blems of securing raw
material; the work concerning credits.

A very novel viewpoint it was to the boy, and as he regarded the
complicated web, he found himself wondering how much of all this tangle
was known to the men, and whether they were always fair to their
employer. He had frequently overheard conversations at his father's
when they had proclaimed how easy and care-free a life the rich led,
and while they had envied and criticized and slandered the Fernalds and
asserted that they did nothing but enjoy themselves, he had listened.
Ah, how far from the truth this estimate had been! He speculated, as he
reviewed the facts and vaguely rehearsed the capitalist's enigmas
whether, if shown the actual conditions, the townsfolk would have been
willing to exchange places with either of these men whose fortunes they
so greedily coveted.

For in very truth the Fernalds seemed to Ted persons to be pitied far
more than envied. Stripped of illusions, what was Mr. Lawrence Fernald
but an old man who had devoted himself to money-making until he had
rolled up a fortune so large that its management left him no leisure to
enjoy it? Eager to accumulate more and ever more wealth, he toiled and
worried quite as hard as he would have done had he had no money at all;
he often passed sleepless nights and could never be persuaded to take a
day away from his office. He slaved harder than any of those he paid to
work for him and he had none of their respite from care.

Mr. Clarence Fernald, being of a younger generation, had perhaps
learned greater wisdom. At any rate, he went away twice a year for
extended pleasure trips. Possibly the fact that his father had
degenerated into a mere money-making machine was ever before him,
serving as a warning against a similar fate. However that may have
been, he did break resolutely away from business at intervals, or tried
to. Nevertheless, he never could contrive to be wholly free. Telegrams
pursued him wherever he went; his secretary often went in search of
him; and many a time, like a defeated runaway whose escape is cut
short, he was compelled to abandon his holiday and return to the mills,
there to straighten out some unlooked-for complication. Day and night
the responsibilities of his position, the welfare of the hundreds of
persons dependent on him, weighed down his shoulders. And even when he
was at home in the bosom of his family, there was Laurie, his son, his
idol, who could probably never