="#Illustration3"><span class="smcap">There were Men Polishing and Polishing</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">80</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><a href="#Illustration4">“<span class="smcap">Here Is His Sword</span>”</a></td> - <td class="tdr">136</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><a href="#Illustration5">“<span class="smcap">The Most Fearful Thing Ever Made</span>”</a></td> - <td class="tdr">181</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><a href="#Illustration6">“<span class="smcap">He’s Still Looking at the Gate</span>”</a></td> - <td class="tdr">205</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="nobreak center ph2" id="THE_STORY_OF_IRON">THE STORY OF IRON</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="PageTop1"> -<img src="images/pagetop.jpg" class="w50" alt="Page Top" /> -</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I -<br /> -BILLY BRADFORD</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_009.jpg" width="100" alt=""/> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">“I wisht</span>,” said Billy Bradford, standing, hands thrust deep in his -trousers pockets, in the middle of the path, and looking across the -broad river at the mountains beyond, “I wisht——”</p> - -<p>“William Wallace, come here,” called a voice from the door where the -path ended. “It’s time for you to start with your uncle’s dinner.”</p> - -<p>Billy turned quickly, drew his hands out of his pockets, and in a -moment was at the door.</p> - -<p>Billy Bradford might stand still, looking away off at the mountains, -and wish, but William Wallace was quite another boy. There had been a -time when Billy hadn’t felt that there were two of him. Then he had -lived in the country. That was before the day that his father, hand on -Billy’s head, had smiled at him for the last time, saying, “Billy, my -little man.”</p> - -<p>Then Uncle John had drawn him gently away, and Aunt Mary had kissed -him, and they had brought him to the little house by the river.</p> - -<p>That was two long years ago. Now, William Wallace had to carry dinners, -six dinners a week, to the big foundry, a whole mile away. That was why -there seemed to be two of him, one to do errands, and another to think.</p> - -<p>“You must be very careful not to fall,” said Aunt Mary, as she gave -him the bottle of soup, wrapped in two newspapers to keep it hot. Then -she gave him the pail, saying, “Uncle John will work better all the -afternoon because you are carrying him a hot dinner.”</p> - -<p>“I shall be glad of that,” said Billy, looking up at her and smiling, -as he always did, when he was doing anything for Uncle John.</p> - -<p>Aunt Mary herself liked to do things for Uncle John, so she smiled -back, at least she thought she did; but she didn’t know so much about -smiles as Billy did. He had been used to the kind that go all over a -face and end in wrinkles everywhere.</p> - -<p>Billy’s smile lasted till Aunt Mary said, “Now hurry, William Wallace.”</p> - -<p>That stopped his smile, but he settled the bundle a little more -carefully under his arm and started on his way.</p> - -<p>The day was warm, even for June. Part of the way there wasn’t any -pavement, and, where there was, it was very rough; so, while he was -walking along, Billy had plenty of time to think. He had a great many -things to think about, too, for his birthday was coming the very next -day, and then he would be thirteen years old.</p> - -<p>The thing that was most on his mind was what he could do to earn some -money. He was thinking especially about that, because, the night -before, when they had supposed that he was asleep in the little corner -room, he had heard Aunt Mary say that the money in the bank was getting -very low. Then Uncle John had said, “Sh! sh! Billy may hear.”</p> - -<p>June made Billy want to be out in the country. Things were so mixed up -that he couldn’t seem to straighten them out at all, but he trudged -steadily on, because the William Wallace part of him always kept at -things. Finally he gave up thinking and whistled hard, just to help his -legs along.</p> - -<p>At last he turned the corner, and there was the great mill with the -square tower almost in the middle; and, at the right, the long, low -building with the tall smoke-stack. That was the foundry where Uncle -John worked.</p> - -<p>Billy went through the wide gate just as the whistle blew; and, in a -minute, he could see Uncle John come to the door. He didn’t look as -if he had been working all the morning in damp, black sand. The men -in the foundry said that dirt never stuck to John Bradford. “Clean -John Bradford,” they called him. Clean and good he looked to Billy, as -he stood there in his bright blue overalls and the gray cap that was -almost the color of his hair.</p> - -<p>“Hot soup, sir,” said Billy, handing him the bundle.</p> - -<p>“Sure to be hot, if you bring it,” said Uncle John, his blue eyes -smiling down at Billy. “Might burn a boy, if he fell and broke the -bottle, eh, Billy, my lad?”</p> - -<p>“Pail, sir,” said Billy, his eyes growing bright, until he smiled so -hard that he forgot all about his troubles.</p> - -<p>Somehow Uncle John seemed to understand a great many things. Even if it -was only the risk that a boy took in carrying a bottle of hot soup, it -made Billy feel comfortable to have him understand.</p> - -<p>“Now,” said Uncle John, “we’ll go out back of the mill, and have a good -talk. Been doing anything this morning, Billy?”</p> - -<p>Then Billy told him about the errands that he had done for Aunt Mary -and about his hoeing the two rows of potatoes out by the fence.</p> - -<p>“Well done, Billy,” said Uncle John. “Here’s a bench waiting for us. -Had your own dinner?”</p> - -<p>Billy nodded. Then he said, “Uncle John, do you like to work in the -foundry?”</p> - -<p>“As to that,” answered Uncle John, taking a sandwich from the pail, -“I do. It’s hard work, and it doesn’t make a man rich; but there’s -something about making things that keeps a man interested. It takes -a pretty good eye and a steady hand to make the molds come out just -right. They have to be right, you see; for, if they weren’t, things -wouldn’t fit together. I like to think that I’m helping things in the -world to go right.</p> - -<p>“Just why are you asking me that? Can it be that you’re thinking of -being a man, Billy?</p> - -<p>“Something’s going to happen to-morrow,” he continued, looking very -wise. “I’ve been thinking we’d better celebrate.”</p> - -<p>“Celebrate!” exclaimed Billy.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said Uncle John, nodding his head emphatically. “Just as soon -as I’ve finished this good dinner, we’ll go to the office to get -permission for you to come to see me work, and to wait until we pour.”</p> - -<p>“Honest?” said Billy, for he had wanted and wanted to see how iron -could ever be poured out of a ladle. “Honest and true?”</p> - -<p>“Honest and true,” said Uncle John, as he handed Billy one of the -molasses cookies that Aunt Mary always put in the bottom of the pail.</p> - -<p>“Ready,” said Uncle John, putting the cover on his pail.</p> - -<p>Back they went to the foundry, then across the yard, and past lame Tom, -the timekeeper, down the narrow corridor to the office where they found -the young superintendent at his desk.</p> - -<p>“Why, Bradford,” he said rising, and looking at Billy so hard that it -made his cheeks feel hot, “why, Bradford, I didn’t know that you had a -son.”</p> - -<p>“I haven’t a son, sir,” said John Bradford. “This is my nephew, William -Wallace Bradford.”</p> - -<p>Billy’s cheeks cooled off very fast, and his heart seemed to move down -in his side; for it was the very first time that Uncle John had ever -called him by his whole name.</p> - -<p>“You couldn’t deny that he belongs to you, even if you wanted to,” said -the superintendent, “for his eyes are a real Bradford blue. Anything -like you except his eyes?” he added quizzically.</p> - -<p>“I’m glad that he belongs to me, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott,” answered John Bradford, -putting his hand on Billy’s shoulder. “He’s a good boy, too. Can’t say -just what I was, when I was thirteen.”</p> - -<p>“There’s some difference between a boy and a man, I’ll admit,” said the -superintendent; “but what I’m driving at is that I need an office boy, -this very minute, and I should like a Bradford boy. What do you say, -Bradford?”</p> - -<p>“Eh, Billy, my lad?” said Uncle John.</p> - -<p>Even in the moment that they had been standing there, something in -the tall, broad-shouldered man, who looked earnestly down at him, had -touched Billy’s hero-spring. As soon as he heard the question, he -knew that he wanted to be <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott’s office boy. So, forgetting -all about his birthday and everything else, he said, with his William -Wallace promptness, “I’ll begin right away, sir.”</p> - -<p>“Well then, William,” said the superintendent, in his firm, business -tone, “as my office boy, you must keep your eyes and your ears open, -and your lips shut. Understand?”</p> - -<p>Then, before Billy could answer, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott gave him a letter, -saying, “Post that on the train.”</p> - -<p>Billy darted through the door, and the superintendent sat down at his -desk.</p> - -<p>“Thank you, sir,” said John Bradford; and, just then, the whistle blew.</p> - -<p>Billy did more errands that afternoon than he had ever done in a whole -day; several times he had to put on extra whistle power to keep his -legs going. But he was proud and happy that night when they told Aunt -Mary the news. He saw the look of relief that came into her face; and, -though that made him glad, it made him a little sorry, too.</p> - -<p>After supper he went out in the path to look once more at the mountains -growing dim and blue in the summer twilight. He knew, now, what he had -not known in the morning; and that was, how he was going to help to -take care of himself.</p> - -<p>He stood there until his aunt called, “William Wallace, it’s time to -come in.”</p> - -<p>Then his wish of the morning—the wish of his heart asserted itself -once more; and, as he turned to go into the house, he said, half in a -whisper:</p> - -<p>“I wisht she’d call me Billy.”</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="PageTop2"> -<img src="images/pagetop.jpg" class="w50" alt="Page Top" /> -</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II<br />OLD IRON</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_019.jpg" width="100" alt=""/> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">“Days</span> don’t always come out as we expect they will,” said Uncle John, -as he and Billy started out together the next morning. “But it’s your -birthday, just the same. Shut your eyes and hold out your hand.”</p> - -<p>“Ready.”</p> - -<p>Billy, opening his eyes, saw his uncle holding a jack-knife, which -dangled from a chain.</p> - -<p>“Just what I wanted,” exclaimed Billy, taking the knife.</p> - -<p>“Thought it would be handy for an office boy,” said Uncle John, beaming -with satisfaction.</p> - -<p>“I’m going,” said he, as Billy put his dinner pail down on the sidewalk -and opened both blades, “to give you something else, something to carry -around in your head, instead of in your pocket. It’s an office boy -motto: Whatever you do, do it right, just as right as you can.”</p> - -<p>“That isn’t any new news,” said Billy, looking rather disappointed; -“you told me that a long time ago.”</p> - -<p>“Come to think of it, I did,” said Uncle John. “It’s good for any boy, -any time; but it’s specially good for an office boy. I should like to -talk it over, but we shall have to hurry now.”</p> - -<p>Together they went through the gate, and stood in line, while lame Tom, -the timekeeper, made marks against their names. Then Uncle John said -cheerily, “Meet me behind the mill when the noon whistle blows.”</p> - -<p>“Sure, sir,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>Billy went on, through the great door, down the narrow corridor, and -had a “good-morning” all ready to say when he opened the office door. -Of course he didn’t find anybody there. The office didn’t seem to be in -very good order; but nobody had told him what he was expected to do.</p> - -<p>So he looked around for a moment. Then he put his pail on a stool -in the corner, and picked up a pencil that lay on the floor under -<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott’s desk. The point was broken. That made him think of -his knife. Then he looked for a waste-basket, for Aunt Mary was very -particular about not having shavings and lead on the floor. On the top -of the waste-basket he found a duster. Billy knew a duster when he saw -it, for dusting was one of the things that Aunt Mary had taught him to -do.</p> - -<p>When the pencil was done—it was very well done, for he used both -blades of his knife to do it—he put it on top of <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott’s desk, -and began to dust in good earnest.</p> - -<p>When the postman came in, he looked a little surprised, but all he said -was:</p> - -<p>“New boy, are you?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>Then he put the letters in one pile and the papers in another, and -was putting a finishing touch with his duster on the rungs of <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Prescott’s chair when he came in.</p> - -<p>Billy was so busy that he didn’t hear him till he said, “Good-morning, -William.”</p> - -<p>“Good-morning, sir. Where shall I empty the waste-basket?”</p> - -<p>“Really,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “unexpected pleasure, I am sure—barrel -outside.”</p> - -<p>Billy had hoped that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott would notice how well he had -sharpened the pencil; but he put it into his pocket without saying a -word.</p> - -<p>Perhaps he did see more than he seemed to, for, when the expressman -came in with a package, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott said, “William, cut the string.”</p> - -<p>When Billy took out his knife, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott glanced up from his papers, -saying, “Unexpected pleasure, really.”</p> - -<p>Billy was beginning to feel that being an office boy wasn’t a bit -social, when <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott said:</p> - -<p>“William, why is a jack-knife called a jack-knife?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t know, sir.”</p> - -<p>“Frenchman named Jacques first made them,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>Billy wanted very much to tell him where his knife came from; but he -didn’t feel sure that office boys were supposed to have birthdays.</p> - -<p>Then the stenographer came; and, before Billy knew it, it was noon, and -he went to meet Uncle John behind the mill.</p> - -<p>“Birthday coming on pretty well, Billy?” asked Uncle John, as they both -opened their pails.</p> - -<p>“Sure,” answered Billy, who was so hungry that he couldn’t stop to talk.</p> - -<p>“Sorry we couldn’t celebrate,” said Uncle John. “Mustn’t give up the -idea though, Billy. As you go around on errands, you’ll see a good many -things. Some day we’ll piece them together. Watch for a chance and -it’ll come some day.”</p> - -<p>Billy, fast nearing the bottom of his pail, paused a moment to say, -“Uncle John, were you ever an office boy?”</p> - -<p>“Not just that,” answered Uncle John.</p> - -<p>“There’s a lot to it,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“I suppose there is,” said Uncle John, gravely. “There is to almost -anything, if you do it right.”</p> - -<p>After that, Billy’s days went on, one very like another. It seemed to -him that there was no end to the things he had to learn. He had very -little time to spend in wishing, though every night he went out for a -good look at the mountains. But he was beginning to think about the -kind of man that he would like to be; and every day he was a little -more sure that he wanted to be like the young superintendent.</p> - -<p>He was so short himself that he was afraid that he would never be -as tall as <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. So he began to stand as tall as he could, -especially when he was in the office. Then he tried to remember to -breathe deep, the way that the teacher at school had told the boys to -do. But he wondered, sometimes, when he looked at <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott’s broad -shoulders, whether he had ever been as small as most boys.</p> - -<p>The day that Billy had his first little brown envelope with three -dollars and fifty cents in it, he stood very tall indeed. That night, -at supper, he handed it to Aunt Mary, saying:</p> - -<p>“That’s for you to put in the bank.”</p> - -<p>“For Billy,” said Uncle John, looking up quickly and speaking almost -sternly. “I’m the one to give Aunt Mary money.”</p> - -<p>Then he said gently: “It’s a good plan, Billy, to put your first money -in the bank. You’ll never have any more just like that.”</p> - -<p>The thing that first excited Billy’s curiosity, as he went about on -errands, was the big pile of old iron in the mill yard. There were -pieces of old stoves, and seats from schoolhouses that had been burned, -and engines that had been smashed in wrecks, and old ploughs, and -nobody knew what else—all piled up in a great heap.</p> - -<p>One day, when he carried an order to the man that tended the furnace -in the cupola where they melted the iron, he saw them putting pieces -of old iron on the scales; and he heard the man say to his helper: “We -shall have to put in fifty pounds extra to-day.”</p> - -<p>It seemed to Billy that it wasn’t quite fair to put in old iron, when -they were making new machinery. So, one noon, he asked Uncle John about -it.</p> - -<p>“Using your eyes, are you, Billy? That’s quite likely to set your mind -to working.</p> - -<p>“I suppose you’ve heard them talking around here about testing -machinery. That isn’t the first testing. They test iron all the way -along, from the ore in the mine to the sticks of pig iron piled up in -our yard.”</p> - -<p>“Some of it is in cakes,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“Is that so?” asked Uncle John, as he took another sandwich out of his -pail. “Now I think of it, they did tell me that cakes are the new style -in pig iron.</p> - -<p>“Well,” continued Uncle John, “there are men testing and experimenting -all the time; and some of them found out that old iron and pig iron -together make better new iron than they can make from pig iron alone. -Since they found that out, scrap iron has kept on going up in price.</p> - -<p>“Did you happen, Billy, to see any other heaps lying around?”</p> - -<p>“I saw a pile of coke, over in the corner,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>“Somewhere,” said Uncle John, “there must have been a heap of -limestone. They use that for what they call a flux. That unites with -the waste things, the ashes of the coke and any sand that may have -stuck to the pig iron. Those things together make slag. The slag is so -much lighter than the iron that it floats on top, and there are tap -holes in the cupola where they draw it off. Limestone helps the iron to -melt, that’s another reason why they use it.”</p> - -<p>“I saw some scales,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“Those,” said Uncle John, “are to weigh the things that they put into -the cupola. There are rules for making cast iron. It all depends on -what kind of machinery we want to make.</p> - -<p>“First, in the bottom of the cupola, they make a fire of shavings and -wood, with a little coal; then they put in coke, pig iron, scrap iron, -and limestone, according to the rule for the kind of iron that they -want to make.</p> - -<p>“Those heaps all pieced together, Billy?”</p> - -<p>“Sure,” answered Billy; and, then, the whistle blew.</p> - -<p>Deep down in his heart, Billy didn’t like that whistle. He didn’t tell -Uncle John, because William Wallace scorned anybody who felt like that. -William Wallace said that being on time—on time to the minute—was -only just business. Nevertheless, Billy missed being free. Aunt Mary’s -errands hadn’t been timed by the clock.</p> - -<p>There was another reason why he didn’t tell Uncle John how he felt.</p> - -<p>“Stand by your job, every minute that you belong on it,” was one of the -things that Uncle John had said so many times that it almost worried -Billy.</p> - -<p>But, before the summer was over, Billy was glad that he had kept that -on his mind.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="PageTop3"> -<img src="images/pagetop.jpg" class="w50" alt="Page Top" /> -</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III -<br /> -A MOUNTAIN OF IRON</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_029.jpg" width="100" alt=""/> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">Whether</span>, if it hadn’t been for Billy’s new jack-knife, he and Thomas -Murphy would have become friends, no one can say. It seems very -probable that something would have made them like each other.</p> - -<p>Sitting on a high stool to check time or in a chair to watch the great -door had grown so monotonous that Tom really needed to have somebody to -talk to.</p> - -<p>Then there wasn’t any boy in the mill for Billy to get acquainted with; -and Billy saw Tom oftener than he saw any of the other men. So it seems -very natural that Billy and Tom should have become friends.</p> - -<p>If they hadn’t, things wouldn’t have turned out just as they did; and -whatever else might have happened, it was really the jack-knife that -brought them together.</p> - -<p>Billy had been in the mill about two weeks when, one morning, just as -Tom was finishing making a mark after Uncle John’s name, snap went the -point of his pencil.</p> - -<p>Billy heard it break, and saw Tom put his hand into his pocket. Billy -knew, from Tom’s face, before he drew his hand out, that there wasn’t -any knife in his pocket.</p> - -<p>So Billy put his dinner pail down, and pulling his knife out by the -chain, said quickly:</p> - -<p>“I’ll sharpen your pencil, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy.”</p> - -<p>Billy had been practicing on sharpening pencils. He worked so fast that -the men behind had hardly begun to grumble before the pencil was in -working order, and the line began to move on again.</p> - -<p>Though he did not know it, Billy had done something more than merely to -sharpen Tom’s pencil. When he said, “<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy,” he waked up something -in Tom that Tom himself had almost forgotten about.</p> - -<p>He had been called “Tom Murphy” so long, sometimes only “lame Tom,” -that Billy’s saying “<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy” had made him sit up very straight, -while he was waiting for Billy to sharpen the pencil.</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott thought that he really appreciated Tom. He always said, -“Tom Murphy is as faithful as the day is long”; but even <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott -didn’t know so much about Tom as he thought he did. If Billy and Tom -hadn’t become friends, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott would probably never have learned -anything about the “<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy” side of Tom.</p> - -<p>After that morning, Billy and Tom kept on getting acquainted, until one -day when Uncle John had to go out one noon to see about some new window -screens for Aunt Mary, Billy went to the door to see Tom.</p> - -<p>Tom, having just sat down in his chair, was trying to get his lame leg -into a position where it would be more comfortable.</p> - -<p>“Does your leg hurt, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy?” asked Billy.</p> - -<p>“Pretty bad to-day, William,” answered Thomas Murphy with a groan. “If -it wasn’t so dry, I should think, from the way my leg aches, that it -was going to rain, but there’s no hope of that.”</p> - -<p>“It’s rheumatism, isn’t it?” asked Billy, sympathetically.</p> - -<p>“Part of it is,” answered Tom, “but before that it was crush. I hope -you don’t think I’ve never done anything but mark time at Prescott mill.</p> - -<p>“I suppose that you think you’ve seen considerable iron in this yard -and in this mill; but you don’t know half so much about iron as I did -when my legs were as good as yours.</p> - -<p>“Out West, where I was born, there are acres and acres and acres of -iron almost on top of the ground; and, besides that, a whole mountain -of iron.”</p> - -<p>Tom paused a moment to move his leg again.</p> - -<p>“Was there an iron mine in the ground, too?” asked Billy sitting down -on the threshold of the door.</p> - -<p>“Yes, there was,” answered Tom. “If I had stayed on top of the ground, -perhaps I shouldn’t have been hurt. Might have been blown up in a -gopher hole, though, the way my brother was.”</p> - -<p>“O-oh!” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“Never heard of a gopher hole, I suppose,” continued Tom, settling back -in his chair, as though he intended to improve his opportunity to talk.</p> - -<p>“That’s one way that they get iron out of a mountain. They make holes -straight into a bank. Then they put in sacks of powder, and fire it -with a fuse. That loosens the ore so that they can use a steam shovel. -Sometimes the men go in too soon.”</p> - -<p>“I wish,” said Billy with a little shiver, “that you would tell me -about the mine.”</p> - -<p>“That’ll be quite a contract,” said Thomas Murphy, clasping his hands -across his chest, “but I was in one long enough to know.</p> - -<p>“You’ll think there was a mine down in the ground when I tell you that -I’ve been down a thousand feet in one myself.</p> - -<p>“I went down that one in a cage; but in the mine where I worked I used -to go down on ladders at the side of the shaft.”</p> - -<p>“Was it something like a coal mine?” asked Billy.</p> - -<p>“I’ve heard miners say,” answered Tom, “that some iron is so hard that -it has to be worked with a pick and a shovel; but the iron in our mine -was so soft that we caved it down.</p> - -<p>“If I had been working with a pick, perhaps I shouldn’t have been hurt.</p> - -<p>“When you cave iron, you go down to the bottom of the shaft and work -under the iron. You cut out a place, and put in some big timbers to -hold up the roof. Then you cut some more, and keep on till you think -the roof may fall.</p> - -<p>“Then you board that place in, and knock out some pillars, or blow them -out, and down comes the iron. Then you put it in a car and push it to -a chute, and that loads it on an elevator to be brought up. Sometimes -they use electric trams; we used to have to push the cars.”</p> - -<p>“It must be very hard work,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“Work, William, usually is hard,” said Thomas Murphy. “Work, -underground or above ground, is work, William.”</p> - -<p>“But you haven’t told me, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy,” said Billy, “how you hurt your -knee.”</p> - -<p>“The quickest way to tell you that, William, is to tell you that the -cave, that time, caved too soon. I got caught on the edge of it.</p> - -<p>“After I got out of the hospital, I tried to work above ground; but the -noise of the steam shovels and the blasting wore me out. So, one day, I -took an ore train, and went to the boat and came up the river.</p> - -<p>“Finally, I drifted to Prescott mill, some seasons before you were -born, William.”</p> - -<p>“Have you ever wanted to go back?” asked Billy.</p> - -<p>“No, William, I haven’t. There’s nobody left out there that belongs to -me, anyway. My lame knee wasn’t the only reason why I left, William. I -heard something about the country that I didn’t like at all; I didn’t -like it at all.”</p> - -<p>“Weren’t the people good?” asked Billy.</p> - -<p>“Very good people,” answered Thomas Murphy firmly. “’Twas something -about the mountain that I heard.</p> - -<p>“There were always men around examining the mines. I never paid much -attention to ’em till one day I heard a man—they said he came from -some college—a-talking about volcanoes. He said that iron mountain was -thrown up by a volcano, said he was sure of it.</p> - -<p>“I never told anybody, William, but I cleared out the very next day. -You’ve never heard anything about volcanoes round here, have you, -William?”</p> - -<p>“No, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>“If you ever should, William——” said Thomas Murphy, leaning anxiously -forward.</p> - -<p>“If I ever do hear, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy,” said Billy, feeling that he was making -a promise, “I’ll tell you right away.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you, William,” said Tom. “You won’t mention it, will you?”</p> - -<p>“No, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>That was really the day when Billy and Thomas Murphy sealed their -compact as friends.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="PageTop4"> -<img src="images/pagetop.jpg" class="w50" alt="Page Top" /> -</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV -<br /> -THE FOUNDRY</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_037.jpg" width="100" alt=""/> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">“My</span> friend, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy,” said Billy, one night after supper, when he -and Uncle John were sitting side by side on the steps.</p> - -<p>“Did I understand?” interrupted Uncle John, “<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy?”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” answered Billy, “<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Thomas Murphy the timekeeper.”</p> - -<p>“Exactly,” said Uncle John.</p> - -<p>“<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy,” Billy went on, “says that iron moves the world.”</p> - -<p>“I should say,” said Uncle John, deliberately, “that power generally -has to be put into an iron harness before anything can move; but <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Murphy evidently knows what he is talking about.”</p> - -<p>“He says,” continued Billy, “that iron mills are very important places; -and that, for his part, he’s glad that he works in an iron mill.”</p> - -<p>“That’s the way every man ought to feel about his work,” said Uncle -John; “all the work in the world has to be done by somebody.”</p> - -<p>That remark sounded to Billy as if another motto might be coming; and, -being tired, he wanted just to be social. So he said:</p> - -<p>“Uncle John, did you ever see Miss King, the stenographer?”</p> - -<p>“Only coming and going,” he answered.</p> - -<p>“She’s a friend of mine, too,” said Billy. “She told me, to-day, that -she wants me always to feel that she is my friend.”</p> - -<p>“Everything going all right in the office, Billy?” asked Uncle John, -quickly.</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes,” answered Billy, with a little note of happiness in his -voice. “She told me that so as to make me feel comfortable. She’s -the loveliest woman I ever saw. Don’t you think, Uncle John, that -yellow-brown is the prettiest color for hair?”</p> - -<p>“I do,” said Uncle John, emphatically. Then, rising to go into the -house, he added, “That’s exactly what I used to call Aunt Mary’s hair, -yellow-brown.”</p> - -<p>“Oh!” said Billy wonderingly. Then it was time for him to go to -bed; but he lingered a moment to look at Aunt Mary’s hair that was -dark brown, now, where it wasn’t gray. There was something in his -“Good-night, Aunt Mary,” that made her look up from her paper as she -said:</p> - -<p>“Good-night, William Wallace.”</p> - -<p>Anybody can see that William Wallace is a hard name for a boy to go to -bed on. It was so hard for Billy that it almost hurt; but Billy had -lived with Aunt Mary long enough to be sure that she meant to be a true -friend.</p> - -<p>Whether or not <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott was his friend, Billy did not know. <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Murphy had told him one day when he was out by the door, waiting for -the postman, that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott was a friend to every man in the mill. -Billy supposed that every man was a friend back again. At any rate he -knew that he was; and he hoped that, some day, he would be able to do -something, just to show <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott how much he liked him.</p> - -<p>The more he thought about it, the more it didn’t seem possible that -such a hope as that could ever come true.</p> - -<p>But anybody who liked anybody else as much as he liked <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott -couldn’t help seeing that something bothered him. So Billy had a little -secret with himself to try to look specially pleasant when <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott -came in from a trip around the mill. He had begun to think that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Prescott had given up springing questions on him when, one very warm -afternoon, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott looked up from his desk and said:</p> - -<p>“William, if you were to have an afternoon off, what would you do?”</p> - -<p>“I’d rather than anything else in the world,” answered Billy promptly, -“go out into the country.”</p> - -<p>“That being hardly feasible,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “what else would you -rather do?”</p> - -<p>“Next to that,” answered Billy, “I’d rather go into the foundry to see -Uncle John work.”</p> - -<p>“Well!” exclaimed <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, whirling around in his chair. “That’s -about the last thing that I should have thought of, especially on such -a hot day. May I inquire whether you are interested in iron?”</p> - -<p>Billy, with a quick flash of spirit, answered promptly, “I am, sir.”</p> - -<p>As promptly <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott said, “I’m glad to hear it, William. You may -spend the rest of the afternoon in the foundry.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you, sir,” said Billy, very much surprised. Then he looked at -Miss King, and she nodded and smiled.</p> - -<p>Billy ran down the corridor, passing <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy with a flying salute, -and hurried across the yard to the foundry door.</p> - -<p>Just then he remembered that he hadn’t a permit; but the foreman -appeared in the door saying, “The super has telephoned over that you’re -to visit us this afternoon.”</p> - -<p>Pointing across the room, he added, “Your uncle is over there.”</p> - -<p>Billy wanted to surprise his Uncle John, so he went carefully along the -outer side of the long, low room, past pile after pile of gray black -sand, until he came to the place where Uncle John was bending over what -seemed to be a long bar of sand.</p> - -<p>“Uncle John,” he said softly.</p> - -<p>“Why, Billy, my lad!” exclaimed he, looking up with so much surprise in -his face that Billy said quickly:</p> - -<p>“It’s all right, Uncle John. <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott sent me to watch you work.”</p> - -<p>“Things,” said Uncle John, with a smile that made wrinkles around his -eyes, “generally come round right if you wait for them.”</p> - -<p>“What is that?” asked Billy, pointing at the bar.</p> - -<p>“That is a mold for a lathe,” answered Uncle John. “I’m nearly through -with it, then I’m going to help out on corn cutters. We have a rush -order on corn canning machines. You’d better sit on that box till I’m -through.”</p> - -<p>Billy looked at the tiny trowel in Uncle John’s hand, and saw him take -off a little sand in one place, and put some on in another, until the -mold was smooth and even. Then he tested his corners with what he -called a “corner slick.”</p> - -<p>“I never supposed that you worked that way,” said Billy, “but Miss King -told me that molders are artists in sand.”</p> - -<p>“Did she, though?” said Uncle John, straightening up to take a final -look at his work. “I’ll remember that.</p> - -<p>“Now we’ll go over where they are working on the corn cutters. It’s a -little cooler on that side.”</p> - -<p>“Where does black sand come from?” asked Billy.</p> - -<p>“It’s yellow,” answered his uncle, “when we begin to use it, but the -action of the hot iron, as we use it, over and over, turns it black.”</p> - -<p>Then came the work that Billy had waited so long to see.</p> - -<p>Uncle John took a wooden frame—he called it a drag—which was about -two feet square and not quite so deep. He put it on a bench high enough -for him to work easily. Then he laid six cutters for a corn canning -machine, side by side, in the bottom of the box.</p> - -<p>“Those,” he said, “are patterns.”</p> - -<p>Taking a sieve—a riddle—he filled it with moist sand which he sifted -over the cutters. Next, with his fingers, he packed the sand carefully -around the patterns. Then, with a shovel, he filled the drag with sand, -and rammed it down with a wooden rammer until the drag was full.</p> - -<p>“Now,” said he, taking up a wire, “I am going to make some vent holes, -so the steam can escape.”</p> - -<p>When that was done, he clamped a top on the box, turned it over, and -took out the bottom.</p> - -<p>Billy could see the cutters, bedded firm in the sand.</p> - -<p>Blowing off the loose sand with bellows, and smoothing the sand around -the pattern, Uncle John took some dry sand, which he sifted through his -fingers, blowing it off where it touched the cutters.</p> - -<p>“This sand,” he said, “will keep the two parts of the mold from -sticking together.”</p> - -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="Illustration2"> -<img src="images/i_045.jpg" class="w75" alt="HE FILLED IT WITH MOIST SAND" /> -</span></p> -<p class="center caption">HE FILLED IT WITH MOIST SAND<br /><br /></p> - -<p>Then he took another frame, a cope, which was like the first, except -that it had pins on the sides, where the other had sockets. Slipping -the pins into the sockets, he fastened them together.</p> - -<p>Taking two round, tapering plugs of wood, he set them firmly in the -sand, at each end of the patterns.</p> - -<p>“One of those,” said he, “will make a place for the hot iron to go in, -and the other for it to rise up on the other side.”</p> - -<p>Then he filled the second box as he had the first, and made more vent -holes.</p> - -<p>“Billy,” he said, suddenly, “where are those corn cutters?”</p> - -<p>“In the middle of the box,” answered Billy promptly, just as if he had -always known about molding in sand.</p> - -<p>“Now,” said Uncle John, “comes the artist part.”</p> - -<p>Lifting the second part off the first, he turned it over carefully and -set it on the bench.</p> - -<p>“There they are,” exclaimed Billy.</p> - -<p>“There they are,” said Uncle John, with a smile, “but there they are -not going to remain.”</p> - -<p>Dipping a sponge in water, he wet the sand around the edges of the -pattern. Then he screwed a draw spike into the middle of the pattern -and rapped it gently with a mallet to loosen it from the sand.</p> - -<p>“Pretty nearly perfect, aren’t they?” he said, when he had them all -safely out. “Now for some real artist work.”</p> - -<p>With a lifter he took out the sand that had fallen into the mold, -patched a tiny break here and there, and tested the corners.</p> - -<p>Last of all he made grooves, which he called “gates,” between the -patterns, and also at the ends where the iron was to be poured in.</p> - -<p>Then he clamped the two boxes together. “Now the holes are in the -middle,” said he, “and I hope that they will stay there till the iron -is poured in.”</p> - -<p>Billy, sitting on a box, watched Uncle John till he had finished -another set of molds.</p> - -<p>“That all clear so far?” asked Uncle John.</p> - -<p>“Sure,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>“Think you could do it yourself?” broke in a heavy voice.</p> - -<p>Billy, looking up, saw the foreman, who had been watching Billy while -he watched his uncle.</p> - -<p>“I think I know how,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>“If you won’t talk to the men,” said the foreman, “you may walk around -the foundry until we are ready to pour.”</p> - -<p>So Billy walked slowly around the long foundry. He saw that each man -had his own pile of sand, but the piles were growing very small, -because the day’s work was nearly over. The molds were being put in -rows for the pouring.</p> - -<p>He had walked nearly back to his Uncle John when he happened to step in -a hollow place in the earth floor and, losing his balance, fell against -a man who was carrying a mold.</p> - -<p>With a strange, half-muttered expression the man pushed his elbow -against Billy and almost threw him down.</p> - -<p>Billy, looking up into a pair of fierce black eyes that glared at him -from under a mass of coal black hair, turned so pale that William -Wallace then and there called him a coward.</p> - -<p>As fast as his feet would carry him Billy went back to Uncle John, who, -still busy with his molds, said:</p> - -<p>“Go out behind the foundry and look in at the window to see us pour.”</p> - -<p>Billy, for the first time in his life thoroughly frightened, was glad -to go out into the open air.</p> - -<p>Then he went to the window opposite the great cupola to wait for the -pouring.</p> - -<p>There at the left of the furnace door stood the foundry foreman, tall -and strong, holding a long iron rod in his hand. He, too, was waiting.</p> - -<p>Then, because Billy had thought and thought over what Uncle John had -told him about pouring, his mind began to make a picture; and when -sparks of fire from the spout shot across the foundry, the cupola -became a fiery dragon and the foreman a noble knight, bearing a long -iron spear.</p> - -<p>Only once breathed the dragon; for the knight, heedless of danger, -closed the iron mouth with a single thrust of his spear.</p> - -<p>Another wait. This time the knight forced the dragon to open his mouth, -and the yielding dragon sent out his pointed, golden tongue.</p> - -<p>But only for a moment; for again the knight thrust in his iron spear.</p> - -<p>At last the knight gave way to the dragon.</p> - -<p>Then, wonder of wonders, from the dragon’s mouth there came a golden, -molten stream.</p> - -<p>When the great iron ladle below was almost filled, the knight closed -once more the dragon’s mouth.</p> - -<p>Two by two came men bearing between them long-handled iron ladles. The -great ladle swung forward, for a moment, on its tilting gear, and the -men bore away their ladles filled with iron that the great dragon had -changed from its own dull gray to the brilliant yellow of gold.</p> - -<p>The molds, as they were filled, smoked from all their venting places, -till, to his picture, Billy added a place for a battle-field.</p> - -<p>By the time that the last molds were filled, some of the men began to -take off the wooden frames, and there the iron was, gray again, but, -this time, shaped for the use of man.</p> - -<p>“See,” said Uncle John, coming to the window, “there are our corn -cutters. Came out pretty well, didn’t they?”</p> - -<p>“Wasn’t it great!” exclaimed Billy.</p> - -<p>“Just about as wonderful every time,” said Uncle John.</p> - -<p>“What do they do next?” asked Billy.</p> - -<p>“Make new heaps of sand—every man his own heap—and in the morning, -after the castings have been carried into the mill, they begin all over -again.”</p> - -<p>“I’m so glad I saw it,” said Billy, drawing a deep breath of -satisfaction.</p> - -<p>That night he told Aunt Mary about what he had seen. And he thought -about it almost until he fell asleep. Almost, but not quite; for, just -as he was dozing off, William Wallace said:</p> - -<p>“You were frightened—frightened. You showed a white feather!”</p> - -<p>Half asleep as he was, Billy, tired of William Wallace’s superior airs, -roused himself long enough to say: “We’ll see who has white feathers.”</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="PageTop5"> -<img src="images/pagetop.jpg" class="w50" alt="Page Top" /> -</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V -<br /> -THE GREAT IRON KEY</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_052.jpg" width="100" alt=""/> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">July</span> was hot. Everybody said so. The sun burned the grass in the yards -till it was brown, and no rain came to make it green again. All the men -were tired; some of them were cross.</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott put in more electric fans. Then he played the hose to keep -the air cool, but the water supply was so low that he was ordered to -stop using the hose.</p> - -<p>One day he had an awning put up near the gate, and sent lame Tom -Murphy, the timekeeper, out there to sit.</p> - -<p>Tom, preferring the cool of the great door where he had always sat, -confided his trouble to Billy.</p> - -<p>“It’s my opinion,” he said, “privately spoken to you alone, that the -super sent me out here for something besides air. It’s been my opinion, -for some time, that there’s trouble somewhere.”</p> - -<p>“I suppose,” said Billy, assuming a business tone, “that you’re a -friend back again, aren’t you, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy?”</p> - -<p>Unconsciously sitting straighter in his chair, he answered, “I’m not -altogether clear as to your meaning, William.”</p> - -<p>“You told me yourself, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy,” said Billy, still speaking very -firmly, “that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott is a friend to every man in the mill. Aren’t -you a friend back again?”</p> - -<p>“I am,” answered the timekeeper emphatically. “You may depend on me in -all weathers, even to sitting out here in the sun.”</p> - -<p>“Then,” said Billy, “you and I, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy, are both friends, on our -honor as gentlemen—that’s what my father used to say.”</p> - -<p>“I am,” answered Thomas Murphy.</p> - -<p>Just then they heard the honk, honk of <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott’s machine, and -Billy stood carefully aside for him to pass.</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, who was alone, said:</p> - -<p>“Things all right, Thomas? Jump in, William.”</p> - -<p>Billy, surprised beyond words, obeyed.</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, starting the car quickly, drove rapidly down the street.</p> - -<p>When they reached the square, Billy said:</p> - -<p>“Some letters, sir, to post. That’s where I was going.”</p> - -<p>“Very well,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, stopping the car.</p> - -<p>“Ever in a machine before?” he asked, as Billy got in again beside him.</p> - -<p>“No, sir.”</p> - -<p>“Think I’ll take you with me then; I’m chasing an order. We’re nearly -out of coke.”</p> - -<p>They rode so fast that the air began to seem cooler. Billy, quite -willing to be silent with <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott beside him, settled back in the -seat in blissful content.</p> - -<p>“Know anything about coke, William?” asked <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, breaking the -silence, suddenly.</p> - -<p>“No, sir, except that it’s gray, and that they burn it in the cupola.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes, I remember,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott; “you’re interested in iron. -Well, then, it’s time that you knew something about coke.</p> - -<p>“Long ago they used charcoal, that is, partly burned wood, in the iron -furnaces. That used up the forests so fast that, over in England, the -government had to limit the number of iron furnaces.</p> - -<p>“Then they tried to use coal. That didn’t work very well. Finally -somebody found that, if the coal was partly burned, that is, made -into coke, it would require less blast, and the iron would melt more -quickly. It was a great day for iron when coke came in.”</p> - -<p>The car sped on, and again <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott lapsed into silence.</p> - -<p>The country didn’t look at all like the country that Billy dreamed -about. His was green. This was brown. But there were no hot, red bricks -to look at; that was something to be thankful for, anyway.</p> - -<p>“See anything new?” asked <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>“What are they?” asked Billy, pointing to long rows of something that -looked like large beehives.</p> - -<p>“Coke ovens; they call them beehive ovens. That overhead railway is -where they charge the ovens through the top. After the coal has burned -about two days, it is quenched with water. Then they draw it out at the -bottom as coke, and put in a new charge while the ovens are still hot.”</p> - -<p>After he got home that night—it was closing time when they reached the -square where <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott left him—Billy couldn’t remember that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Prescott had said a word to him all the way back. But Billy was happy, -and rested, too.</p> - -<p>While they were walking to the mill the next morning Uncle John said:</p> - -<p>“Billy, my lad, I want to give you some confidential advice. You went -out riding with the superintendent yesterday, didn’t you?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>“But you’re the office boy, just the same, this morning?”</p> - -<p>“Sure, Uncle John,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>“I thought you’d be clear on that,” said Uncle John, beaming with -pride. “I thought you’d be clear on that!”</p> - -<p>Billy began the day as an office boy, dusting and sharpening pencils -and sorting the mail.</p> - -<p>Miss King came in, looking cool and pretty in her white office dress, -with a bunch of sweet peas in her hand.</p> - -<p>“Beautiful, aren’t they, William?” she said holding them up in the -light. “See how the lavender ones have pink in them, and the pink have -white, and the white are just tinted with pink, so they all blend -together. I always pick some leaves, too; they’re such a soft, cool -green.”</p> - -<p>“Do you suppose,” asked Billy, “that they’d grow in a yard—just a -common yard?”</p> - -<p>“These grew in our back yard,” answered Miss King. “I’ll give you some -seed next year.”</p> - -<p>At that moment <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott came in with a telegram in his hand.</p> - -<p>“Have to catch the nine-forty express,” he said. “Can’t get back for -three days, anyway. Open those letters, William.”</p> - -<p>Out came Billy’s knife, and he opened letters while <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott -dictated to Miss King.</p> - -<p>“Don’t,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, seizing his hat, “let anybody know that I -have gone if you can help it. Don’t tell them how long I shall be gone. -You and William must look after everything.”</p> - -<p>Then off he went, leaving Miss King and Billy looking at each other in -dismay.</p> - -<p>“Well,” said Miss King, after a moment, “we don’t know where he has -gone. So we can’t tell anybody that. And we don’t know when he is -coming back.</p> - -<p>“It isn’t very likely,” she added, with a reassuring smile, “that -anything will happen while he is gone.”</p> - -<p>Billy, who had never forgotten about keeping his ears open, thought -Miss King said “very” as if she weren’t quite sure about something. So -he said:</p> - -<p>“I’ll stay in here with you as much as I can.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you,” said Miss King, smiling.</p> - -<p>“There’s nothing to do, anyway,” she went on, half to herself, “except -to do things as they come along. So we’ll do that, William.</p> - -<p>“Please get me some water for the flowers.”</p> - -<p>Then she opened the typewriter and began to write very fast.</p> - -<p>The day went on very much like other days. The mill seemed almost to be -running itself.</p> - -<p>When they were leaving the office that night Miss King said cheerfully:</p> - -<p>“We’ve had a very pleasant day, haven’t we, William?”</p> - -<p>“Seems to me I haven’t worked so hard as usual,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>The next day when Billy came back from the bank, soon after the noon -whistle had blown, lame Tom’s chair under the canopy by the gate was -empty.</p> - -<p>Billy, hurrying on to the main building, found that Tom’s chair by the -great door was empty, too.</p> - -<p>As he stepped inside, Tom appeared from behind the door.</p> - -<p>When he saw Billy an expression of relief came into his face.</p> - -<p>“I’m glad to see you, William,” he said. “Stand in the door a minute -and pretend I’m not talking to you.”</p> - -<p>Billy, wondering what could have happened, turned his back on Tom, and -waited.</p> - -<p>“William,” said Tom, in an almost sepulchral tone, “the great key is -gone.”</p> - -<p>Billy nearly jumped out the door. But, remembering that he was on duty -to look after things, he said:</p> - -<p>“You watch while I try to find it.”</p> - -<p>Even Billy’s young eyes could not find the key. He searched till he was -sure, then he said:</p> - -<p>“I’ll look again, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy, after you go out to the gate.”</p> - -<p>The key was one of <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott’s special treasures, for it was the -very one that his grandfather had when he first built the mill. Several -times the door had been almost made over, but the key had never been -changed.</p> - -<p>It was an iron key—three times as long as Billy’s longest finger, with -a bow in which three of his fingers and almost a fourth could lie side -by side, and its bit was more than half as long as his thumb. It was so -large that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott sometimes called lame Tom “the keeper of the -great key.”</p> - -<p>Gone it was. Billy hunted till he was sure of that. He wanted to tell -Miss King about it, but he could not stop to tell her then, for he had -to distribute the orders for the afternoon.</p> - -<p>Here and there he went. Last of all he had to go into the foundry. He -was half-way down the room before he realized that he was on the side -where he must pass the man with the fierce eyes and the coal black -hair. Determined this time to be brave, he went steadily on.</p> - -<p>The man was standing still, bending over his drag, his shock of unkempt -hair hanging down over his eyes. He was so intent on his work that -Billy, so nearly past that he felt quite safe, looked down curiously to -see what pattern the man was using.</p> - -<p>There, all by itself, in the bottom of the box, lay the great iron key.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="PageTop6"> -<img src="images/pagetop.jpg" class="w50" alt="Page Top" /> -</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI -<br /> -A SURPRISE OR TWO</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_062.jpg" width="100" alt=""/> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> sight of the key did something more than to make Billy’s eyes -open very wide; it struck to his legs. They grew so heavy that, for -a minute, he couldn’t lift them at all. But he kept on trying, and -finally succeeded in pulling up first one, and then the other, and in -starting them both. Then they wanted to move fast, and he had hard work -to slow them down to simply a quick walk. At last he reached the door, -and hurried across the yard and down the corridor to the office.</p> - -<p>When he opened the door, something struck to his feet, and fairly glued -them to the threshold.</p> - -<p>There at his desk, writing away hard, sat <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>Billy’s blue eyes, large from seeing the key, grew still larger, so -that, when <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott finally looked up, he saw quite a different boy -from the Billy whom he had left only the day before.</p> - -<p>“Well, William,” he said, as he put down his pen, “having obeyed to -the letter—I might say to the period—my injunction to keep your lips -shut, suppose you open them.”</p> - -<p>Billy’s tongue seemed to be fastened to the roof of his mouth tighter -than his feet were to the floor, and he couldn’t seem to unfasten it.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps,” continued <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “it might be as well, just at this -point, for me to inform you that surprise is one of the persistent -elements of business. I met another telegram, so you meet me. What has -happened?”</p> - -<p>When Billy finally reached the desk and began to tell him about the -key, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott whirled around in his chair and put his right thumb -into the right armhole of his vest.</p> - -<p>Before Billy had finished, though his tongue, having started, went very -fast, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott put his other thumb in his other armhole, and leaned -back in his chair till his shoulders seemed almost to fill the space -between the desk and the railing.</p> - -<p>“Well,” he said, when Billy had finished, “as you are the one in -possession of the original facts, what do you think had better be done?”</p> - -<p>If <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott had only known it, Billy didn’t like him very well -when he talked that way. But of course nobody can like anybody every -minute of the time; for even a best hero is more than likely to have -disagreeable spots. Billy’s father had told him that, and Billy was -very much like his father in the way he had of forgetting disagreeables -pretty soon after they happened. Just that minute, anyway, his whole -mind was on that great iron key.</p> - -<p>Besides, when <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott talked that way, he always hit the man-side -of Billy. Possibly <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott knew that.</p> - -<p>“I think, sir,” answered Billy, almost before he knew what he was -saying, “that I can get the key.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, you do, do you?” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “Will you be so kind as to -tell me about what time to-day you will deliver it?”</p> - -<p>Billy looked at the clock.</p> - -<p>Miss King’s keys kept right on—clickety-clickety-click.</p> - -<p>Billy changed his weight to his other foot before he answered:</p> - -<p>“About four o’clock, sir.”</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott looked at the clock, then he took up his pen, saying:</p> - -<p>“It is now nearly half-past three. It would be a pity, in such an -important matter, for you to fail for lack of time to work out any -little theory that you happen to have originated. Suppose we make it -half-past four o’clock.”</p> - -<p>As Billy started for the door <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott added:</p> - -<p>“Having opened your lips, you may close them again, a little tighter -than before. Understand?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>“Mind,” called <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, when Billy had almost closed the door, -“you are to return at half-past four, key or no key.”</p> - -<p>“Sure, sir,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>Things don’t always look the same on both sides of a door. Billy found -that out as soon as he was alone in the corridor. But Billy had a -theory, though <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott may have thought that he was joking, and -it was built on so firm a foundation that William Wallace offered, at -once, to help him work it out.</p> - -<p>Billy hadn’t visited Uncle John that day in the foundry simply for -nothing. He had it all figured out in his mind that, as soon as the -black-haired man had finished using the key for a pattern, he would put -it back in the door; and Billy had said four o’clock because that was -about the time when the molds were supposed to be ready.</p> - -<p>When a man knew as much about molding as <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott did, it did seem -as if he might have figured that out himself.</p> - -<p>Billy looked around for a place where he could hide to watch the door. -There wasn’t anybody in sight, so he took plenty of time to decide.</p> - -<p>Half-way down the corridor, on the right hand side, was a small closet -that had been built up on the floor, by itself, so that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott -could have a place to keep his motor clothes.</p> - -<p>Billy went into that, and tried, by leaving the door part way open, to -fix a crack through which he could watch the door. Finding that the -crack was too far out of range, he started down the corridor to find -another place.</p> - -<p>He had just about decided to try hiding behind the tool room when he -heard a step, and, looking up, saw Thomas Murphy, the timekeeper.</p> - -<p>“It’s a great relief, William,” said Tom, “to see a friend like you. -Does the super know about the key?”</p> - -<p>Billy looked at Tom, and Tom looked at Billy. Bad as Tom felt, Billy -felt three times worse. Billy had three things on his mind: first of -all, he mustn’t tell a lie; then, he must keep the secret; and, if Tom -Murphy stayed by that door, the man wouldn’t bring back the key.</p> - -<p>Billy and William Wallace both thought as fast as they could. Billy got -hold of an idea first. Perhaps by asking Tom a question he could throw -him off the track, and could keep from telling a lie.</p> - -<p>So he said: “Had you made up your mind, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy, when it would be -best to tell him?”</p> - -<p>“No, William,” answered Tom Murphy, in a hopeless tone, “I hadn’t. I’ve -turned that thing over and over in my mind, and I’ve turned it inside -out; and all the answer that I can get to it is that there’ll be no Tom -Murphy any more a-keepin’ time at Prescott mill.”</p> - -<p>“But you didn’t lose the key, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy,” said Billy, very -sympathetically, now that his first danger was over.</p> - -<p>“That I didn’t,” said Tom Murphy. “It’s been a rule and a regulation -that that key was to stay in that door from morning to night. That key -ought <em>not</em> to have been left in that door.”</p> - -<p>“No,” said Billy, “excepting that everybody knows how much <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott -thinks of that key.”</p> - -<p>“That’s just it,” said Thomas Murphy, pulling his old chair out from -behind the door, and sinking into it with a sigh of relief.</p> - -<p>“What would you,” he asked as he stretched out his lame leg, and -clasped his hands across his chest, “what would you advise, as a -friend? Don’t leave me, William,” he exclaimed, as Billy stepped -outside.</p> - -<p>“I won’t,” said Billy, stepping forward far enough to see the clock.</p> - -<p>Fifteen minutes gone! Where had fifteen minutes gone?</p> - -<p>“Do you think, William,” asked Thomas Murphy, as Billy went back to -him, “that, if the super never finds that key, there will be any Thomas -Murphy any more a-keepin’ time at Prescott mill?”</p> - -<p>“You know,” said Billy, “that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott is a friend to everybody. -I think,” he added slowly, because he was trying to keep still and at -the same time to be wise, “I think he would be—more of—a friend—to a -man—than to a key.”</p> - -<p>“His grandfather’s key?” said Tom solemnly.</p> - -<p>“His grandfather’s key,” repeated Billy, backing toward the door, and -stepping out.</p> - -<p>Five minutes of four!</p> - -<p>Looking over at the foundry, Billy saw a man with shaggy black hair -who, with his right hand pressed close against his side, was stepping -back into the foundry door!</p> - -<p>Billy himself stepped quickly back.</p> - -<p>“William,” said Thomas Murphy, “you seem to be unusually oneasy.”</p> - -<p>“It’s a very warm day,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“If it seems hot to you in here,” said Thomas Murphy, settling still -further back in his chair, “what do you think it has been to me -a-sittin’ out under that canopy in the sun?”</p> - -<p>Billy grew desperate. “<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy,” he said, “it seems to me—do you -think, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy—I mean—don’t you think that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott expects -you are sitting out there now?”</p> - -<p>“That may be,” answered Thomas Murphy.</p> - -<p>“Don’t you think,” said Billy, growing more and more desperate, “that -it would be a good plan for us to go out there together?”</p> - -<p>“Sometimes,” said Thomas Murphy, in an injured tone, “a man’s best -friends can make things very hard for him.”</p> - -<p>“Can I help you to get up?” asked Billy, going up to Thomas Murphy, and -putting his hand on his arm.</p> - -<p>“No, William,” said Thomas Murphy, moving his arm with more decision -than was really necessary. “Thomas Murphy is still able to rise without -the assistance of a—a friend.”</p> - -<p>Slowly Thomas Murphy drew himself from the depths of the chair.</p> - -<p>Billy, backing out the great door, saw the clock.</p> - -<p>Ten minutes more gone!</p> - -<p>“Hurry up!” said William Wallace. “Hurry up!”</p> - -<p>“I tell you, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy,” said Billy in his most friendly tone, “I’ll -go out under the canopy. Then, if <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott does come out, he’ll see -that there’s somebody at the gate.”</p> - -<p>“Very well,” said Thomas Murphy, lowering his lame leg carefully down -the step. “Very well.”</p> - -<p>Billy, glad of a chance to work off his feelings, ran out to the gate -as fast as he could.</p> - -<p>Slowly, very slowly, Thomas Murphy came across the yard.</p> - -<p>Billy, that he might not seem to be watching, stood with his back to -the mill.</p> - -<p>About the time that he thought Thomas Murphy would reach the gate, -he heard a sudden exclamation. Turning around, he saw Thomas Murphy, -timekeeper of Prescott mill, lying flat on his face.</p> - -<p>Quarter-past four stood the hands of the clock. Never in his life had -Billy seen them move so fast at that time of the day.</p> - -<p>Hurrying back he asked, “Can I help you, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy?”</p> - -<p>“Thank you, William,” answered Thomas Murphy, holding out his hand for -help. “A friend in need is a friend indeed.”</p> - -<p>As Billy bent over to help Thomas Murphy, he saw something that, for a -moment, made him so excited that he couldn’t have told whether he was -standing on his head or his heels.</p> - -<p>A black-haired man was creeping along the wall toward the door of the -mill!</p> - -<p>When he was sure that he was standing on his heels, Billy looked at the -clock.</p> - -<p>Seven minutes left!</p> - -<p>He helped Thomas Murphy to his chair. He even took time to say, “<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Murphy, there are some things that I have been wanting to ask you about -iron.”</p> - -<p>“Anything,” said Thomas Murphy, safe in his chair, “anything that I -know is at your service, William.”</p> - -<p>Then Billy said, “<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott told me to come back at half-past four.”</p> - -<p>“I should say,” remarked Thomas Murphy, “that you’ll have to hurry, -William. Near as I can see the hands of that clock, it’s hard on to -that now.”</p> - -<p>Billy did hurry, and soon had the key safe in his hands.</p> - -<p>As he went quickly down the corridor, William Wallace gave him some -special advice:</p> - -<p>“Don’t explain. Business is business. Just deliver the key.”</p> - -<p>When Billy went into the office, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott glanced at the clock.</p> - -<p>“Punctuality, William,” he said, “is a desirable thing in business.”</p> - -<p>He took the key just as if he had been expecting it.</p> - -<p>“Thank you, William,” he said.</p> - -<p>Then, seeming to forget Billy, he began to look the key over, stem, -bit, and bow, touching it here and there, and holding it carefully, as -if it were something that he valued very much.</p> - -<p>Realizing, at last, that Billy was waiting, he said:</p> - -<p>“Surprise, as I was saying, is one of the elements that must be -reckoned with in business.”</p> - -<p>When he said that, he used his firm, business tone.</p> - -<p>But his voice was very gentle as he looked straight into Billy’s eyes, -and added:</p> - -<p>“This time, William, the surprise is mine.”</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="PageTop7"> -<img src="images/pagetop.jpg" class="w50" alt="Page Top" /> -</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII -<br /> -IRON CUTS IRON</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_075.jpg" width="100" alt=""/> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">About</span> the middle of the next forenoon, as Billy was going through the -gate, Thomas Murphy leaned forward confidentially, and said:</p> - -<p>“William, that key was in that door when I went to lock it last night.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said Billy, hurrying on, “I saw it there when I went home.”</p> - -<p>Billy didn’t care to discuss the matter.</p> - -<p>The truth was that he thought it very strange that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott should -have put the key right back in the lock. Business seemed to him to have -some queer places in it.</p> - -<p>But it had pleasant places, too, for, when Billy came back, he met <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Prescott, just starting on his trip around the mill.</p> - -<p>“William,” he said, “when a boy makes practical use of a visit to a -foundry, I think it would be a good idea for him to go over a mill, -don’t you?”</p> - -<p>That was a long speech for <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. There wasn’t any time lost, -however, for Billy didn’t answer. He didn’t have to, because his face -told, right away, what he thought about it.</p> - -<p>Miss King, looking up, nodded and smiled.</p> - -<p>Off they went: tall, broad man; boy that was growing taller and -slenderer every day.</p> - -<p>Billy threw back his shoulders, and drew a long, deep breath. Part of -it was satisfaction; the rest was a desire to be strong and broad like -<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>“That,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, as they passed a huge drum which was turning -over and over and making a great noise, “is a rattler. There’s some -sand left on castings after molding. Put small ones in there with -pieces of wood. Rub each other off.”</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott went on, seeming to forget Billy, as he spoke here and -there to his men.</p> - -<p>Billy followed close, for he knew that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott was likely, any -moment, to spring a question on him.</p> - -<p>They were half-way over the mill before <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott spoke again. Then, -stopping suddenly before a large lathe, he said:</p> - -<p>“John Bradford makes our best beds and slides. See him?” he asked, -turning to Billy.</p> - -<p>“He was making something long,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>“We make lathes,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “Good ones; all kinds.”</p> - -<p>In the next room he stopped again.</p> - -<p>“Different kinds of iron,” he said. “Some much harder than others, like -tool steel. Iron cuts iron. That’s a planing machine: automatic plane -cuts any thickness.”</p> - -<p>Billy stopped beside the mighty planer, moving over the large casting -as easily as if the iron had been wood and the fierce chisel only a -carpenter’s plane.</p> - -<p>They went on a little further, then <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott turned suddenly. -“William,” he asked, “how long is an inch?”</p> - -<p>He certainly had sprung it on Billy, but Billy’s spring worked too.</p> - -<p>“About down to there,” he answered, marking his left forefinger off -with his right. “No,” he said, moving his mark up a little higher, -“about there.”</p> - -<p>“You were nearer right the first time,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “Now, listen -to me. Iron can cut iron to within a fraction of a thousandth of an -inch.”</p> - -<p>Billy’s eyes opened till they showed almost twice as much white as blue.</p> - -<p>“Automatic index registers. Man watches index.</p> - -<p>“Look at that,” he said a moment later. “See that machine cutting a -screw.”</p> - -<p>That seemed to be something that especially interested <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, -for he stood a moment to watch the tool that was cutting into the -round bar of iron, making, in even and regular grooves, a huge screw. -Automatically, too, there came down on it a steady stream of oil.</p> - -<p>“Why’s that?” asked Billy.</p> - -<p>“The oil keeps the iron from becoming too hot,” answered <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. -“Heat expands iron. If we didn’t keep it cool, the screw wouldn’t be -the right size when it is done.</p> - -<p>“Cold naturally works the other way. Ever hear about the iron bridge -where the parts wouldn’t quite come together, so they put ice on to do -the job?” he asked, but he kept right on, without waiting for Billy to -answer.</p> - -<p>Billy saw other machines boring holes and rounding corners. It seemed -as if iron could cut iron into any shape that anybody wanted.</p> - -<p>Then there were men polishing and polishing, until they could fairly -see their faces in the iron. Billy could hardly believe that the gray -iron of the foundry could ever have become such silver-shining iron.</p> - -<p>Still <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott kept on, Billy close behind.</p> - -<p>“This,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, stopping in a room almost at the end of -the mill, “is the assembly room. Here is where the machines are put -together.”</p> - - -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="Illustration3"> -<img src="images/i_080.jpg" class="w75" alt="THERE WERE MEN POLISHING AND POLISHING" /> -</span></p> -<p class="center caption">THERE WERE MEN POLISHING AND POLISHING<br /><br /></p> - -<p>“Over there,” he said, pointing across the room, “they are putting a -lathe together. There will be between sixty and seventy pieces in it -when it is done. See, they have arranged all the parts.”</p> - -<p>Billy looked wonderingly at the great base and slide, and then at the -rods and screws and handles and nuts. He didn’t see how anybody could -tell how they went together.</p> - -<p>When he asked <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, he said:</p> - -<p>“They have drawings that they follow till the men can do it almost -without referring to the drawing.”</p> - -<p>“What’s that?” asked Billy, pointing to a queer thing over beyond the -lathe.</p> - -<p>“That,” answered <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “is one of our special orders. It is a -corn canning machine.”</p> - -<p>Billy’s eyes grew so bright that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott said:</p> - -<p>“Do corn canners interest you more than lathes?”</p> - -<p>“That’s what Uncle John was making the day that I went to watch him; he -made some of the knives.”</p> - -<p>“Here they are,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “where they were made to go. I -think, myself, that this is rather an interesting machine. They put the -corn in at one end, and it comes out in cans at the other, and nobody -touches it.”</p> - -<p>“It’s wonderful,” said Billy, going over once more to look at the parts -of a lathe that were assembled, ready to be put together, “how all the -parts fit, when so many different people make them.”</p> - -<p>“If every man in this world would do his work as faithfully as our men -do, things in the world would fit together much better than they do,” -said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>That sounded like Uncle John. It was the first time that Billy had -thought that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott and Uncle John were a little alike.</p> - -<p>A moment later, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott pushed back a sliding door, and they both -went into the new part of the mill.</p> - -<p>“This,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “is to be the new assembly room. We have -needed it for a long time. I shall be glad when it is done.”</p> - -<p>Then he turned so suddenly that he almost ran into Billy.</p> - -<p>“Any questions, William?” he asked.</p> - -<p>Billy’s face must have given his answer again, for <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott pushed -an empty box toward Billy.</p> - -<p>Finding one for himself he turned it over, and, sitting down opposite -him, said:</p> - -<p>“Fire away.”</p> - -<p>“What,” asked Billy, “is the difference between iron and steel?”</p> - -<p>“If you were to put that question as it ought to be put,” answered <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Prescott, pushing his box against the wall, and leaning back with his -hands in his pockets, “you would ask what is the difference between -irons and steels.</p> - -<p>“If I were to talk all day, I couldn’t fully answer that question; but -perhaps I can clear things up for you just a little.</p> - -<p>“In the first place, every mining region produces its own variety of -ore—so there are a great many kinds of iron to start with. In the next -place, the kind of iron that you get from the ore depends largely on -how you treat it.</p> - -<p>“I suppose that you have seen a blacksmith shoe horses, haven’t you?”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” answered Billy. “I knew a blacksmith up in the country.”</p> - -<p>“Well,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “how did he work?”</p> - -<p>“He heated the shoe red-hot on the forge, and then hammered it into -shape on the anvil.”</p> - -<p>“Blew bellows, didn’t he?” queried <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>“Sure,” answered Billy. “Sometimes he used to let me do that.”</p> - -<p>“Well, then,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “just remember three things: fuel, -blast, and hammer—power, of course, behind the hammer. It’s the -different variations that men have been making on those three things -that have brought iron where it is to-day.</p> - -<p>“Iron ore has so many things besides iron in it that the problem has -always been how to get the impurities out.</p> - -<p>“The old blacksmiths used to put it in the fire and hammer it; put it -back in the fire and hammer again, until they worked most of the other -things out. They made what is called forge iron.</p> - -<p>“Then an Englishman, named Cort, found a way to burn and roll the -impurities out. The thing they particularly wanted to get rid of was -carbon, because that makes iron too brittle to use for a great many -things.</p> - -<p>“They worked away till a man—Sir Henry Bessemer—found a way to burn -out all the carbon, and to make a kind of steel called Bessemer steel.</p> - -<p>“Steel is, technically, an alloy of iron and carbon. The point is to -have the carbon added to the iron in just the right proportion to make -the kind of steel that you may happen to want.</p> - -<p>“Bessemer—he was an Englishman, too—invented a converter to put -carbon back into iron, that is, to make iron into steel.</p> - -<p>“When it comes to telling you about steels, I can’t do that to-day; -there are too many kinds.</p> - -<p>“You may not know it, William, but you are living in the age of steel. -Industry depends on iron, for almost all the tools in the world are -made of steel.</p> - -<p>“Cast iron, like ours, is more brittle than steel, because it has much -more carbon in it; but it is useful for many things. I shall stand -right by cast iron.”</p> - -<p>Then he said, half to himself:</p> - -<p>“Sometimes I wish the other fellows hadn’t discovered quite so much. I -should have liked to have a hand in it myself.”</p> - -<p>Then Billy put the question that he had been trying to find a chance to -ask.</p> - -<p>“<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott,” he began, but stopped a moment, as though he were -having some difficulty in getting his question into shape. “Do -volcanoes ever throw up mountains of iron?”</p> - -<p>“Trying to get back to the beginning, are you?” asked <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. -“Planning to be a geologist?”</p> - -<p>But seeing that Billy was too serious, just then, to be put off -lightly, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott went on:</p> - -<p>“That’s a good question. The geologists tell us, and I suppose that -they are right, that there was once a chain of active volcanoes up in -the Lake Superior region, and that is why there is so much iron up -there now.</p> - -<p>“There are some volcanoes in the world now, but the volcanoes that the -geologists talk about became extinct—dead, you know—long before the -earth was ready for man. Nobody knows how many thousands of years ago.</p> - -<p>“Noon!” he exclaimed, as the whistle blew. “What a short morning this -has been!”</p> - -<p>As soon as Billy could get to Uncle John he told him where he had been.</p> - -<p>“I thought,” said Uncle John, nodding his head, “that that chance would -come some day, Billy. Watch for a chance, and it generally comes.”</p> - -<p>Not until Billy went out the gate that night did he have an opportunity -to speak to Thomas Murphy.</p> - -<p>He let Uncle John go on a few steps ahead, then he said in a low tone:</p> - -<p>“<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy, there were volcanoes out there J-ologists say so; but -they’re dead; been dead thousands of years.”</p> - -<p>Thomas Murphy, listening with eager ears, looked gravely into Billy’s -eyes.</p> - -<p>“All of ’em, everywhere?” he asked earnestly.</p> - -<p>“Those old volcanoes,” answered Billy, so impressed with Tom’s -seriousness that he made each word stand out by itself, “are all dead, -everywhere.”</p> - -<p>The look of relief that came into Tom’s face almost startled Billy.</p> - -<p>Then, seeing that Uncle John was waiting for him, Billy said quickly:</p> - -<p>“Just as soon as I can get a chance, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy, I want you to tell me -some more of the things that you know about iron.”</p> - -<p>Thomas Murphy, suddenly freed from his fear, straightened up as, with -the air of an expert, he said:</p> - -<p>“That’s a large subject, William.”</p> - -<p>“You and Tom Murphy,” said Uncle John, when Billy overtook him, “seem -to be pretty good friends.”</p> - -<p>“I promised to tell him something,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>But that was all he said, for just as truly as Thomas Murphy knew that -work is work, did Billy Bradford know that secrets are secrets.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="PageTop8"> -<img src="images/pagetop.jpg" class="w50" alt="Page Top" /> -</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII -<br /> -TRAITOR NAILS</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_090.jpg" width="100" alt=""/> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">For</span> several days Billy was so busy that he had to resist all of Tom -Murphy’s attempts to make him stop to talk.</p> - -<p>Then one noon, as he was going through the gate, Tom said:</p> - -<p>“Why don’t you bring your dinner out here, William? Then we can have -that talk about iron.”</p> - -<p>Much as he wanted to be with Uncle John, Billy really was anxious to -hear what Thomas Murphy had to say about iron. So he answered:</p> - -<p>“I think, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy, that that would be a good plan.”</p> - -<p>When Billy came back, Thomas Murphy, eager of his opportunity, was -putting the cover on his own pail.</p> - -<p>Then, sitting up straight in his chair, and swelling with oratorical -pride, he began:</p> - -<p>“William, I told you that iron is a large subject. The more a man -thinks about it, the larger it gets.</p> - -<p>“Here,” he said, waving his left hand, “is our mill. What do we make? -We make lathes, corn canners, and—and—all sorts of things. What do we -make them of? Iron.</p> - -<p>“What carries them all over the country? Iron engines. What do those -engines run on, William? Iron rails. What carries ’em across the ocean? -Iron ships.</p> - -<p>“What makes our flour? Iron grinding machines.</p> - -<p>“What heats our houses? Iron stoves. What——”</p> - -<p>Pausing a moment for breath, he thrust his thumbs under his suspenders. -Happening to hit the buckles, he began again:</p> - -<p>“What holds our clothes together? Iron buckles, iron buttons,” he said -with emphasis.</p> - -<p>Pausing again, he looked up.</p> - -<p>“What,” he said, pointing dramatically at the telephone wire, “carries -our messages from land to land, from shore to shore? Iron.”</p> - -<p>He paused again. Seeing that he had Billy’s attention, Tom looked at -him a moment in silence.</p> - -<p>“William,” he said so suddenly that Billy fairly jumped, “those very -shoes that you are a-standin’ in are held together by iron nails!”</p> - -<p>Then, leaning forward, with his elbows resting on the arms of his -chair, he concluded:</p> - -<p>“William, as far as I can see, if it wasn’t for iron, we should all be -just nothin’, nobody.”</p> - -<p>Billy, drawing a long breath, said:</p> - -<p>“You’ve certainly done a lot of thinking, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy.”</p> - -<p>“I thank you, William,” said Thomas Murphy, “for a-seem’ and a-sayin’ -that I’ve been a-thinkin’.”</p> - -<p>Tom had set Billy to thinking, too. By night there were several things -that Billy wanted to know.</p> - -<p>It was so hot that Aunt Mary surprised them by setting the table out in -the hall. There wasn’t room for them to sit at the table, so she handed -them the things out on the steps.</p> - -<p>“That was a good idea, Mary,” said Uncle John, when they were through. -“I’m glad that you worked that out.”</p> - -<p>Billy, looking up into her face, said:</p> - -<p>“It was real nice, Aunt Mary.”</p> - -<p>Aunt Mary smiled. Billy, watching her, thought that her smile had moved -just a little further out on her face. So he said again:</p> - -<p>“It was <em>real</em> nice, Aunt Mary.”</p> - -<p>Was he wrong, or did her smile move still a little further out?</p> - -<p>“Uncle John,” said Billy, “are ships made of iron?”</p> - -<p>“Why, Billy, you’re not going to sail away from us, are you?” said -Uncle John, almost unconsciously putting his hand on Billy’s. “Ships -are made of steel.”</p> - -<p>“<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott,” said Billy, “explained to me about steel, and about -forges.”</p> - -<p>“When this country was first settled,” said Uncle John, “men had little -forges to make iron, just as their wives had spinning wheels to make -wool for clothes.</p> - -<p>“When they began to make nails—they couldn’t build houses without -nails—there was a forge in almost every chimney corner. Children, as -well as grown people, used to make nails and tacks in the long winter -evenings. People then took nails to the store to pay for things, as in -the country they now take eggs.</p> - -<p>“That old forge iron was never very pure. It did the work that they had -to do, but the world needed better iron, and more of it. It took a good -while to find out a better way. The men that finally succeeded worked -hard and long. You ought to begin to read up about those men.</p> - -<p>“Of course it closed out a good many blacksmiths, but it helped the -world along. Guess they found, in the end, that it helped them along, -too.”</p> - -<p>Then Billy told Uncle John what Thomas Murphy had said about being -“nothing and nobody.” Aunt Mary came out to know what they were -laughing about, so he told her the story.</p> - -<p>“Mind you, Billy,” said Uncle John, “I’m only laughing at the way -he put it. Murphy is right. He seems to be unusually clear on the -usefulness of iron.”</p> - -<p>Only a day or two later Billy had occasion to remember what Tom Murphy -had said about the nails in his shoes.</p> - -<p>In spite of all his efforts to grow broad, Billy was growing taller -and slimmer every day. His legs were getting so long and his trousers -so short, that Billy was beginning to wish that he could have some new -clothes. But that wasn’t his greatest worry.</p> - -<p>There generally is one worry on top. This time it was shoes. They were -growing short, but, worse than that, the sole of the right one was -beginning to look as if it were coming off at the toe.</p> - -<p>He and Aunt Mary looked at it every morning, for she hadn’t quite money -enough for a new pair. Uncle John still made Billy put his money in the -bank—“Against a rainy day,” Uncle John said.</p> - -<p>Billy had tried, as hard as he could, to favor his right shoe. Of -course he couldn’t walk quite even: it made him hop a little. But he -had only two days more to wait, and he thought that he could manage it.</p> - -<p>Probably he would have succeeded, if it hadn’t happened that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Prescott needed some change. He told Billy to “sprint” to the bank for -three rolls of dimes and two rolls of nickels.</p> - -<p>Billy made good time on his way to the bank, handed in his five-dollar -bill, took his five rolls of money, and started back.</p> - -<p>He made good time on his way back until he reached the bridge, about -three minutes’ walk from the mill gate. Then he hit a board that had -been put on as a patch, and off came that right sole, so that it went -flop—flop—flop.</p> - -<p>He had to hold his feet very high in order to walk at all; but he -flopped along, until he stubbed his left toe and fell down flat.</p> - -<p>The fall was so hard that it threw one roll of dimes out of his pocket. -Just as he had stretched out till he almost had the roll, it began to -turn over and over, and went off the edge of the bridge into the river. -Billy saw it go.</p> - -<p>Pulling himself up quickly, he put both hands into his pockets to hold -the rest of the money in, and hurried on as fast as he could.</p> - -<p>As he flopped through the gate, he half heard Tom Murphy say:</p> - -<p>“Those nails kinder went back on you, didn’t they, William?”</p> - -<p>When <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott took the money, Billy held up his foot so that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Prescott could see his shoe, then he told him about the money.</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott seemed to take in the situation, and he seemed not to mind -much about the money, for he said:</p> - -<p>“We shall have to charge that up to profit and loss.”</p> - -<p>Billy found a piece of string to tie his sole on, and, that very night, -as soon as he got home, Aunt Mary gave him a pair of new, rubber-soled -shoes.</p> - -<p>That was Thursday. The next Monday—<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott paid the men on -Monday—when <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott gave Billy his little brown envelope, Billy -said:</p> - -<p>“If you please, sir, I shall feel better if you will take out the -dollar that I lost.”</p> - -<p>Then something happened. It seems as though Satan must have got into -<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott’s mind, and must have had, for a moment, his own wicked -way. That seems to be the only way to explain how a man like <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Prescott could say such a thing as he did to a boy like Billy.</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott thought that Billy said, “I shall feel better” because his -conscience was troubling him. He looked down at Billy’s new shoes.</p> - -<p>“New shoes,” he said rather gruffly.</p> - -<p>It didn’t sound a bit like <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>Billy wanted to tell him how long Aunt Mary had been saving up money to -buy those shoes, but he had been practicing so hard on keeping his lips -shut that he didn’t say anything.</p> - -<p>“Take your envelope,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>After Billy had started for the door, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott added:</p> - -<p>“I rather think that the firm can stand a pair of shoes.”</p> - -<p>Billy’s back was toward him. Perhaps, if he had been looking right at -Billy, he wouldn’t have said it; but say it he did.</p> - -<p>Billy didn’t, just then, take it in. He said, “Good-bye, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott,” -as he always did when he went home.</p> - -<p>Miss King’s keys kept going—clickety-clickety-click.</p> - -<p>There was another side to it. When a good man like <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott grows -interested in a boy, and, about the time when he feels pretty sure that -the boy is all right, something happens, especially about money, the -man feels terribly. Then any man is likely to say hard things.</p> - -<p>Billy had never even heard about such a thing as “conscience money,” -but <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott had had an experience with a man whose conscience -didn’t work at the right time.</p> - -<p>Billy felt uncomfortable when he went out the door; but he was fully -half-way home before he realized that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott thought that he -had told a lie about the roll of dimes; thought that he had—— Billy -couldn’t finish that sentence.</p> - -<p>He hardly spoke to Uncle John all the way home. Then, though Aunt Mary -had a special treat—the little cakes covered with white frosting, the -kind that Billy liked best—he could hardly eat one.</p> - -<p>He felt worse and worse. Of course Uncle John knew that something was -wrong, but he knew that a boy can’t always talk about his heartaches. -Then, if it were business, he didn’t want to tempt him to tell. So -Uncle John didn’t ask any questions.</p> - -<p>They sat on the steps a long time—so much longer than usual that Aunt -Mary called:</p> - -<p>“William Wallace, it’s time to come in.”</p> - -<p>When she said that, Uncle John said he was so thirsty that he should -have to go in to get some water.</p> - -<p>Billy heard Uncle John call Aunt Mary into the kitchen to find him a -glass. Then he came out again, and sat down close by Billy.</p> - -<p>They sat there till long after the clock struck nine. Then Billy said:</p> - -<p>“Uncle John, if anybody thought something b-b—something about you, and -it wasn’t so, what would you do?”</p> - -<p>“I would,” answered Uncle John, slowly, “keep right on working, and -leave that to God.”</p> - -<p>Then he put his arm around Billy’s shoulders, drew him up close, and -said again, slowly, “I would leave that to God.”</p> - -<p>After they had sat a minute longer, they both went into the house.</p> - -<p>Billy wished that night, even more than usual, that he and Uncle John -might say their prayers together, the way he and his father used to do. -But he did the best he could alone.</p> - -<p>He said his prayers very slowly and very carefully. Then he said them -all over again, and climbed into bed.</p> - -<p>After the house was dark, Billy heard Uncle John come to his door. -Billy didn’t speak, but he heard Uncle John say something. Perhaps, -though he said it very softly, Uncle John hoped that he would hear him -when he said softly:</p> - -<p>“Eh, Billy, little lad!”</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="PageTop9"> -<img src="images/pagetop.jpg" class="w50" alt="Page Top" /> -</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX -<br /> -BILLY STANDS BY</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_102.jpg" width="100" alt=""/> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">When</span> Miss King came into the office the next morning she had a large -bunch of bachelor’s buttons in her hand. They were blue—all shades of -blue—and they looked very pretty against the clear white of her dress. -She had hardly taken off her hat before the telephone rang hard.</p> - -<p>Billy heard her say, “Yes, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.”</p> - -<p>“<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott says he’s not coming to the office till after lunch,” she -said, turning to Billy. “It’s something about the new part of the mill.</p> - -<p>“We got along all right the other day, didn’t we? I was anxious all for -nothing, wasn’t I, William?</p> - -<p>“Now, please get me some water for the flowers, and we’ll settle down -to work.”</p> - -<p>Billy didn’t feel, that morning, much like talking to anybody, not even -to Miss King, so he didn’t say anything.</p> - -<p>When he brought back the tall glass vase, Miss King took three of the -bluest flowers and broke off the stems.</p> - -<p>“I should like to put these in your buttonhole, William,” she said. -“They’ll look pretty against your gray coat.</p> - -<p>“August is late for bachelor’s buttons; we shall have to make the most -of these. Really,” she went on, as she fastened them with a pin on the -under side of his lapel, “they’re just the color of your eyes.”</p> - -<p>Miss King didn’t usually say very much. It was a surprise to Billy to -have her keep on talking.</p> - -<p>“How nice the office looks, William! We never had a boy before that -knew how to dust in anything but streaks.”</p> - -<p>“My Aunt Mary,” said Billy, speaking at last, “is very particular. She -showed me how to dust.”</p> - -<p>Then Miss King sorted the orders, and Billy started out with them.</p> - -<p>It was still very hot. The latest thing that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott had done to -try to make the office a little cooler was to move a pile of boxes and -to open an old door at the other end of the corridor opposite the door -with the great key.</p> - -<p>That door hadn’t been opened for a long time. Hardly anybody had -realized that there was a door on that side. It opened over the end of -an old canal that had been used in his grandfather’s day. Filling up -that “old ditch,” as <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott called it, was one of the things that -he was planning to do.</p> - -<p>When he had the door opened, he put up a danger notice, and left in -place, across the door, an old beam that had once been used as a safety -guard.</p> - -<p>Billy stood in the corridor a moment, and looked back through the old -door. If it ever rained, that would be a pretty view.</p> - -<p>But the old willow beyond the ditch was green on one side, even if it -was dead on the other where its branches stuck out like—like——</p> - -<p>Billy, trying to decide what they did look like, began, almost -unconsciously, to walk toward the door.</p> - -<p>By the time that he decided that the branches looked like the antlers -of two great deer, standing with their heads close together, Billy -reached the door.</p> - -<p>He stood a moment looking down at the old canal. He was surprised to -see how far below the door the canal really lay. The dry spot at the -end had some ugly stones in it, too. Just as well to have a place like -that filled in.</p> - -<p>Looking again at the old willow, Billy turned and went slowly back down -the corridor and out the great door.</p> - -<p>When <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott finally came back, Billy was on his afternoon rounds.</p> - -<p>Things were very quiet, but that was to be expected at that time of the -day.</p> - -<p>Were things unusually quiet?</p> - -<p>Just then <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott heard a faint cry. In an instant he was at the -door.</p> - -<p>Somebody was crying, “Fire!”</p> - -<p>Who was he? Where was he? Why didn’t he call louder?</p> - -<p>He met Billy, who was fairly flying back from the other end of the -yard, with his hands at his throat as if he were trying to make the -sound come out.</p> - -<p>“The new part is on fire!” he cried; “the new part of the mill is on -fire!”</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott rushed to the fire alarm.</p> - -<p>Billy kept on to the office and burst in, crying, “The new part is on -fire!”</p> - -<p>Miss King started for the door. <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott had given her orders what -to do if there ever should be a fire.</p> - -<p>Billy himself was part way down the corridor when something in his head -began to say faintly:</p> - -<p>“Stand—by—your—job—every—minute—that—you—belong—on—it!”</p> - -<p>Though Billy slowed down a little, he did not stop, but kept right on -until he reached the door, and had one foot out.</p> - -<p>Then the graphophone in his mind began again, a little louder than -before:</p> - -<p>“Stand—by—your—job—every—minute—that—you—belong—on—it!”</p> - -<p>Billy drew his foot back. He felt as though he must do something, so he -shut the great door. He turned and stood against it for a minute. Then -he started slowly down the corridor.</p> - -<p>The graphophone had stopped; but Billy’s quick ears heard another -sound. Somebody was trying to open the great door!</p> - -<p>Billy remembered the little closet. He could see the office from that. -He hurried on, and had barely slipped into it when the door opened.</p> - -<p>In came the man with the fierce black eyes and the coal black hair, and -he was carrying something in both hands.</p> - -<p>Billy fairly held his breath. The door was a little too far open, but -he didn’t dare to touch it.</p> - -<p>The door <em>was</em> too far open. It was open so far that, hitting it -as he passed, the man gave it an angry kick.</p> - -<p>The door went to so hard that Billy heard the click of the spring lock -as it fastened the door, and made him a prisoner in the closet.</p> - -<p>Keep still he must till the man was out of the way. That was the only -thing to do. Billy took out his jack-knife. It felt friendly, so he -opened it.</p> - -<p>Sooner than he expected he heard the man come out, heard him go heavily -down the corridor, and heard him close the great door.</p> - -<p>Cracks between the boards let in light enough for Billy to find the -lock. He began to pry away at it with his knife. He thought he had -started it a little, when snap went the blade.</p> - -<p>Then he tried the other, working a little more carefully; but, in a -moment, snap went that blade, broken close to the handle.</p> - -<p>He tried kicking the boards where he saw the largest cracks, but not a -board could he move.</p> - -<p>Then he grew so excited that he hardly knew what he was doing.</p> - -<p>What was going on in the office? Was that on fire? He threw himself -against the sides of the closet, one after the other.</p> - -<p>He wasn’t sure whether it was his head or the closet that began to -rock. It seemed to be the closet.</p> - -<p>Once more he threw himself against the back of the closet. That time he -was sure it was the closet that rocked!</p> - -<p>He threw himself three times, four times, five times. Suddenly he -landed on his head in the top of the closet on a heap of clothes. Light -was coming in from somewhere. His head was rocking so that he could -hardly move, but, in a minute, he managed to turn and to crawl out of -the bottom of the closet, where the cleats had given way.</p> - -<p>It was easier, just then, for him to crawl than it was to walk. So he -crawled across to the office, reached up, and opened the door.</p> - -<p>Surprised he certainly was, for everything seemed to be all right.</p> - -<p>Billy, beginning to feel pretty sore in several places, pulled himself -up into <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott’s chair.</p> - -<p>Then he heard a faint tick, tick, tick.</p> - -<p>No, it wasn’t the clock. Billy had kept his ears open too long not to -know that.</p> - -<p>Where was it? What was it? It seemed very near!</p> - -<p>Billy looked under the desk. Nothing there but the waste basket.</p> - -<p>His heart was going thump, thump. But, when a boy is standing by his -job, he doesn’t stop for a thumping heart.</p> - -<p>Billy didn’t. He took hold of the basket. It was very heavy. The -ticking was very near.</p> - -<p>Then Billy knew!</p> - -<p>It was what Uncle John called an “infernal machine,” with clock works -inside!</p> - -<p>Billy dug down among the papers till he found the thing. He took it in -both hands and pulled it out—it was a sort of box. He started for the -door. All he could think of was that he must take the infernal thing -away from <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott’s desk.</p> - -<p>Out he went with it. The old door was still open. Billy, holding the -box in his arms, made a frantic dash for the door.</p> - -<p>When he reached it, he leaned against the old beam and, gathering all -his strength, threw the box over into the old dry ditch. He heard the -box fall.</p> - -<p>Then, with a creaking sound, the old beam broke from its rusty -fastenings and followed the box.</p> - -<p>After that there was another fall, for the boy that had thrown the box -went down with the beam.</p> - -<p>But that was a fall that Billy did not hear.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="PageTop10"> -<img src="images/pagetop.jpg" class="w50" alt="Page Top" /> -</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X -<br /> -WILLIAM WALLACE</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_112.jpg" width="100" alt=""/> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">The</span> next thing that Billy knew he was waking up, not wide awake, but a -little at a time.</p> - -<p>The room seemed very white, and there was somebody in white standing by -his bed. No, it wasn’t Miss King, for this woman had something white on -her head.</p> - -<p>Then he felt somebody holding his hand and saying, “Billy, little -Billy.”</p> - -<p>He woke up a little further. He tried to say, “Aunt Mary,” but the -words wouldn’t come.</p> - -<p>The woman in white took hold of Aunt Mary, and led her out of the room.</p> - -<p>Then he saw something large in the window. He wasn’t at all sure that -he wasn’t dreaming about mountains. But this mountain had a round top -and, while he watched it, it moved. Billy woke up enough to see that it -was somebody standing in the window.</p> - -<p>Billy knew only one person who could fill up a window like that. He -tried his voice again. This time he made it go.</p> - -<p>“That you, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott?” he said, his voice going up and up till it -ended in a funny little quaver.</p> - -<p>Then the mountain came over to him. It <em>was</em> <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>Billy, looking up, spoke again, very slowly:</p> - -<p>“The dimes <em>did</em> roll into the river, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.”</p> - -<p>“Hang it!” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “Of course they did!”</p> - -<p>The nurse nodded. “He’s kept talking about that,” she said. “We thought -perhaps you’d know.”</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott started to go close to the bed.</p> - -<p>The nurse put out her hand.</p> - -<p>“Hang it!” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “I was a brute. Can you ever forgive me, -Billy?”</p> - -<p>“Sure, sir,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>His voice sounded so strong that the nurse told <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott that she -was afraid he was exciting the patient.</p> - -<p>Billy said, “Please stay.”</p> - -<p>Then the nurse told <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott that he might stay ten minutes if he -wouldn’t talk to the patient.</p> - -<p>Billy tried to smile at <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, but he was so tired that he shut -his eyes instead.</p> - -<p>Next time it was Uncle John who was holding his hand, but Uncle John -didn’t smile.</p> - -<p>“Uncle John,” said Billy, “what’s the matter with me?”</p> - -<p>“Just a few broken bones, Billy, my lad,” answered Uncle John.</p> - -<p>“Which ones?” asked Billy.</p> - -<p>“Just a left arm and a left leg.”</p> - -<p>“That all?” asked Billy.</p> - -<p>After that they wouldn’t let him see anybody. There were two nurses -instead of one, and three doctors—“specialists” Billy heard his own -nurse say.</p> - -<p>After that there were two doctors every day: a doctor with white hair, -and a doctor with light brown hair, parted in the middle.</p> - -<p>The doctor with the white hair seemed to think more about Billy than he -did about his bones, for he talked to Billy while he was feeling around.</p> - -<p>The young doctor seemed to think more about the bones. But Billy liked -him, too, for one day when they were hurting him terribly the young -doctor said:</p> - -<p>“You’re a game sort of chap.”</p> - -<p>Billy wasn’t quite sure what “game” meant, but he kept right on -gritting his teeth till they were through.</p> - -<p>The first day that the young doctor began to come alone, he said:</p> - -<p>“Nurse, how are the contusions getting along?”</p> - -<p>“They are much lighter in color, doctor, this morning,” answered the -nurse.</p> - -<p>“I don’t understand,” said the doctor, standing very straight and -putting his forefinger on his chin, “how a fall of the nature of -this one, practically on the left side, could have produced so many -contusions on the right.”</p> - -<p>“What are contusions?” asked Billy.</p> - -<p>The doctor began to talk about stasis of the circulation following -superficial injuries.</p> - -<p>“Show me one,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>When the nurse showed him one on his right arm, just below the -shoulder, Billy said:</p> - -<p>“Oh, one of my black and blue spots! That must have been when I was -playing caged lion.”</p> - -<p>That time the doctor and the nurse were the ones who didn’t understand.</p> - -<p>Then Billy laughed, a happy boyish laugh. He hadn’t laughed that way -since he and his father used to have frolics together.</p> - -<p>The doctor looked at him a minute, then he said:</p> - -<p>“Nurse, to-morrow this young chap may have company for half an hour.”</p> - -<p>“I’m glad to hear that, doctor,” said the nurse. “I’ll go right away -to tell <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. He’s fairly worn me out with telephoning to know -when we would let him come.”</p> - -<p>At ten o’clock the next morning <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott came.</p> - -<p>After he had answered Billy’s questions about the fire, and had told -him that the new roof was almost finished, he took a newspaper out of -his pocket.</p> - -<p>He folded it across, then down on both sides, and held it up in front -of Billy.</p> - -<p>There it was, in big head-lines:</p> - -<p class="center"> -“<span class="smcap">Billy Bradford Saves Prescott Mill</span>”<br /> -</p> - -<p>Then <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott read him what the paper said. They had even put in -about finding him with the flowers in his buttonhole.</p> - -<p>“Those,” interrupted Billy, “were Miss King’s flowers.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott; “she cried, right in the office, when she -read that.”</p> - -<p>Then Billy told <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott about the closet, and all about the box, -and asked him to pull out the drawer in the little stand by his bed.</p> - -<p>There lay his jack-knife. Somebody had shut up all that was left of the -blades, and there was so little left that they couldn’t be opened.</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott put the knife into Billy’s hand.</p> - -<p>“That was a good knife,” said Billy, looking at it with affection.</p> - -<p>“I think,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “that you really ought to let me have -that knife.”</p> - -<p>Billy hesitated a moment, then he said:</p> - -<p>“If you please, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, I should like to keep that knife. It has -been a good friend to me.”</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott took the little white hand, knife and all, in his own -strong, firm fingers.</p> - -<p>“I want it, Billy, because you have been a good friend to me.”</p> - -<p>Billy’s face flushed so suddenly red that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott was afraid that -something was going to happen to Billy. He called, “Nurse!”</p> - -<p>“I’m all right,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>He grew red again as he said:</p> - -<p>“<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, I want to tell you something.”</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott said: “Let me fix your pillows first.”</p> - -<p>Of course he got them all mixed up, and the nurse had to come. She -looked at her watch, and then at <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, but she didn’t say -anything.</p> - -<p>Then <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott sat close by the bed with Billy’s hand lying in his, -and Billy told him about William Wallace.</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott looked a little surprised, then he said:</p> - -<p>“William Wallace seems to know a good deal, doesn’t he?”</p> - -<p>Billy, in honor, had to nod his head, but he grew very sober. Perhaps, -after all, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott would like William Wallace better than he liked -him.</p> - -<p>“I don’t really approve,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “of his calling you a -coward, though that sometimes makes a boy try to be brave.</p> - -<p>“One thing is sure, he can’t ever call you that again, can he?”</p> - -<p>Billy shook his head.</p> - -<p>“Personally,” continued <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, almost as if he were talking -business, “I had rather be saved by you than by William Wallace. Can -you guess why?”</p> - -<p>Billy shook his head again, but this time he smiled.</p> - -<p>“Because,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “you did it out of your heart. William -Wallace would have done it out of his head.”</p> - -<p>Billy smiled serenely. Everything—broken jack-knife, broken arm, -broken leg—was exactly all right now.</p> - -<p>“Really and truly,” <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott went on, “there are two of everybody, -only most people don’t seem to know it: one is his heart, and the other -is his head.</p> - -<p>“If I were you, I would be on good terms with William Wallace—it -generally takes both to decide. I’d take him as a sort of brother, but -I wouldn’t let him rule.”</p> - -<p>“No,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>Then <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott saw the nurse coming, and he hurried off.</p> - -<p>The next time that Uncle John came Billy asked him what had become of -the man—“the poor man,” Billy called him.</p> - -<p>“That man,” said Uncle John, his mouth growing rather firm, “was found -out in his sin.</p> - -<p>“He undertook a little too much when he set fire to one end of the -mill, and then tried to blow up the main office. That’s too much for -one man to do at one time, especially when he’s a man that leaves -things around.”</p> - -<p>“Oh!” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“Now,” said Uncle John, “he’s where he’s having his actions regulated.”</p> - -<p>“I hope,” said Billy, “that they’ll be good to him.”</p> - -<p>“Billy,” said Uncle John, very decidedly, “all that you are called upon -to do about that man is to believe that he couldn’t think straight.</p> - -<p>“But the way this world is made makes it necessary, when a man can’t -think straighter than to try to destroy the very mill where he’s -working, for some one else to do a part of his thinking for him.</p> - -<p>“That’s what the men that make the laws are trying to do. They are -trying to help men to think straight.”</p> - -<p>Billy was listening hard. It was a good while since he had heard one of -Uncle John’s lectures.</p> - -<p>“You know, Billy, my lad, that there are a lot of things we have to -leave to God.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, Uncle John.”</p> - -<p>“There are a lot more that we have to leave to the law.</p> - -<p>“The best thing for a boy like you and a man like me to do is to leave -things where they belong.”</p> - -<p>“All right, Uncle John, I will,” said Billy, giving a little sigh of -relief as if he were glad to have that off his mind.</p> - -<p>The next day when <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott came, he told Billy that, the day after -that, he was to be moved to <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott’s house on the hill.</p> - -<p>Billy looked a little sober. He had been thinking a great deal about -home.</p> - -<p>“I’m all alone in that big house,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>“Then,” said Billy, “I’ll come.”</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="PageTop11"> -<img src="images/pagetop.jpg" class="w50" alt="Page Top" /> -</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI -<br /> -THE TREASURE ROOM</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_123.jpg" width="100" alt=""/> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">They</span> took Billy to <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott’s house in his machine. -They had to take a good many pillows and they planned to take an extra -nurse, but the young doctor said that he was going up that way, and -could just as well help.</p> - -<p>Billy and the doctor were getting to be very good friends.</p> - -<p>“He’s different,” Billy had confided to Uncle John, “but I like him a -lot.”</p> - -<p>“Nice people often are different,” said Uncle John.</p> - -<p>Billy was so much better that he had some fun, while they were putting -him into the auto, about his “stiff half,” as he called his left side.</p> - -<p>“You just wait till I get that arm and that leg to working,” he said. -“They’ll have to work over time.”</p> - -<p>They put him in a large room with broad windows, where he could look -down on the river and across at the mountains. There was a large brass -bed in the room, but <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott had had a hospital bed sent up.</p> - -<p>“You’d have hard work to find me in that bed,” said Billy to the nurse, -“wouldn’t you?”</p> - -<p>It was a beautiful room. One of the maids told Billy that it had been -<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott’s mother’s room, and that he had always kept it as she had -left it.</p> - -<p>For the first week Billy feasted his eyes on color.</p> - -<p>The walls of the room were soft brown; the paint was the color of -cream. There were two sets of curtains: one a soft old blue, and over -that another hanging of all sorts of colors. It took Billy a whole day -to pick out the pattern on those curtains.</p> - -<p>There was a mahogany dressing table, and there was a wonderful -rug—soft shades of rose in the middle, and ever so many shades of blue -in the border.</p> - -<p>There was a fireplace with a shining brass fender. And there were—oh, -so many things!</p> - -<p>Then Billy spent almost another week on the pictures. But when he -wanted to rest his eyes he looked at his old friends, the mountains, -lying far across the river.</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, too, liked the mountains. He came to sit by him in -the evening, and they had real friendly times together watching the -mountains fade away into the night, and seeing the electric lights -flash out, one after another, all along the river.</p> - -<p>Finally the doctors took off the splints. They had a great time doing -it, testing his joints to see whether or not they would work.</p> - -<p>Then Billy found that, as the young doctor said, there had been a “tall -lot of worrying done about those bones.”</p> - -<p>This time the white-haired doctor paid more attention to his bones than -he did to Billy. He didn’t say anything till he went to put his glasses -back in the case. Then he straightened up, and said:</p> - -<p>“I’m happy to tell you, young man, that those joints will work all -right after they get used to working again.”</p> - -<p>The next day Billy went down the long flight of stairs, with <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Prescott on one side, and the nurse on the other, to the great library, -right under the room where he had been.</p> - -<p>“Feel pretty well, now that you’re down?” asked <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, after the -nurse had gone up-stairs.</p> - -<p>“Sure, sir,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>“Then follow me,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, opening a door at the end of the -library.</p> - -<p>Billy followed, but he had hardly stepped in before he stepped back.</p> - -<p>“Why, Billy,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, coming quickly back to him, “I didn’t -mean to frighten you. We’ll stay in the library.”</p> - -<p>Now the doctor had told <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott that Billy mustn’t be frightened -by anything if they could help it, for he’d been through about all a -boy’s nerves could stand. So <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott drew Billy over to the big -sofa, fixed some pillows around him, and put a foot-rest under his leg.</p> - -<p>Then <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott settled himself in a great chair as though he had -nothing in the world to do except to talk to Billy.</p> - -<p>“That,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “is my treasure room. When I go in there, I -think of brave men, and of how they helped the world along. What made -you step back?”</p> - -<p>“Because,” answered Billy, half ashamed, “I thought I saw a man in the -corner pointing something at me.”</p> - -<p>“I ought,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “to have thought of that before I took -you into the room.</p> - -<p>“I’ve been trying, for some time, to make that old suit of armor and -that spear look like a knight standing there, ready for action. I must -have, at last, succeeded, but I’m sorry that it startled you.</p> - -<p>“You see I’m naturally interested in weapons of war because they are -all made of steel or iron.”</p> - -<p>“Battle-ships, too,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “But you mustn’t forget the great naval -battles that were won with ships of wood.</p> - -<p>“There’s one thing in that room,” <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott went on, “that I am sure -you will like to see. It is my great-great-grandfather’s musket.”</p> - -<p>“Oh,” said Billy, “I didn’t know that you had a -great-great-grandfather.”</p> - -<p>“I did,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, just as quietly as if Billy had been -talking sense. “He was a brave man, too. That is the musket that he had -when he was with General Washington at Valley Forge.”</p> - -<p>“Oh!” exclaimed Billy again.</p> - -<p>“Know about Valley Forge, do you?”</p> - -<p>“A little,” answered Billy, very humbly.</p> - -<p>“That’s enough to start on,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>Billy could almost imagine that Uncle John was talking. Billy spent a -great deal more time every day than anybody realized in thinking about -his Uncle John.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps you don’t know, many people don’t,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “that -the first name of that place was Valley Creek. It was changed to Valley -Forge because a large forge plant was established there. It was one of -the first places in this state where they made iron and steel.</p> - -<p>“By the way, George Washington’s father was a maker of pig iron down in -Virginia.”</p> - -<p>“Oh!” said Billy. “There seem to be a lot of things to know about iron.”</p> - -<p>“There’s really no end to them,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “They begin way -back in history. Did you ever read about Goliath the giant?”</p> - -<p>“My father used to read those stories to me,” answered Billy, “out of a -great big Bible.”</p> - -<p>“Was it like this one?” asked <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, getting up quickly and -bringing him, from the library table, a great Bible, covered with light -brown leather.</p> - -<p>“That looks almost like ours,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>“This,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “is the one my mother used to read to me. -There’s a great deal about iron in it,” he added, as he put it away -carefully.</p> - -<p>“To come back to Goliath,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “His spear had a head of -iron that weighed six hundred shekels.</p> - -<p>“Then there was that iron bedstead of Og, king of Bashan. Ever hear of -him?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t seem,” answered Billy, “to remember about him.”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps I shouldn’t have remembered,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “if I hadn’t -been so interested in iron.”</p> - -<p>“That,” said Billy, “was probably on account of your grandfather, and -your father,” he added quickly.</p> - -<p>“There’s a great deal about iron in the Bible,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. -“Only four or five pages over in Genesis there is a verse about a man -named Tubal-Cain, who was a master-worker in brass and iron.</p> - -<p>“Then there are some things in mythology that you ought to know, now -that you’re interested in iron. One of them is that the old Romans, who -imagined all sorts of gods, said that iron was discovered by Vulcan. -They said, too, that he forged the thunderbolts of Jupiter.</p> - -<p>“Now, then, Billy, how about my treasure room?”</p> - -<p>“Ready, sir,” answered Billy, working himself out from among his -pillows.</p> - -<p>“Once,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, walking close by Billy, “I went into a room -something like this, only it had many more things in it. The room was -in Sir Walter Scott’s house. He had one of Napoleon’s pistols from -Waterloo.</p> - -<p>“He called his room an armory. I generally call mine my ‘treasure -room.’”</p> - -<p>“I think I like armory better,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“Then,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “will you walk into my armory?”</p> - -<p>“First of all,” said Billy, “I want to see that gun—musket.”</p> - -<p>“Here it is,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “There,” he added, pointing to a -picture in an oval brass frame, “is my great-great-grandfather.”</p> - -<p>“Oh!” said Billy.</p> - -<p>Then <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott knew that Billy had never before seen a silhouette.</p> - -<p>“That kind of picture,” he said, “does make a man look as black as his -own hat, though it is often a good profile. I used to make them myself. -Some night I’ll make one of you.</p> - -<p>“Now that you’ve seen the musket, I think that you had better take a -look at this suit of armor that I have been trying to make stand up -here like a knight.</p> - -<p>“This coat of mail is made of links, you see. Sometimes they were made -of scales of iron linked together.</p> - -<p>“The work that those old smiths did is really wonderful, especially -when you remember that their only tools were hammer, pincers, chisel, -and tongs. It took both time and patience to weld every one of those -links together.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t think I understand what weld means,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“When iron is heated to a white heat,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “it can be -hammered together into one piece. Most metals have to be soldered, you -know. The blacksmiths generally use a powder that will make the iron -weld more easily, because it makes the iron soften more quickly, but -iron is its own solder.</p> - -<p>“You’d better sit down here while I explain a little about this suit of -armor; then you’ll know what you’re reading about when you come to a -knight.</p> - -<p>“I suppose that every boy knows what a helmet and a vizor are; they -learn about that from seeing firemen.”</p> - -<p>“And policemen,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“Only the helmets of the knights covered their faces and ended in -guards for their necks. I dare say that you don’t know what a gorget -is.”</p> - -<p>“No,” said Billy, “I don’t.”</p> - -<p>“That is the piece of armor that protected the throat. Here is the -cuirass or breast-plate, and the tassets that covered the thighs. -They’re hooked to the cuirass. And here are the greaves for the shins. -There are names for all the arm pieces, too, but we’ll let those go -just now.</p> - -<p>“This shield, you see, is wood covered with iron, and part of the -handle inside is wood. A man must have weighed a great deal when he had -a full suit of armor on, and he must have been splendid to look at and -rather hard to kill.</p> - -<p>“Those old smiths certainly made a fine art of their work in iron. They -got plenty of credit for it, too. In the Anglo-Saxon times they were -really treated as officers of rank.</p> - -<p>“When a man was depending on his sword to protect his family, he -naturally respected a man who could make good swords. The smiths sort -of held society together.”</p> - -<p>Billy, looking around the room, saw that one side had spears and -shields and helmets hung all over it; and on the wall at the end were -pistols, bows and arrows, and some dreadful knives.</p> - -<p>“Did all those,” he asked, pointing at the end of the room, “kill -somebody?”</p> - -<p>“Ask it the other way,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott; “did they all protect -somebody? Then I can safely say that they did, for any foe would think -twice before he attacked a man in mail. These things were all made -because they were needed.”</p> - -<p>“What do you suppose put the armorers out of business?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t know,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>“Gunpowder,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “A man could be blown up, armor and -all.”</p> - -<p>“Then they had to make guns,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“And they’ve been at that ever since,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>“Come over to this cabinet, and I’ll show you my special treasure.</p> - -<p>“Shut your eyes, Billy, and think of walls in a desert long enough and -high enough to shut in a whole city.”</p> - -<p>Billy shut his eyes. “I see the walls,” he said.</p> - -<p>“Now, just inside the wall, think a garden with great beds of roses.”</p> - -<p>“Blush roses?” queried Billy.</p> - -<p>“Damask,” replied <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott; “pink, pretty good size.”</p> - -<p>“That’s done!” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“Now, in that garden, think an Arab chief, a sheik, mounted on a -beautiful Arabian horse, and—open your eyes!”</p> - -<p>“Here is his sword!”</p> - -<p>“I saw him clearly!” exclaimed Billy, his eyes flying wide open.</p> - -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="Illustration4"> -<img src="images/i_136.jpg" class="w75" alt="“HERE IS HIS SWORD”" /> -</span></p> -<p class="center caption">“HERE IS HIS SWORD”<br /><br /></p> - -<p>“My!” he said, “but that’s a beauty!”</p> - -<p>“It is,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “Look!”</p> - -<p>Then he took the hilt in his right hand and the point in his left, and -began to bend the point toward the hilt.</p> - -<p>“Don’t,” cried Billy. “You’ll break it!”</p> - -<p>“The tip and the hilt of the best of the old swords were supposed to -come together,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>“See, this has an inscription in Arabic.”</p> - -<p>“I have a genuine Toledo, too, but you’ve been in here long enough. -Let’s go back into the library. You may come in here whenever you like. -Mornings, I think, would be the best time.”</p> - -<p>When Billy was comfortably settled among his pillows, with the Damascus -sword on the sofa by him, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott said:</p> - -<p>“Men, in the olden time, thought so much of their swords that they -often named them, and had them baptized by the priest. The great -emperor Charlemagne had a sword named ‘Joyeuse.’</p> - -<p>“Sometimes, too, the old bards sang about swords and their makers.”</p> - -<p>“Tell me,” said Billy, “how they made swords.”</p> - -<p>“The people way over in the East understood the process of converting -iron into steel, but in those days they had plenty of gold and very -little steel, so swords were sometimes made of gold with only an edge -of steel.</p> - -<p>“The steel swords were made by hammering little piles of steel plates -together. They were heated, hammered, and doubled over, end to end, -until the layers of steel in a single sword ran up into the millions.</p> - -<p>“Now, we’ll come back to the present time, and I’ll show you something -that I brought home yesterday to put in my treasure room.”</p> - -<p>Billy watched eagerly, while <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott took a package from the -library table, and opened it.</p> - -<p>Then, in delight, he exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“The great iron key!”</p> - -<p>“The same,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “and glad enough I am to have it here.</p> - -<p>“When I gave Tom the new key, he didn’t look altogether happy. I think -the fellow really has enjoyed having the care of this one.”</p> - -<p>“I suppose,” said Billy, “that the new one is so small that he will be -afraid of losing it. They don’t make such large keys nowadays.”</p> - -<p>“That statement may be true in general,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “but the -fact is that the new key is as large as this.”</p> - -<p>Then <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott stopped talking, but he looked right at Billy.</p> - -<p>“You don’t mean,” said Billy, after thinking for a minute as hard as he -could, “that you have had a key made, do you?”</p> - -<p>“That is the meaning that I intended to convey,” answered <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. -“But I’m not going to tease a fellow that is down-stairs for the first -time, so I’ll tell you, right away, that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> John Bradford made the -casting for the new key, and he used this for a pattern.”</p> - -<p>“Oh!” said Billy, smiling.</p> - -<p>“You didn’t like it very well, did you, Billy,” asked <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, -“when I put that key back in the door?”</p> - -<p>“No,” answered Billy, “I didn’t.”</p> - -<p>“Just at that time,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “a great many things had to be -considered. I decided that it was better to risk the key than to risk -letting the man know that we knew what had happened.</p> - -<p>“You never knew either, did you, how many nights after that I spent in -the office?”</p> - -<p>“Honest?” asked Billy, opening his eyes very wide.</p> - -<p>“Running a mill, I’d have you understand, Billy Bradford,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Prescott, “is no easy job.”</p> - -<p>“It doesn’t seem to be,” said Billy, just as earnestly as if he had -been a man.</p> - -<p>“I must go,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “I had almost forgotten that I am one -of the modern workers in iron.</p> - -<p>“Billy,” he said suddenly, turning as he reached the door, “did you -ever know anybody by the name of Smith?”</p> - -<p>Billy’s answer was a merry laugh.</p> - -<p>“You needn’t laugh, Billy Bradford,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “If you do, -perhaps I won’t tell you something.”</p> - -<p>“Do,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“People,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, coming part way back into the room, -“didn’t always have last names. When they came into fashion, all the -workers on anvils were given Smith for a last name. That’s where the -Smiths came from!”</p> - -<p>“Honest?” asked Billy.</p> - -<p>“Fact,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, as he went through the door.</p> - -<p>When the nurse came down a little later, she found Billy fast asleep -among the cushions, and his hand was lying on the hilt of the Damascus -blade.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="PageTop12"> -<img src="images/pagetop.jpg" class="w50" alt="Page Top" /> -</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII -<br /> -THOMAS MURPHY, TIMEKEEPER</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_142.jpg" width="100" alt=""/> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">“There’s</span> a garden,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, the next morning.</p> - -<p>“<em>Is</em> there a garden?” interrupted Billy, eagerly.</p> - -<p>“There’s a garden,” <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott went on, in his steady, even tone, -“down behind this house, and I have decided to give a garden party. Are -there any ladies that you would like to invite?”</p> - -<p>“All the ladies that I have in the world,” said Billy, soberly, “are -Aunt Mary and Miss King.”</p> - -<p>“Then invite them,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “I think that, now you’re -well——”</p> - -<p>Billy waved his arm, and thrust out his foot.</p> - -<p>“Now you are well,” continued <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “it will be a good plan for -you to have some company.”</p> - -<p>“When’s that party going to be?” asked Billy, very eagerly.</p> - -<p>“I thought,” answered <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “that perhaps we could manage it -for to-morrow.</p> - -<p>“Do you think it will be best to have the ladies alone, or shall we -invite some men?”</p> - -<p>“All the men I have,” said Billy, “are Uncle John and the young doctor -and <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Thomas Murphy.”</p> - -<p>“How would it do,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “to have just your Aunt Mary and -Miss King? Your Uncle John can come at any time. Perhaps you would -enjoy Tom more if he were to come alone.”</p> - -<p>“I think,” said Billy, reflectively, “that would be a good plan.”</p> - -<p>Then Billy told <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott what Tom had said about being “nothing and -nobody.”</p> - -<p>“That’s good!” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, laughing. Then he added gravely, -“Tom’s a faithful man.”</p> - -<p>There <em>was</em> a garden. If Billy had ever dreamed about a garden, -that would have been the garden of his dreams. Billy had never seen a -garden like that.</p> - -<p>It didn’t show at all from the front of the house; neither could it be -seen from Billy’s windows; but there was a long garden with a round -summer house at the end.</p> - -<p>Because it was a city garden it had a high board fence on three sides. -The fence was gray. Against it at the end, just behind the summer -house, were rows of hollyhocks—pink, white, yellow, and rose—standing -tall and straight, like sentinels on duty guard.</p> - -<p>There were beds of asters, each color by itself, and great heaps of -hydrangeas, almost tumbling over the lawn.</p> - -<p>There were queer little trees. When Billy said that they looked like -the trees on Japanese lanterns, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott said that they were real -Japanese trees.</p> - -<p>Billy didn’t see the whole of that garden until after he had been in it -a great many times. After he did see it all, it became the garden of -his dreams.</p> - -<p>The next afternoon <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott sent the auto for Aunt Mary and Miss -King, and they both came.</p> - -<p>Billy had never seen Aunt Mary look so well. She had on a lavender -and white striped muslin, with white lace and some tiny black velvet -buttons on it. Uncle John liked to have her wear lavender.</p> - -<p>Miss King had on a pretty white dress, a different kind from what she -wore in the office. Her hat was white, trimmed with blue, and her white -silk gloves went up to her elbows.</p> - -<p>Billy took them out through the drawing-room balcony, and down the -steps into the garden.</p> - -<p>They didn’t talk very much while they walked around, but a great deal -of politeness went on in the garden that afternoon.</p> - -<p>Aunt Mary smiled and kept calling him “Billy.” He counted till he got -up to ten times, then he was so busy showing them the flowers that he -forgot to count.</p> - -<p>When they went into the summer house where the waitress had set a -little table, they all sat down on the same side. That brought Billy -between Aunt Mary and Miss King.</p> - -<p>He helped them to ice-cream and cakes. There really wasn’t much helping -to do, for the ice-cream was made like strawberries, leaves and all, -only each one was about three times as large as strawberries grow.</p> - -<p>They sat there a long time, keeping on being polite; but not a bit of -the politeness was wasted, for they were all very happy when they were -through.</p> - -<p>Then <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott came in the auto. After Aunt Mary and Miss King had -gone, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott said that he should like a strawberry, so Billy had -a chance to be polite to <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, too.</p> - -<p>Altogether, Billy had a delightful party.</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott brought word that Thomas Murphy would come the next day, -because that would be Saturday, and the mill would be closed in the -afternoon.</p> - -<p>Thomas Murphy came, clean shaven, and dressed in his best.</p> - -<p>“Well, William,” he said, shaking Billy’s hand hard, “how are you, -William?”</p> - -<p>“Don’t you think, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy,” said Billy, “that I look pretty well?”</p> - -<p>“Better than I ever expected to see you, William, after that day.”</p> - -<p>“<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott,” said Billy, “thinks we’d better not talk very much -about that.”</p> - -<p>“No, William,” said Thomas Murphy, “we won’t talk about the martyr side -of it. But there’s something we will talk about. That’s why I’ve come. -There are things, William, that you ought to know.”</p> - -<p>Seeing how warm Thomas Murphy was growing, Billy suggested that they -had better go out into the garden.</p> - -<p>“That’s a good idea, William,” said he, limping after Billy.</p> - -<p>After he was settled in a comfortable garden chair, Thomas Murphy hung -a handkerchief with a figured purple border over his knee, clasped his -hands across his chest, and began again.</p> - -<p>“William,” he said solemnly, “while you were a-lyin’ onconscious in -that hospital, I was a-thinkin’ about what you had asked me about bein’ -a friend to the super.</p> - -<p>“Every time I read that bulletin that was posted every day on that -door, ‘onconscious still,’ I thought some more.</p> - -<p>“The day that said ‘dangerous,’ I finished thinkin’.</p> - -<p>“‘Thomas Murphy, timekeeper,’ said I sharp, ‘it’s time that you did -something more than mark time; it’s time you found out whether you’re -a-markin’ friends or foes.’</p> - -<p>“When the men came in the next morning, they just filed past that -bulletin. Then says I, ‘Thomas Murphy, act. The time to act has come.’</p> - -<p>“Somethin’ in me said, ‘Suppose you should be a martyr like William.’</p> - -<p>“‘Suppose I be a martyr,’ said I. ‘Am I a-goin’ to have William a-lyin’ -dangerous, and a man like me a-sittin’ still?’”</p> - -<p>Billy moved in his chair, and Thomas Murphy paused for breath.</p> - -<p>“That noon,” he continued, “I told Peter Martin to blow the whistle -three times. The super a-bein’ at the hospital, I gave the order -myself. What do three whistles mean, William?”</p> - -<p>“All men come to the gate,” answered Billy promptly.</p> - -<p>“They came,” said Thomas Murphy. “I got up on a box, so I could see the -whole of ’em.</p> - -<p>“‘Men,’ said I, ‘that boy, William, is lyin’ onconscious, dangerous. -He’s a-lyin’ there because the super had an enemy.</p> - -<p>“‘Where would you get the food you’re a-eatin’ and the shoes you’re -a-wearin’, if there wasn’t a mill to work in? Where would that mill be -if it wasn’t for the super’s money?</p> - -<p>“‘Are there any more enemies in this mill?</p> - -<p>“‘To-morrow mornin’,’ said I, an’ they knew I meant what I said, -‘there’ll be two marks agin your names; and one’ll tell whether you’re -a friend or a foe. The time has come. You are dismissed.’”</p> - -<p>“Was every man a friend?” asked Billy, leaning forward eagerly.</p> - -<p>“William,” answered Thomas Murphy, leaning forward, and punctuating his -words with his stiff forefinger, “every one of ’em, William. Every one, -to a man.”</p> - -<p>“I’m glad of that,” said Billy. “You were a true friend, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy.”</p> - -<p>“William,” said Thomas Murphy, sitting erect in his chair, “that’s what -the super said—his very words: ‘Thomas Murphy, you’re a true friend.’”</p> - -<p>Then Billy gave Thomas Murphy some ice-cream and cakes, and some ginger -ale.</p> - -<p>The last thing that Thomas Murphy said as he went out the garden gate -was:</p> - -<p>“William, when are you a-comin’ back to the office? All the men want to -see you, William.”</p> - -<p>Billy didn’t answer. He climbed up the steps, and then up the stairs.</p> - -<p>When he reached his room he went to the chair by the broad window where -he could look at the mountains. He had been wondering himself when he -was going back to the office. Every time that he had tried to ask <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Prescott, something had seemed to stop him. Why didn’t <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott -talk about it? When was he going home?</p> - -<p>That night as Billy lay on the seat in the broad window, he told <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Prescott about Tom’s speech to the men.</p> - -<p>Then <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott said:</p> - -<p>“I think that you and Tom Murphy did something for me, just then, that -nobody else could have done. Things were going wrong, and I couldn’t -stop them.”</p> - -<p>Billy said quickly, “I didn’t do anything.”</p> - -<p>“You were in the hospital,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “and the men knew why.”</p> - -<p>They talked on till the room grew dark. Finally Billy said:</p> - -<p>“<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Murphy asked me when I am going back to the office.”</p> - -<p>For a minute <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott didn’t say anything. Then he said slowly:</p> - -<p>“Billy, while you’ve been with me, have you ever thought that you would -like to stay here all the time?”</p> - -<p>Billy waited a moment.</p> - -<p>“No, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott,” he said slowly.</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott moved uneasily in his chair, but he didn’t say anything.</p> - -<p>After a little while Billy said:</p> - -<p>“This is too nice a place for a boy that works.”</p> - -<p>“See here, Billy Bradford,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, sharply, “we’ll have -none of that! That sounds like William Wallace. He was telling you to -let me down easy, was he?</p> - -<p>“You may just as well understand, both of you,” he went on, firing his -words at Billy in the dark, “you may as well understand, once for all, -that you can’t tell, simply by looking at the house a man lives in, how -hard that man works.</p> - -<p>“Sometimes a man works so hard that he doesn’t know what sort of house -he <em>does</em> live in.</p> - -<p>“That doesn’t mean,” he said calming down a little, “that I don’t care -about this house, for I do. It helps a man to live the right sort of -life.”</p> - -<p>Then he said, still more quietly:</p> - -<p>“There’s another thing I want you to understand. It’s Billy himself -that I want. I’m not talking to William Wallace. He is very well able -to take care of himself. If I’m not talking to Billy, I’ll not talk. -Which is it?” he demanded.</p> - -<p>“It’s Billy,” said Billy, very humbly.</p> - -<p>“Then give me a true answer, Billy Bradford,” he said gently. “It -has been very pleasant to have you here, Billy,” he went on, almost -persuadingly. “When you go I shall be all alone.”</p> - -<p>Billy waited. He must, in honor, tell the truth.</p> - -<p>Then his man-side came to help him, and he said slowly:</p> - -<p>“Next to Uncle John, I like you better than anybody.”</p> - -<p>He waited another moment before he finished:</p> - -<p>“But my father gave me to my Uncle John.”</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott sat still so long that Billy began to wonder whether he -was ever going to say anything more.</p> - -<p>At last he said:</p> - -<p>“You do belong to your Uncle John. He has the first right. But I have a -right of my own. You’ve come into my life, and you’re not going out of -it.”</p> - -<p>Then <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott sat silent so long that Billy wondered, again, -whether he ever would say anything more.</p> - -<p>Just as Billy had decided that that was the end, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott began -slowly, in a sort of far-away tone, as though he hadn’t quite come back -from a place where he had been off to think:</p> - -<p>“I’m going to be your brother, Billy Bradford.”</p> - -<p>Then he added, in a tone that men like <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott use only when they -mean things hard:</p> - -<p>“Just as long as I live.”</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott didn’t know it, but he had touched a place in Billy’s -heart that nobody had ever touched before. Nobody except Billy knew -that he had such a place.</p> - -<p>Billy waited a minute—a long minute, then he said slowly:</p> - -<p>“I’ve wished and wished and wished that I had a big brother of my own.”</p> - -<p>“Then,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “your wish has come true.”</p> - -<p>He said that as though he was as glad as he could be that he had worked -that thing out right.</p> - -<p>Then, getting up and going over to the nearest electric chain, he said -firmly, like the <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott that Billy loved best:</p> - -<p>“That big brother is right here. His name is Henry Marshall Prescott, -and he’s here, right here.”</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="PageTop13"> -<img src="images/pagetop.jpg" class="w50" alt="Page Top" /> -</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII -<br /> -IRON HORSES</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_156.jpg" width="100" alt=""/> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">“You’ve</span> been kept still so long, Billy Bradford,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott at -breakfast the next Tuesday morning, “that it seems to me it would do -you good to move around a little. Think so yourself?”</p> - -<p>“Seems that way to me,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>“Last night,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “I called up that yellow-haired doctor -of yours——”</p> - -<p>“<abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon,” interrupted Billy, “is a friend of mine. His hair is -only light brown.”</p> - -<p>“Well then, begging your pardon, <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon says he thinks, now that -the weather is cooler, a motor trip would do you good.</p> - -<p>“When I asked him whether he would like to go, he said that he would, -and that he could start by Thursday. With one on the front seat with -Joseph, there’s a seat to spare. I’ve been wondering——”</p> - -<p>Billy’s eyes were so full of wishing that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott asked:</p> - -<p>“Who is it, Billy?”</p> - -<p>“Of course—I don’t suppose—I should like——” said Billy floundering -around, because he wasn’t quite sure how <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott would feel about -inviting Uncle John.</p> - -<p>“You needn’t,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “go through the formality of telling -me. There’s only one person in the world on your mind, Billy Bradford, -when your eyes look like that.</p> - -<p>“He’s the one I want myself, so you needn’t think you’ve got ahead of -me there. The only question is, how shall we manage it? Shall we ask -him, or shall we run away with him?”</p> - -<p>“Run away with him,” said Billy, half in surprise and half in assent.</p> - -<p>“Suppose,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “that you go out into the garden this -morning, and stay there till you’ve figured that out.”</p> - -<p>Then, just as though he were giving an order to one of his men, he -added, as he rose from the table:</p> - -<p>“You may report to me at noon.”</p> - -<p>Before the morning was over, Billy had decided that figuring things -out was very much harder than going on errands that other people had -planned.</p> - -<p>He sat in the summer house till he was tired. Then he walked around all -the paths. But settle it he would, for Uncle John must never, never -lose a chance like that.</p> - -<p>Settle it he did, and made his report:</p> - -<p>“We could tell him, the night before, that there was something special -that I wanted to ask him, and that he could come here at nine o’clock -and take his time about getting back to work——”</p> - -<p>“That,” interrupted <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “will hit the case exactly. I’ll see -that he takes his time about getting back.”</p> - -<p>“And,” continued Billy, “I could go to see Aunt Mary this afternoon and -tell her about it, and get my bank book——”</p> - -<p>“Your what?” demanded <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>“My bank book. You see Uncle John’s blue serge suit will be all right, -but he’ll need a cap. Aunt Mary has to plan for things like that, so I -want my bank book.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve been thinking about motor clothes,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “I’ll look -in that closet at the office. There are some extra things there. I can -put some things of mine in the trunk. I wouldn’t bother, just now, to -draw any money. Know anything about the size of his hat?”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” answered Billy, “it’s only a size smaller than yours. You -remember that I looked in yours one day.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “I believe that looking at the size of hats -is one of your fads.”</p> - -<p>“My Uncle John,” said Billy, “isn’t so very tall, but he has quite a -large head.”</p> - -<p>Billy tried to say it offhand, but his pride showed, all the way -through.</p> - -<p>“Your Uncle John,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, paying very close attention to -the chop that he was eating, “is both an unusual man, and an unusually -good-looking man.”</p> - -<p>Perhaps there were two people at that table who could make offhand -remarks!</p> - -<p>“The next thing,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, leaning back in his chair, “is -what is to become of your Aunt Mary while your Uncle John is taking his -time to return.”</p> - -<p>“I wisht she could go up in the country,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“How would it do for you to find out this afternoon where she would -like to go? Then we could talk it over to-night.”</p> - -<p>So, for the first time since his accident, Billy went back home. It -seemed to him that the auto had never run so slowly.</p> - -<p>Aunt Mary was very much surprised. She asked him, right off, whether he -had come home to stay.</p> - -<p>“Not yet,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>After he had been into all the rooms, Billy said:</p> - -<p>“Aunt Mary, won’t you come out to sit on the steps? I want to talk to -you.”</p> - -<p>How good it did seem to be sitting on those steps!</p> - -<p>They talked and talked, and Aunt Mary grew very much excited over the -trip.</p> - -<p>“It’ll do him a world of good!” she said. “You don’t know how we’ve -both worried about you, Billy.”</p> - -<p>While she was talking, Billy was watching her; he was trying to decide -where her smile left off.</p> - -<p>When she said she could manage the part about Uncle John, Billy said:</p> - -<p>“Are you sure your face won’t give it away?”</p> - -<p>“Do I look as glad as that?” she asked, putting her hand up to her -face. “No,” she went on, “he’ll think it’s because you have been home.”</p> - -<p>Billy looked around. The potatoes by the fence had been dug, and Uncle -John had smoothed the ground all down again. He wouldn’t have been John -Bradford if he hadn’t done that.</p> - -<p>“Home’s the best place, isn’t it, Aunt Mary?” said Billy, with a little -sigh of happiness.</p> - -<p>Then he remembered that he must manage Aunt Mary, too. He must try to -get around it so that she wouldn’t suspect anything. When he thought of -the right way, it seemed very simple.</p> - -<p>“Aunt Mary,” he said, “if you had an automobile, where do you think you -would go first?”</p> - -<p>That surely ought to throw her off the track, for she could never -expect to have an automobile.</p> - -<p>It surely did throw her off the track.</p> - -<p>“Billy,” she said, “that’s a queer thing to ask me.”</p> - -<p>Then she said soberly:</p> - -<p>“Don’t you know, Billy, there’s only one place in the world where I -should want to go first?”</p> - -<p>“Up in the country,” said Billy, growing sober, too, “where—where you -got me?”</p> - -<p>Aunt Mary simply bowed her head.</p> - -<p>Wednesday afternoon <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott dictated ever so many letters to Miss -King. The last was one to Mrs. John Bradford in which <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott -begged that Mrs. Bradford would be so kind as to make use of the -enclosed, so that he might be relieved from concern about her while <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Bradford was away with him.</p> - -<p>Then <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott took from his pocket a ticket that had on it “to” and -“return.” After the “to” came a name, not very long, on the ticket, but -one that, when it reached Aunt Mary’s eyes, would read, The Place of -Places.</p> - -<p>“Here,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “is the enclosure. Please write that letter -first, Miss King. That must be posted to-night.”</p> - -<p>That was Wednesday night. Then <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott went home and told Billy -that he must go to bed as soon as he had had his supper, so that he -would be ready to start in the morning.</p> - -<p>Thursday morning came. So did Joseph with the car.</p> - -<p>If ever a man looked pleased with himself, it was <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Henry Marshall -Prescott when he gave his motor coat a final pull with both hands, and -settled himself on the seat behind Joseph, with Billy between him and -his Uncle John.</p> - -<p>They certainly did look well.</p> - -<p>The young doctor knew all about automobile “togs,” as he called them. -So, of course, he was strictly up to date.</p> - -<p>There were some other up-to-date “togs” in that car. In point of fact, -there were a good many. They had been sent up to the office the day -before. Some of them were Billy’s. Being only a boy, he hadn’t thought -of having any special clothes, but he had on everything that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Prescott had been able to find “for a boy of thirteen.”</p> - -<p>Some of them were Uncle John’s. Even <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon’s weren’t any nearer -up to calendar time than were those which <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott had provided for -John Bradford.</p> - -<p>When he had helped John Bradford on with the coat, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott had -looked straight at Billy with a say-anything-if-you-dare expression.</p> - -<p>He knew, just as well as Billy did, that, though he had looked there, -those things never came out of the closet at the mill.</p> - -<p>When Uncle John put on goggles, Billy’s smile changed into a broad grin.</p> - -<p>That didn’t disturb John Bradford. When he did a thing, he liked to do -it all.</p> - -<p>That morning, when Billy had told him about the trip and about Aunt -Mary, he had taken time enough to smile a long, happy smile. Then he -had said:</p> - -<p>“Enjoy good things as they come along, and be thankful.”</p> - -<p>He had worked that motto hard for a great many years, and he was -ready to use it again. So he gave himself up to enjoying and to being -thankful.</p> - -<p>The car was a six cylinder—a big six, and Joseph was a steady driver.</p> - -<p>They had gone about twenty miles when <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon said:</p> - -<p>“We are going along as smooth as glass.”</p> - -<p>“I,” said John Bradford, “am enjoying the way that we go up-hill. I -never could bear to see a horse straining every muscle to pull me -up-hill.”</p> - -<p>“I think,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “that horses ought to be thankful to the -men that make automobiles or any sort of iron horse.”</p> - -<p>Billy looked up at him.</p> - -<p>“Iron horses,” he said. “I never thought of it that way before. There -doesn’t seem to be any end to iron.”</p> - -<p>“How about steel, young chap?” asked <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, from the front seat.</p> - -<p>“That’s iron,” said Billy, “but I don’t know much about it except that -it makes tools and swords.”</p> - -<p>“And knives,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, way down in his throat.</p> - -<p>“Oh!” said Billy.</p> - -<p>But nobody knew whether he said it to <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, or whether it was -because the car came to a sudden stop.</p> - -<p>“Puncture, sir,” said Joseph.</p> - -<p>However <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott may have felt, and he probably did have some -feelings, he acted as though he didn’t mind in the least.</p> - -<p>“That grove looks inviting,” he said. “Suppose we have some lunch.”</p> - -<p>Then he unstrapped the lunch basket and, in a few minutes, they were -all sitting under the trees enjoying sandwiches and ginger ale.</p> - -<p>“Seems rather pleasant,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “to have a change. <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> -Crandon, what were you saying about knives?”</p> - -<p>“Let me see,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon; “nothing, I think, except that they are -made of steel. I’m somewhat interested in the subject.”</p> - -<p>“Do you,” asked Billy, “know where jack-knives first came from?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, young chap, I do. I know where some of the best come from now. -I’ve been to Sheffield.”</p> - -<p>“Where’s that?” asked Billy.</p> - -<p>“England. You’ll often find the name on knives. I bought a steel ink -eraser the other day which the clerk told me was ‘genuine Sheffield.’</p> - -<p>“About the time that Queen Elizabeth died, Sheffield was famous for -something else that you could never, never guess.”</p> - -<p>“What?” asked Billy.</p> - -<p>“Jew’s harps,” answered <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon.</p> - -<p>“Now, Billy,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “you can add the marks on steel to the -sizes of hats.”</p> - -<p>“I will,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“Look for Birmingham,” said Uncle John. “That’s famous for tools.”</p> - -<p>“And Toledo is the place for scissors,” added <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>“Speaking of marks,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, “I have a sword marked with a -crown.”</p> - -<p>“A genuine Ferrara!” exclaimed <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “I’m not going to covet my -neighbor’s goods, but if you should ever come across another, please -remember that I have only a Damascus and a Toledo.”</p> - -<p>“Only!” exclaimed <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon. “Those ought to be enough to satisfy any -man. No special virtue in your not coveting my Ferrara.</p> - -<p>“The point and the hilt of mine will come together, just the same,” he -added with boyish pride.</p> - -<p>“Bradford,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “you’ve been keeping pretty still. -What’s in your mind?”</p> - -<p>“Just then,” answered John Bradford, “I was thinking about something -that my grandfather told me about his father.”</p> - -<p>“As I figure it,” interrupted <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “he would be Billy’s -great-great-great-grandfather.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” replied John Bradford.</p> - -<p>Billy, glancing at <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, smiled a satisfied sort of smile.</p> - -<p>“He,” said John Bradford, “came from Massachusetts. He said that they -used to fish up iron out of ponds with tongs such as oyster dredgers -use.”</p> - -<p>“Honest and true!” broke in Billy.</p> - -<p>“Fact, Billy. Don’t interrupt,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, shaking his head at -Billy.</p> - -<p>“He said,” continued John Bradford, “that, many a time, he had fished -up half a ton a day.”</p> - -<p>“That bog ore,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, “is very interesting. It is deposited -by infusoria—<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">gaillonella ferruginea</i>,” he added, trying to speak -very professionally, though the corners of his mouth were twitching -with fun.</p> - -<p>Seeing that Billy was regarding him rather critically, he went on:</p> - -<p>“You see, young chap, that there is iron almost everywhere; and it is -very soluble in water, so it naturally goes into ponds; and those tiny -animals in some way make it over into bog ore.</p> - -<p>“The senior doctor was talking with me, the other day, about giving you -some iron.”</p> - -<p>“What for?” asked Billy abruptly.</p> - -<p>“It’s iron in your blood that makes your cheeks red; iron in red -apples; iron——”</p> - -<p>“Pardon me, doctor,” interrupted <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “the tire is on.”</p> - -<p>“By the way, Bradford, I believe you’ve been told to take your time -about returning?”</p> - -<p>“So I understand,” answered John Bradford, smiling as he spoke.</p> - -<p>“Then, if you don’t mind, Bradford, we’ll motor on to a place where -these young fellows,” he said, waving his hand toward the doctor and -Billy, “may be able to learn a thing or two more on the subject of -iron.”</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="PageTop14"> -<img src="images/pagetop.jpg" class="w50" alt="Page Top" /> -</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV -<br /> -THE GIANTS</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_171.jpg" width="100" alt=""/> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">They</span> stood on the dock of a river where great ships leave -their burden of iron ore.</p> - -<p>“There she comes!” exclaimed <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, pointing to a freighter that -was slowly drawing near.</p> - -<p>“No giants in sight yet,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“It’s your eyes that are not seeing,” returned <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “That boat -herself is a giantess. Watch.”</p> - -<p>Hardly had the great boat been made fast to her moorings before, in -some mysterious way, the hold of the ship opened wide from stem to -stern.</p> - -<p>Then somebody touched a lever somewhere, and over the hold swung a row -of buckets that, opening like two hands, grabbed into the ore, and -seizing tons of it, swung back to the dock. A touch of another lever -unloaded it into huge storage bins.</p> - -<p>“Billy Bradford,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “weren’t those the hands of a -giant?”</p> - -<p>“Sure, sir,” answered Billy, who stood staring in wonder.</p> - -<p>“That ore,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “came from a surface mine up in the pine -woods of Lake Superior, a thousand miles away.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps, gentlemen, you may like to know that the American supremacy -in iron is largely due to those open pit mines up in Minnesota.</p> - -<p>“Much of the ore in that region is so near the surface that a steam -shovel can easily strip off the ‘overburden’ of the soil and the roots -of pine trees.</p> - -<p>“When that was done, giant hands seized that ore, lifted it up, and -loaded it into bins, high up on the bluffs.</p> - -<p>“Then a man, not a giant, touched a treadle, and another kind of giant, -named ‘gravity,’ made the ore run from the bottom of the car into a bin.</p> - -<p>“Chutes from the ore bin ran into the hold of the steamer, and almost -before she had been tied to the dock she was ready to come down here.</p> - -<p>“Giants or not, Billy Bradford?”</p> - -<p>“Iron giants,” answered Billy.</p> - -<p>“Rather different, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Bradford,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, “from fishing ore -with tongs.”</p> - -<p>“We’ve moved along a great way since that time,” said John Bradford, -“and most of our progress has been due to iron.”</p> - -<p>“Giants don’t do all the work even now,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “They make -short work of iron mountains and surface deposits, but most of them -are too large to work underground; though we mustn’t forget that Giant -Electricity works down there with the men.</p> - -<p>“Giant Gravity helps too, for, when they work below the deposit, he -caves the ore down. Of course some ores are so hard that they can’t be -caved, so there is still some mining for the men to do.”</p> - -<p>“Was there,” asked Billy, trying to speak in a sort of offhand way, “an -iron mountain where this iron came from?”</p> - -<p>“There are some,” answered <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “up in that region.”</p> - -<p>Billy had been paying very close attention to what <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott had -been saying. There was something that he wanted especially to find out. -He felt very sure, now, that he was hearing about an iron mountain that -he had heard about once before.</p> - -<p>He felt very sure, but he wouldn’t ask any more questions, because that -was the secret that he had with Thomas Murphy.</p> - -<p>The others started for the car. But Billy stood a moment longer to look -at the giant hands that, having finished their work, were hanging idly -in the air. The hold of the ship, emptied of its burden, was already -beginning to close.</p> - -<p>“Beginning to believe in giants, aren’t you?” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, as -Billy stepped into the car.</p> - -<p>“The next giant will be a hungry fellow, and he is very, very tall; so -he eats a great deal.”</p> - -<p>“An iron-eater, is he?” queried <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon.</p> - -<p>“We ourselves will have something to eat before we visit him,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Prescott, ordering Joseph to drive back to the hotel.</p> - -<p>“<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, as they sat at table, “is iron ever -found in a pure state, like gold, for instance?”</p> - -<p>“It is practically never found in a pure state,” answered <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, -“except the meteoric iron, ‘the stone of heaven.’”</p> - -<p>Billy looked at him questioningly.</p> - -<p>“That was rather technical, wasn’t it, Billy? You see, I was talking to -a technical man. Just between you and me, meteoric iron comes down from -the sky, from what we call shooting stars. Sometimes large pieces are -found. I suppose that much of it falls into the sea. It is the purest -iron that has ever been found.”</p> - -<p>“What about magnetic iron?” asked <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon. “Where does that come -from?”</p> - -<p>“At the present time,” answered <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “most of it comes from -Sweden and Norway. It makes the best kind of steel.</p> - -<p>“Ages ago, the first was found in Magnesia,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott casting -a quick glance around the table.</p> - -<p>“The people there found certain hard, black stones which would attract -to themselves bits of iron and steel. So they named them magnets, -from Magnesia, the place where the stones were found,” finished <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Prescott, with another look around the table.</p> - -<p>“It’s of no use, Prescott,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, “you needn’t look at us. -We don’t any of us know even where to look for Magnesia. Don’t suppose -we could find it even if we had a map.”</p> - -<p>“I presume you remember, Crandon,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “the place that -boasted that ancient wonder of the world, the Temple of Diana.”</p> - -<p>“Ephesus!” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, quickly. “I do happen to know that Ephesus -is in Asia Minor.”</p> - -<p>“Then,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, still keeping his face very grave, “I -should strongly advise your finding Ephesus first. That’s in the near -neighborhood of Magnesia.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon gravely. “Though I did not know where -magnetic iron came from, I do happen to know that it is sometimes -called ‘lode-stone.’</p> - -<p>“And I know, too, that Sir Isaac Newton—he’s the one, Billy, who ran -down Giant Gravity—had a ring set with a lode-stone that could lift -two hundred and fifty times its own weight.”</p> - -<p>“And I know,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “that I am very grateful to <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> -Crandon for telling me about the new electro-magnet that I now have at -the mill. I feel very much easier, now, about my workmen’s eyes.”</p> - -<p>“Do you mean,” asked Billy, “that thing that you brought home that I -thought was a new desk telephone?”</p> - -<p>“It does resemble a telephone,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, “only it has a tip -instead of a mouthpiece. It’s a great thing for taking bits of steel -out of eyes.”</p> - -<p>“Isn’t there such a thing,” asked John Bradford, “as a magnetic -separator?”</p> - -<p>“Glad to hear from you once more, Bradford,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, with a -smile. “It has been some time since you have said anything.”</p> - -<p>“I have been having too good a time,” said John Bradford, “to want to -talk. I should like, now, to have you tell us about the separator.”</p> - -<p>“It is an electro-magnetic drum. When the finely crushed ore is poured -on it in a stream, the drum attracts the iron, while the earthy matter, -which is non-magnetic, falls off by the action of gravity. The iron is -carried on by the drum, until a brush arrangement sweeps it off into a -truck.</p> - -<p>“That is a case, Billy, where Giant Gravity and Giant Electro-magnet -fight over the ore, and each gets away with a part of it.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps I ought to explain to you that, when a bar of soft iron is put -inside an insulated coil of copper wire and a current of electricity is -passed through it, it becomes a powerful magnet. That is what we mean -by an electro-magnet. The advantage of that is that it ceases to be a -magnet when the current ceases, so it can be controlled. You will see -some before I am through showing you giants.</p> - -<p>“There is also an electric cleaner that collects the iron that is left -in the corners of cars. Those devices save iron. Strange as it may -seem, however, not all iron will respond to the magnetic cleaners.”</p> - -<p>“Is there,” asked <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, “any danger that the iron in the world -will be exhausted?”</p> - -<p>“I hardly think so,” answered <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “The available ores, in the -single range that we were talking about this morning, run up into the -trillions of metric tons.”</p> - -<p>“I read something the other day,” said John Bradford, “about some iron -that had been found in Sweden, up beyond the arctic circle.”</p> - -<p>“That,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “is one of the most extensive deposits in -the world. The countries of the western part of Europe draw upon that -supply.</p> - -<p>“It is very likely that we haven’t found all the iron yet, and even -more likely that we shall find a way to make use of the poorer ores.</p> - -<p>“By the way, Billy, there is one kind of iron called ‘iron pyrites.’ It -looks so much like gold that it has deceived many a poor fellow into -thinking that he had found gold. It well deserves the name ‘fool’s -gold.’ It doesn’t even make good iron. I’ll show you some when we go -home. Now we’ll go to see the iron-eater.”</p> - -<p>Ten minutes later Billy exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“He’s tall!”</p> - -<p>“Not quite a hundred feet,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>“He’s black!” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon.</p> - -<p>“He roars!” added John Bradford.</p> - -<p>“And,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “even if he could be moved, he’s rather too -valuable for a circus manager to buy, for he cost a million dollars. I -really think he’s the most fearful thing ever made by man. The Germans, -though, did a great thing for iron when they evolved the blast furnace.”</p> - -<p>“Makes our cupola,” said John Bradford, as they stopped before the tall -iron stack, “look very small.”</p> - -<p>“Ours,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “is only a dwarf, but he does something <a id="like">like</a> the -same work; only here they put in iron ore instead of pig iron. Blast -furnaces make pig iron.”</p> - -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="Illustration5"> -<img src="images/i_181.jpg" class="w75" alt="“THE MOST FEARFUL THING EVER MADE”" /> -</span></p> -<p class="center caption">“THE MOST FEARFUL THING EVER MADE”<br /><br /></p> - -<p>“What diet,” asked <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, “do they give this giant?”</p> - -<p>“You’re bound to think professionally, aren’t you, Crandon? He’s -restricted to coke, iron ore, and limestone, but they feed him very -often. They see, too, that he has plenty of hot air to breathe.</p> - -<p>“The old problem used to be how to get heat enough to melt the ore. -That was solved by a Scotchman, who originated the use of the hot blast.</p> - -<p>“The gas produced by the furnace used to be wasted. Now they utilize -it in the hot-blast stoves. That accounts for some of the huge pipes -attached to the furnace. Come this way, and I’ll show you a stove.</p> - -<p>“Here it is, almost as tall as the furnace itself. This giant, also, is -encased in an armor of iron plates. If we could look inside, we should -see that it is almost filled with open brick work that resembles a -honeycomb.</p> - -<p>“They send hot gas over the brick work till the stove is hot, then they -shut off the gas and start the engine that blows in cold air. That, -heated by the bricks, is forced into the furnace.</p> - -<p>“One of those great pipes up there is where they draw off the slag. It -is so much lighter than the iron that it rises to the top, like cream -on milk.</p> - -<p>“Down here they draw off the iron. Sometimes they keep it hot for the -next process; sometimes it is made into pig iron.”</p> - -<p>“What,” asked <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, “becomes of the slag?”</p> - -<p>“That depends somewhat on the chemical composition of the slag. Some -kinds are broken up to be used as foundation for roads; others are -granulated by being run into water, and so made into cement. Over in -Germany, where the ores are rich in phosphorus, they grind up the -linings of the furnace to make phosphatic fertilizers for the farmers.”</p> - -<p>“Then,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, “the making of iron involves the use of -chemistry, doesn’t it?”</p> - -<p>“It certainly does,” answered <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott; “from the chemical -composition of ores to the finished product. We are learning a great -deal just now from the chemists about steel alloys.</p> - -<p>“I didn’t tell you that from the gas they sometimes save ammonia, tar, -and oils, before it is fed to the hot-blast stoves.”</p> - -<p>“By-products,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, “seem to be a feature of modern -industry.”</p> - -<p>“It is high time,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “that waste should receive -attention.”</p> - -<p>“Before we leave this giant I must tell you that he already has a -dangerous rival—listen, Billy, for it’s almost a David and Goliath -story—in a little electric smelter. Some of them can be moved about -like a portable sawmill.</p> - -<p>“Up in Sweden, where the ores are among the purest in the world, they -use electric smelters and make steel direct from the ore.”</p> - -<p>“Any more giants?” asked Billy.</p> - -<p>“You’ll think so,” answered <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “before I am through with -them; but we’ve seen enough for to-day. Next time I’ll show you giants -that have done something more than to make iron, for they have really -reduced the size of the world.”</p> - -<p>“Whew!” exclaimed <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon.</p> - -<p>“Before that,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “I am going to introduce you to some -pygmies.”</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="PageTop15"> -<img src="images/pagetop.jpg" class="w50" alt="Page Top" /> -</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV -<br /> -THE PYGMIES</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_186.jpg" width="100" alt=""/> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">“Shall</span> we need glasses, Prescott, in order to see your -pygmies?” asked <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, the next morning, while they were waiting -for the car.</p> - -<p>“I will agree to furnish all the glasses needed,” answered <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>Much as Billy wanted to know what <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott was going to show them, -he had made up his mind to trust to his eyes to find out.</p> - -<p>John Bradford was learning so many things that he had long wanted to -know that he was simply enjoying things as they came along, and being -thankful.</p> - -<p>“To the office of the steel works, Joseph,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>On past the great yard of the blast furnace they went, then along by -some high brick walls until they stopped in front of a two-story cement -building.</p> - -<p>Then they followed <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott till he stopped at the head of the -stairs, and knocked at a door.</p> - -<p>“Come in,” shouted somebody in a cordial voice.</p> - -<p>“Hullo, Harry, old fellow!” said the owner of the voice, still more -cordially, as he came forward with outstretched hand.</p> - -<p>“This,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “is my classmate, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Farnsworth, who is at -the head of the laboratory.”</p> - -<p>After he had introduced John Bradford and <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, he added, “And -this is Billy Bradford.”</p> - -<p>Then he said, “I’ve brought these friends of mine to see your show. -We’ve been to see some of the giants in the iron industry. Now I want -them to have a look at your pygmies.”</p> - -<p>“Pygmies they shall see,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Farnsworth, with an appreciative -smile. “Hardly a technical term, but a good way, Harry, to get hold of -the facts. Pygmies they shall be.</p> - -<p>“Sit down, all of you,” he said, pointing to chairs by his low, broad -table.</p> - -<p>Pushing back the sliding door of a case behind the table, he took out a -tray containing small round pieces of iron and steel.</p> - -<p>“Shall I tell you about these specimens, or will you ask me?”</p> - -<p>“Just give us a general idea, Jack,” answered <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott; “we might -ask the wrong questions.”</p> - -<p>“Then, Billy Bradford,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Farnsworth, smiling at Billy, “I’ll -explain to you, and the others may listen.</p> - -<p>“You see we chemists analyze the ores before they are smelted; so we -know something about what kind of pig iron we shall have. But when we -want to know what kind of finished iron or steel we have from a given -process, we can’t tell much by analyzing it, so we have to depend on -our microscopes.</p> - -<p>“Metals crystallize, if they have just the right conditions. Each metal -has its own form; so, if you could find a single crystal, you would -recognize it by its form.</p> - -<p>“But when melted iron grows solid, the crystals are crowded so close -together that, when it is prepared for the microscope, and polished -like this, the surface looks as if it were made up of ‘crystal grains.’</p> - -<p>“Sometimes crystallization takes place in steel if it is subjected to -long repeated jar. Many accidents in engines are due to that.”</p> - -<p>As he took the cover off his microscope, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Farnsworth said:</p> - -<p>“I suppose, Harry, that your ‘pygmies’ are the elements that are found -in the various kinds of iron?”</p> - -<p>“The same,” answered <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>“Then I shall tell Billy Bradford that some of the pygmies are enemies -and others are friends; some need to be driven away, and others should -be invited to come in.</p> - -<p>“The most numerous enemies are the Carbon pygmies. The blast furnace -drives most of them off, but they have to be fought in the pig iron, -too.</p> - -<p>“Sulphur pygmies are about the worst of all, because they make the iron -brittle. They are practically the hardest to drive away.</p> - -<p>“Phosphorus pygmies haven’t a good reputation, but they are in much -better standing than the Sulphur enemies.</p> - -<p>“Now, if you’ll look in here—this is the purest and the softest -Swedish bar iron—you’ll see where the edges of the crystals come -together. These are friendly Ferrite pygmies, crowding close together. -<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Ferrum</i> is the Latin name for iron; you must remember that.”</p> - -<p>“If I didn’t know,” said John Bradford, when he took his turn, “I -should think I was looking at some sort of wood with a very fine grain.”</p> - -<p>“This,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Farnsworth, changing the specimen, “has black and -white streaks in it; that means that the iron has begun to be steel. -When it has light patches like these in it, we know that it has taken -up more carbon, and has grown harder.</p> - -<p>“So it goes,” he said, showing one after another of the specimens. “You -can see for yourself that, if friendly pygmies stand in line, taking -hold of hands, that would make a good kind of iron to draw out into a -wire. If enemies stand around in groups, they make the iron easy to -break.</p> - -<p>“When we want steel for chisels, for example, we invite Tungsten to -come in; when we want certain parts for automobiles we call in some -Vanadium pygmies.”</p> - -<p>“So,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “while we need the giants to make the pig -iron, the real value of the iron and steel depends on the pygmies.”</p> - -<p>“That’s about the size of it,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Farnsworth.</p> - -<p>“Anything the trouble with you, young chap?” asked <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon. “You -haven’t spoken for ten minutes. Feel bad anywhere?”</p> - -<p>“No,” answered Billy. “I was just wishing I could know about all those -things.”</p> - -<p>“I’m glad it’s nothing worse than that,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon.</p> - -<p>“Now,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “we’ll start for some more giants. Coming, -Farnsworth?”</p> - -<p>“Sorry, not to-day. Call again!”</p> - -<p>“The steel mill comes next on my program,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, when they -went out. “I want you to see a Bessemer converter, an open hearth, and -some crucibles, because that practically covers the different methods -of making iron and steel.</p> - -<p>“Here is the Bessemer converter. You see it is an iron cylinder made -of wrought iron plates, and it tapers off at the top in a conical end. -See. It is swinging down to be filled almost as easily as you can turn -your hand over. In a moment it will stand up again, twenty-five feet -tall.</p> - -<p>“Bessemer got hold of the idea that air could be used instead of fuel. -They say he risked his life in his experiments. He worked a long time, -but he won, and the Bessemer converters started the boom in steel.</p> - -<p>“See it come up again, with fifteen tons of hot pig iron in it. Down in -the bottom of the converter is a blast chest where the air is forced in -under pressure, after it has been blown into a tank by blowing engines.”</p> - -<p>“O-o-oh!” exclaimed Billy, as the top of the converter seemed to burst -into flame, and a shower of sparks came down.</p> - -<p>“That,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, “is surely a fearful sort of thing!”</p> - -<p>Then the flame began to drop slowly, and they saw that the converter -itself was safe.</p> - -<p>“This process burns out all the carbon. Bessemer was trying to make -wrought iron when he started out. Now they put back the right amount of -carbon, and make the iron into steel.</p> - -<p>“It’s a chemical process. When the air strikes the hot metals the -oxygen unites with them, and they burst into flame. The whole process -takes between fifteen and twenty minutes.”</p> - -<p>“I am very sure,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, “that I shouldn’t like to work -here.”</p> - -<p>“When we get to the open hearth process, which is the rival of the -Bessemer,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “I expect that none of you will want to -work there.”</p> - -<p>“For my part,” said John Bradford, slowly, “I prefer Prescott mill.”</p> - -<p>“So do I,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“Which reminds me,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “to tell you that I have been -looking at some machines to help in the foundry. They will help about -lifting and ramming; but they won’t do away with the work of men.</p> - -<p>“Here we are, gentlemen, before a Siemens-Martin open hearth. This -is a continuous process. It was evolved by Sir William Siemens, a -German-English engineer, and his brother. Then a man named Martin, a -Frenchman, I understand, found a way to mix the iron and steel that are -put on the hearth, so it bears both the names.</p> - -<p>“We’ll just look in. It is a large, shallow basin, made of bricks, -partly filled with iron. Both hot air and gas are burned on top of the -iron. The process takes seven or eight hours; but it produces larger -quantities of steel than the Bessemer converters can do.</p> - -<p>“Then, too, it furnishes all kinds of iron and steel, for they sample -it as it burns, and draw off the steel at any percentage of carbon that -they want.</p> - -<p>“Cast iron has a great deal of carbon in it; steel has much less; and -wrought iron has almost none.</p> - -<p>“Now, we’ll go over to the crucible furnace.”</p> - -<p>They walked slowly across the yard.</p> - -<p>“There are no giants here,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “with the exception -of the furnaces in which they set the crucibles; and they are small, -compared with the furnaces that we have seen.”</p> - -<p>They found themselves in a long room lined with shelves of clay -crucibles, about eighteen inches in height. On the sides of the room, -under the shelves, were rows of small furnaces, each large enough for -two crucibles.</p> - -<p>“The crucible process,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “gives us our finest steels. -It is a simple melting together of iron and charcoal. The carbon of the -charcoal passes into the iron. When the crucibles are filled, they are -set in the furnace, and left for several days.</p> - -<p>“They make a special kind of crucible steel over in Sheffield.”</p> - -<p>While he was saying that, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott glanced at Billy, but Billy was -looking at the furnace, and did not hear what <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott said.</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott looked at him hard, as he said:</p> - -<p>“The home of the crucible is Sheffield.”</p> - -<p>“Sheffield,” said Billy, turning, “is where they make good jack-knives.”</p> - -<p>“Want to see a genuine Sheffield?” asked <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, putting his hand -into his pocket.</p> - -<p>That time he didn’t have to attract Billy’s attention, for Billy stood -waiting.</p> - -<p>“See,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, pulling out a chain that had a knife on it, -and opening the blades. “See, it has Sheffield on both blades.”</p> - -<p>Billy’s eyes saw the “Sheffield.” Then they saw something else, for on -the side of the knife was a little silver plate, and on it—he had to -look twice—was “Billy Bradford.”</p> - -<p>“That’s a good knife,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>The three men smiled, each his very best smile.</p> - -<p>“Thank you, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott,” said Billy as he took the knife. Then he -smiled, too.</p> - -<p>“Now for the steel mill, and the last of our giants.”</p> - -<p>“Is the mill deserted?” asked <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, as they went in.</p> - -<p>“It’s much easier,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “to find the giants in a steel -mill than it is to find the men. If you look around you’ll find a few, -but they’ll be in most unexpected places.”</p> - -<p>“I see a man,” exclaimed Billy, “up in a cage!”</p> - -<p>“He’s controlling that crane,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “See it carry that -ingot of red-hot iron!”</p> - -<p>“This,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, “passes belief. There’s a boy over there, in -a reclining chair, who is opening a furnace down on this side.”</p> - -<p>“Look at that!” exclaimed John Bradford, pointing to a crane like a -huge thumb and forefinger, which had picked up a red-hot ingot, tons in -weight, and was dropping it on a waiting car.</p> - -<p>“Let’s follow it,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, pleased to see John Bradford so -excited.</p> - -<p>They followed it to a room filled with clanking rolls.</p> - -<p>Another crane swung the red-hot iron into the jaws of rollers.</p> - -<p>On went the fiery bolt, sometimes up on one roller, then down on -another, till at last they found that it had come out a finished rail.</p> - -<p>Then a huge, round steel magnet, lowered by a man in a derrick house, -picked up half a dozen rails; another lever sent the crane down the -overhead tracks; and the rails were dropped in order on waiting cars.</p> - -<p>“It used,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “to take a dozen men to load a single -rail.</p> - -<p>“Giants or not, Billy Bradford?”</p> - -<p>“Giants for sure,” replied Billy.</p> - -<p>“Fire-eaters!” exclaimed <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon. “Let’s go!”</p> - -<p>“I’m ready,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “I’m glad that the work is so much -easier for the men, but I must confess that I don’t care to watch -red-hot iron shooting, almost flying around.”</p> - -<p>“I’m ready to go,” said Billy.</p> - -<p>“Joseph,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, a few minutes later, “drive till you find -a country road.”</p> - -<p>That evening, as they sat together on the hotel veranda, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott -said:</p> - -<p>“I’ve been thinking,” then he stopped a moment to see whether Billy was -listening, “how much iron has done to make the world smaller.”</p> - -<p>Then, seeing that Billy’s eyes were opening wider and wider, he said:</p> - -<p>“The world is so much smaller than it used to be that I sometimes -wonder how much smaller it may grow.”</p> - -<p>“Isn’t it just as far around the world as it always was?” asked Billy, -looking first at <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, then at his Uncle John, and then back at -<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>“It’s of no use, Billy,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, “to expect this man to tell -us anything straight out. He’s trying to train our minds. If we’re -going around with him, we shall have to submit to indirect methods of -obtaining information.”</p> - -<p>“If you’ll excuse me, Crandon,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “I’m not sure that -Billy won’t learn as fast by my ‘indirect methods’ as he will by the -kind of words that you are using.”</p> - -<p>“Even, I think,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon.</p> - -<p>Then the three men smiled, each in his own way.</p> - -<p>Billy didn’t smile. All his best heroes seemed to be showing -“disagreeable spots” at the same time.</p> - -<p>But Billy had only a minute of thinking that, for <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon said, in -his most friendly tone:</p> - -<p>“I think I know what he’s driving at, so I’ll lend you a hand. It would -take a long time to sail around the world, wouldn’t it?”</p> - -<p>“Sure,” answered Billy, quite like himself.</p> - -<p>“But, if we were to start in an automobile, and drive to a train that -would take us to San Francisco——”</p> - -<p>“And then,” said Uncle John, “take a steamer across the ocean——”</p> - -<p>“And,” finished <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “get back home in less than forty days, -wouldn’t that make the world smaller than if we had to sail and sail -and sail?”</p> - -<p>“Of course,” answered Billy. “Anybody can see that.”</p> - -<p>“And, if you were to go alone, Billy,” continued <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, in his -very friendliest tone, “you could wire me or ‘phone me or cable me -almost anywhere along the route. Wouldn’t that make the world seem very -small?</p> - -<p>“And what do all these things mean but iron—iron engines and iron -rails and iron wires and watches with steel springs and magnetic steel -needles in compasses that guide the great steamers through the paths of -the sea?”</p> - -<p>“Sometimes,” said Billy, in a half-discouraged tone, “I think there’s -no end to knowing about iron.”</p> - -<p>“That’s not very far from true, Billy,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “We could -sit here till to-morrow morning trying to mention things made of iron, -or by means of iron, and then we should be likely to forget many of -them.</p> - -<p>“If it weren’t for iron and steel implements and tools, men would have -hard work to earn a living.</p> - -<p>“<abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, what does it seem to you that we should lose if we were -to lose iron?”</p> - -<p>“I’ve been thinking about the arts—surgery, too. We need iron for -sculpture, for music, for printing books and papers. We need iron, I -should say, for art’s sake.”</p> - -<p>“And you, Bradford?”</p> - -<p>“I’ve been thinking about agriculture. I never realized, before this -trip, how we really depend on iron for our food. That phosphatic -fertilizer set me to thinking about plows, mills, and all sorts of -things.”</p> - -<p>“I think,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “that the man was right who said that the -strength of nations depends on coal and iron far more than it does on -gold.</p> - -<p>“Another man said practically the same when he said that iron has given -man liberty and industry: tools and implements of peace, as well as -weapons of war. When you think it out, that seems to cover it all.</p> - -<p>“Now, Billy,” <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott went on, “I know what you will say. You may -say it.”</p> - -<p>“Without iron,” said Billy, smiling up at <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “we should be -just ‘nothin’, nobody.’”</p> - -<p>“My lecture course,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “is now finished.</p> - -<p>“To-morrow, I am going to show you where they try to make—do -make—something greater than iron.”</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="PageTop16"> -<img src="images/pagetop.jpg" class="w50" alt="Page Top" /> -</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI -<br /> -WHAT <abbr title="mister">MR.</abbr> PRESCOTT SAID</h2> -</div> - -<div> - <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_203.jpg" width="100" height="113" alt=""/> -</div> - -<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">“At</span> four o’clock, Joseph.”</p> - -<p>Billy looked at <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott wonderingly.</p> - -<p>“Why four o’clock, questioner? Because, when I’m going to see a -place, I like to see it at its best. I like to see this place in the -afternoon, when the shadows have grown long.</p> - -<p>“No; no more questions.”</p> - -<p>At a quarter past four, Joseph stopped the car in front of a beautiful -wrought iron gate.</p> - -<p>“That’s a beauty!” exclaimed <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon. “It reminds me of some of the -old mediæval work that I saw in Italy. What’s this, anyway?”</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott shook his head.</p> - -<p>“All right, Prescott,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, “I’ll wait.”</p> - -<p>“As for that gate,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “I may as well admit that I am a -bit proud of it. The men of my year put it there.</p> - -<p>“As for the place, I think,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott slowly, “I think I might -safely say that it is where they make, or try to make, a certain kind -of castings.”</p> - -<p>“Would it be fair, Prescott,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon with a smile, “for me to -say that you yourself are prone to think professionally?”</p> - -<p>“Quite fair, I assure you,” answered <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, with a bow.</p> - -<p>“I don’t see anybody making anything,” said Billy, in a disappointed -tone.</p> - -<p>“In the summer they have to rest both their machinery and their -material,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>Then Billy knew that <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott expected him to keep his eyes and his -ears open until he found out for himself where they were.</p> - -<p>“Let’s walk,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p class="center p2"><span class="figcenter" id="Illustration6"> -<img src="images/i_205.jpg" class="w75" alt="“HE’S STILL LOOKING AT THE GATE”" /> -</span></p> -<p class="center caption">“HE’S STILL LOOKING AT THE GATE”<br /><br /></p> - -<p>They were at the first corner when Billy exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“Where’s Uncle John?”</p> - -<p>“There he is,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, turning around. “He’s still looking -at that gate. Don’t blame him much,” he added.</p> - -<p>Back Billy went.</p> - -<p>John Bradford was so absorbed in studying the gate that Billy had to -call him the second time before he turned.</p> - -<p>“Eh! Billy, my lad!” he said. “I should like to do a piece of work as -beautiful as that. That is true artist work.”</p> - -<p>Something in his tone made Billy say quickly:</p> - -<p>“You’re an artist yourself, Uncle John. Miss King said so.”</p> - -<p>“I should really like,” said John Bradford again, “to do such a piece -of work as that.”</p> - -<p>“When we get home,” said Billy, “why don’t you begin?”</p> - -<p>“Eh! Billy, my lad!” said Uncle John, but this time he said it with a -smile.</p> - -<p>“He was wishing,” said Billy when they overtook the others, “that he -could make an iron gate.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll confess, here and now,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “that I myself have -had aspirations of that sort.”</p> - -<p>“Is iron-work coming in again?” asked <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon. “It seems to me -that, just lately, I have seen some very beautiful gates.”</p> - -<p>“I think so,” answered <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott. “There are a few men who seem -to have caught the spirit of the old smiths, and to have seen the -possibilities in wrought iron. The man who made that gate is one of -them. He has invented a liquid, too, to prevent the rusting of the iron.</p> - -<p>“You see that a man who works in iron must be both an artist and a -smith—he must blow the forge and use the hammer. That gate in cast -iron would be almost ugly. In the Swedish wrought iron, it is truly -beautiful.</p> - -<p>“The old fellows knew much more about the artistic side of iron than we -do. Look at the old French locks—even a French king prided himself on -his ability to make locks.</p> - -<p>“There was a time when an apprentice to a locksmith had to make a -masterpiece lock before he could become a master. It usually took him -two years to do it, for he had to chase and chisel it from the solid.</p> - -<p>“I’ll tell you, Bradford, something that Billy Bradford doesn’t know. I -have a workshop of my own at home in the lower part of the house.</p> - -<p>“A long time ago I began an iron gate for the garden. When we go back, -Bradford, let’s finish it.”</p> - -<p>Billy, looking at his Uncle John, smiled serenely.</p> - -<p>Then Billy walked by Uncle John, while <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott and <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon -went slowly before them down the long avenue of elms.</p> - -<p>Billy listened to the two men as they talked. He found out that they -had both been to college, and then somewhere else. He couldn’t quite -make out what <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott’s other place was; but it was somewhere -specially to study iron.</p> - -<p>This talk about college was all new to Billy. He liked the stories that -they told, one after another. He had never seen <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott so happy.</p> - -<p>“That,” he said, stopping before a large brick building that looked -very old, “is where I used to room. Second story front.</p> - -<p>“Billy, look back.”</p> - -<p>Billy, turning, saw the great yard, green everywhere, with long shadows -of trees and buildings resting on it in the low light of the afternoon.</p> - -<p>“It’s like the city and the country put together,” he said. “It’s the -most beautiful place that I ever saw!”</p> - -<p>“Prescott,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, “were you ever on a football team?”</p> - -<p>“He was captain,” broke in Billy. “He told me so!”</p> - -<p>“He’s captain still,” said John Bradford, in his slow, even way.</p> - -<p>They all looked at him a moment.</p> - -<p>“Good, Bradford, good!” exclaimed <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon. “That’s what he is! I’m -inclined to think that football is a good training place for a captain -of industry.”</p> - -<p>“It’s all team work,” said John Bradford. “Some do one thing and some -another, but without a captain a team can’t win.”</p> - -<p>There were times when Uncle John said things that Billy couldn’t -understand. He did just then. But Billy knew, by the look that came -into <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott’s face, that he was very much pleased.</p> - -<p>“It takes,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, “two sets of men to make the world move -along: those who work with their heads, and those who work with their -hands. For my part, I believe that one set works about as hard as the -other.”</p> - -<p>“I’m truly thankful, Crandon,” said <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, “that there’s -somebody in the world who realizes that.”</p> - -<p>Then they all started down the avenue of elms. <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott had slipped -his arm through John Bradford’s, and was talking to him earnestly.</p> - -<p><abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon and Billy loitered along behind.</p> - -<p>“<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott seems to be unusually fond of his ‘Alma Mater,’” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> -Crandon.</p> - -<p>“What,” asked Billy, “does ‘Alma Mater’ mean?”</p> - -<p>“It’s a Latin name for a college,” answered <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon. “I think that -‘cherishing mother’ is a pretty good way to translate it into English.</p> - -<p>“A college looks after you, and tries to make a man of you, something -the way your mother does, you know.”</p> - -<p>“All the mother I ever had,” said Billy, “was only a week.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, young chap, I’m sorry,” said <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Crandon, throwing his arm across -Billy’s shoulder the way college boys sometimes do.</p> - -<p>“I tell you what I’d do,” he added quickly; “I’d begin to think about -an ‘Alma Mater.’ You could work your way through, you know. I began -that way myself.</p> - -<p>“Don’t you do it, though, on less than three meals a day—square ones,” -he added with professional zeal.</p> - -<p>“I shall keep an eye on you, young chap. I surely shall!”</p> - -<p>Then he remembered that he had some letters to post, and hurried off to -the nearest box.</p> - -<p>Billy kept on walking toward <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott and Uncle John, who were -coming slowly back under the beautiful trees.</p> - -<p>After he had gone a little way, Billy waited, in the middle of the -walk, for them to come up.</p> - -<p><abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott still had his hand through Uncle John’s arm. How happy -Uncle John looked, and <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott, too!</p> - -<p>When they reached him, they stopped.</p> - -<p>“I’ve found out,” said Billy. “This is where they make——”</p> - -<p>“Try to make,” corrected <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott.</p> - -<p>“Men,” finished Billy.</p> - -<p>Then <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Prescott put his hand on Billy’s shoulder, and, looking right -down into Billy’s eyes, said slowly:</p> - -<p>“He’s your boy, Bradford, but he belongs to me, too.</p> - -<p>“We’ll work together, and we’ll see whether between us we can help him -to come to be a man.”</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="center"> -<b>The Stories in this Series are</b>:<br /> -</p> - -<table class="autotable small" style="width:30%;"> - <tr><td>THE STORY OF COTTON</td></tr> - <tr><td>THE STORY OF GOLD AND SILVER</td></tr> - <tr><td>THE STORY OF LUMBER</td></tr> - <tr><td>THE STORY OF WOOL</td></tr> - <tr><td>THE STORY OF IRON</td></tr> - <tr><td>THE STORY OF LEATHER</td></tr> - <tr><td>THE STORY OF GLASS</td></tr> - <tr><td>THE STORY OF SUGAR</td></tr> - <tr><td>THE STORY OF SILK</td></tr> - <tr><td>THE STORY OF PORCELAIN</td></tr> -</table> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter transnote"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_Notes">Transcriber’s Notes:</h2> - - -<p>Minor errors and omissions in punctuation have been fixed.</p> -<p>In the <a href="#Illustrations">list of Illustrations</a> "He's still looking at that gate" was changed to "He's still looking at the gate"</p> -<p>Page 180: “he does something the” changed to “<a href="#like">he does something like the</a>”</p> -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF IRON ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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