The Second Generation

n and boy of them, as hard at it as if the dinner rest were hours away. On the threshold of the long room where several scores of filled barrels were being headed and stamped there suddenly appea

re crossed the packing room. The gray-white face held straight ahead, but the keen blue eyes paused upon each worker and each task. And every "hand" in those two

's trade like any journeyman, when he decided that the company should manufacture its own barrels. He was not a rich man who was a manufacturer; he was a manufacturer who was incidentally rich-one who made of his business a vocation. He had no theories on the dignity of labor; he simply exemplified it, and would have been amazed, and amused or angered according to his mood, had it

rasping the problem in all its details, he threw himself flat upon his face, crawled under the machine, and called for a light. A moment later his voice issued again, in a call for a hammer. Several minutes of sharp hammering; then the mass of iron began to heave. It rose at the upward pressure of Ranger's powerful arms and legs, shoulders and back; it crashed over on its side; he stood up and, without pause

able suit of light gray tweed, a water-woven Panama with a wine-colored ribbon, a wine-colored scarf; several inches of wine-colored socks showed below his high-rolled, carefully creased trousers. There was a seal ring on the little finger of the left of a pair of large hands strong with the symmetrical strength which is got only at "polit

d he, "I came to bri

son, he eyed the young man with a look that bit into every one of his fashionable details. Presently he lifted his arm and pointed. The son followed

red, flushing and throw

the cigarette among the shavings which littered the floor. "The scientists say a fire can't be lighted f

the door, the son following, acute to the grins and winks the workmen were exchanging behind his back. The father opened the shut

get in here

ordered one of the men to ope

father merely r

that he was displaying praiseworthy patie

h wor

ail from under a bench at the nearest window. The

is young-young gent

Mr. Arthur,"

any business here. Who gave you authorit

ou certainly can't blame him. He knew

r. "I haven't been dealing with men for fifty year

against the rules,"

of the discipline of the mills. "Then he knew he was doing wrong.

ed Arthur. "And now

"your mother and I have dinner in

nything you please,

nter the inner room to change his clothes, he wheeled and

tone to which repression gave a seeming lightness, he

nt into the dressing room. The young man drew a cautious but profound breath of relief-the confession he had been dreading was over; his father knew the worst. "If the governor only knew the world better," he said to

me in silence-a striking-looking pair, with their great similar forms and their handsome similar faces, typical im

king, creeper-clad house. "I stopped at Cleveland half a day, on the way West, and brought Adelaide along." He said this with elaborate carelessness; in

!" answered Arthur. "She's the sort of a sister a man's proud of-looks and style, and the ga

airy, unclean-looking thing that gazed with human inquisitiveness at the approaching figures. As the elder Ranger drew down his eyebrows the creature gave a squeak of alarm and,

halted. He stared with an expression so

hat?" he no

. "Del has taken on a mo

lated Range

s his father's father; perhaps his father might not see the joke. "That is," he explained, "she was l

minous calm which his family knew was th

r silk with simple but effectively placed bands of pink embroidery on blouse and skirt. As she bounded down the steps and into her father's arms her flying s

e emotion that surged into her eyes in the more obvious but less s

m white forefin

You're Adelaide, of cour

ed, gayly. "You should have christened m

g like sunbeams pouring from breaches in a spent storm-cloud; there was an eloquence of ple

" said she, and she kissed him. Her father shuddered, so awful was the contrast between the wizened, dirty-brown face and her roselike skin and fre

nnily like a mummied hand. "What did you do this for, Adelaide?" sai

I couldn't resist. He'

said her fa

human," inter

e," said

he's just like a human being as company. I'd be bored t

n Ranger's face again-a clo

r. She patted him softly. "How can you be so cruel?" she repro

ant from her, a being who had feelings, not almost, but quite human, and who might afford an occupation for an occupation-hunting young woman which migh

a cat, you wouldn't

rly, he was unrea

t me to sen

adding, with a faint gleam of sarcasm, "I've got

te unreasonably put a damper upon their spirits-a feeling which he himself had. He felt

fashioned!" murmured

a dear," murm

was his retort. "You win

atness, was in as sharp contrast to her daughter's garb of the lady of leisure as were Hiram's mill clothes to his son's "London latest." "It's almost half-past twe

vant problem in Saint X, as everybody called St. Christopher; and the servant problem there, as everywhere else, was the chief feature of domestic econom

ued Ellen, too interested in reviewing her troubl

w girl Jarvis brough

tep mighty soft with those people. 'Oh, I don't mind bouncin' up and down,' says she; 'I can chew as I walk round.' When I explained, she up and left in a huff. 'I'm as good as you are, Mrs. Ranger, I'd have you know,' she said, as she was going, just to set Mary afire;

now their place a little better there. We can get some English t

eavy eyebrows. But Adelaide did-she was expecting it. "Don't talk

admire that spirit-or

g to do? It's the flun

doing our

expressing ideas for which he had utter contempt seemed unreasonable. Again rea

God has called them,' as the English prayer book says," cont

ces in the canning factory." The remark was doubly startling-for the repressed energy of its

ring a soup tureen, which she set down before her husband. "I don't dare ask Mary to wait on the table," said she. "If I did, sh

f. Her husband poured the soup, and the plates were passed from hand to hand

ghed as people laugh when they think the joke, or t

easy, stirred, looked up; she saw that the cause of her uneasiness was the eyes of her father fixed steadily upon her in a look which she could not immediately interp

!" she exclaimed. "Sit down, mother, and let me do that. You and father

d, and I'd have been doing it yet if your father hadn't just gone out and got a girl and brought her in and set h

ease. "There!" exclaimed Mrs. Ranger, coloring high with exasperation, "your dress is spoiled! I don't believe I can take it out of that kind of goods wit

husband. Once more he felt in the wrong, whe

's nothing," she said; "the stain will come out; and, if it doesn't, there's no harm do

med: "Why, the dress is as good as new; much too good to travel

s. Ranger herself joined in the laugh. "Well, it

lingered on, much to the astonishment of his family. When the faint sound of the whistles of the dis

d most of his time with his assembled family. After dinner he seated himself on the front por

of gratitude for her little attention. It is not strange that Del overvalued the merit of these trivial attentions of hers whe

into your hat and dust-

om the drive to th

d not like to leave her father with that expression on his face, but after a brief hesitation she went into the house. Hiram advanced slowly across the lawn to

y. "I shipped it on. I sold the horses-got a smashing good price

ng's new to these par

tone. "Two, side by side, or two, one in f

but somehow not as he would have had his son look. Adelaide came; he helped her to the lower seat. As he watched them dash away, as fine-looking a pair of young p

. There seemed to be something or some one inside him-a newcomer-aloof from all that he had regarded as himself-alo

and elegant array of canvas and leather. This mass of superfluity seemed to add itself to his burden. He recalled what his wife had once said when he hesitated over some new extravagance of the children's: "What'd we toil and save for, unless to give them a better time than we had? What's the use of our having mon

ght of the door was an unobtrusive black-and-gold sign bearing the words "Ferdinand Schulze, M.D." He rang, was admitted by a pretty, plump, Saxon-blond young woman-the doctor's younger daughter and housekeeper. She looked freshly clean and

ng the world. Dr. Schulze was better, as much better as his mind was superior to his body. He and his motherless daughters were "not in it" socially. Saint X was not quite certain whether it shunned them or they it. His services were sought only in extremities, partly because he would lie to his patients neither when he knew what ailed them nor when he did not, and partly because he was a militant infidel. He lost no opportunity to attack religion in all its forms; and his two daughters let no opportunity escape to show that they stood with their father, whom they adored, and who had brought them up with his

e you for many a year

, faced him sit

m in secret thus put into words. "I have never had a doctor before in my life," sa

er," said Schulze. "Well, w

t a kind of tiredness ever since, and a pain in the lo

f your clothes and stretch yourself on

ble. "I never ask my patients questions," he said, as he began to examine Hiram's chest. "I lay 'em out here and go over 'em inch by inch. I find all the weak spots, both those that are crying out and those worse ones that don't. I never ask a

s. He knew nothing of medicine, but he did know good workmanship. As the physician worked, his admiration and confidence grew. He began to feel better-not physically better, but that mental relief which a cou

resemblances to the physician himself. When Schulze reappeared and busied himself writing, he looked from the stone face to the face of flesh with fascinated repulsion-the man and the "familiar" were so

looking up. "That's the

he matter

't know if

t ser

verything is ser

l I

noted the tremendous figure, the shoulders, the forehead, the massive brow and nose and chin-an ensemble of un

itterness; "you will have to die,

m commanded. "W

ing his red-button nose

had a sad gentleness. "

ow." He leaned back, pau

use in order

man who had just read him his death warrant. A long pa

re he had spent half a century-felt like a temporary tenant of that vast, strong body of his which until now had seemed