he
doesn't come back until two or three o'clock. He uses his head then until
five or, sometimes, until four; then he goes off to play golf. But as the
result of those few hours' use of the Chief's head, the Superintendent,
and you six or eight foremen, and all the two hundred men under your
direction work a whole day or a week, or even a month, as you know. You
are merely carrying out in a mechanical, routine kind of a way the
thoughts and ideas that another man thinks. Now, you have the ability to
think for yourself."

"I could think for myself," said he, "but I can't do all the figuring that
is necessary in order to decide just what size wire should go here, and
what kind of equipment should go there, and all the different things.
That's beyond me."

"Yes, it is beyond you now, but it doesn't need to be beyond you. You have
the mental ability to learn to use those formulae just as well as the
Chief does. The thing necessary is for you to learn how to do it, to get
needful education. Now, you are young, and you're strong, and you've got
lots of time before you. If you want to make more money, the way to do it
is to learn to use your head and save weeks, months of time, as well as
the labor of your hands."

"If I went off to college or university for two or three years, I don't
think Bessie would wait for me," said he. "She wants to get married. I
want to, too, and I think we ought to do it."

AN EDUCATION BY CORRESPONDENCE

"Well," said his counselor, "you don't need to go off to school. You can
take electrical engineering in a correspondence course, even after you are
married. You're making good wages now as a foreman. Your hours of work are
only eight a day, and you have plenty of time in the evenings and on
holidays and other times to study this subject. Besides, you will probably
make better progress studying it while you work at the trade than you
would in school and withdrawn from the practical applications of the
principles that you are learning."

The result of all this was that D.B. did take a correspondence course in
electrical engineering. It was pretty tough work. He had not studied for
years. One of the first things he had to learn was how to study; how to
concentrate; how to learn the things he had to know without tremendous
waste of energy. After a little while he learned how to study. Then he
progressed, a little at a time, with the intricate and complicated
mathematics of the profession he had d