. It wasn't exactly
hardship, for nothing is really hardship to lovers in their twenties but
separation. Still they thought, talked and dreamed of the bluefish, the
blueberries, the blue waters, and the sea-breezes of Fairhaven.

About this time, Charles Pratt of Brooklyn, a dealer and refiner of
oils, appeared upon the horizon. Pratt had bought whale-oil of Ellis in
Fairhaven. Pratt now contracted for the entire output of Rogers and
Ellis at a fixed price. All went well for a few months, when crude
suddenly took a skyward turn, owing to the manipulation of speculators.
Rogers and Ellis had no wells and were at the mercy of the wolves. They
struggled on, trying to live up to their contract with Pratt, but soon
their surplus was wiped out, and they found themselves in debt to Pratt
to the tune of several thousand dollars.

Rogers went on to New York and saw Pratt, personally assuming the
obligation of taking care of the deficit. Ellis disappeared in the mist.

The manly ways of Rogers so impressed Pratt that he decided he needed
just such a man in his business. A bargain was struck, and Rogers went
to work for Pratt. The first task of young Rogers was to go to
Pennsylvania and straighten out the affairs of the Pennsylvania Salt
Company, of which Pratt was chief owner. The work was so well done that
Pratt made Rogers foreman of his Brooklyn refinery.

It was twenty-five dollars a week, with a promise of a partnership if
sales ran over fifty thousand dollars a year.

How Henry Rogers moved steadily from foreman to manager, and then
superintendent of Pratt's Astral Oil Refinery, is one of the
fairy-tales of America. Pratt finally gave Rogers an interest in the
business, and Rogers got along on his twenty-five dollars a week,
although the books showed he was making ten thousand dollars a year. He
worked like a pack-mule. His wife brought his meals to the "works," and
often he would sleep but three hours a night, as he could snatch the
time, rolled up in a blanket by the side of a still.

Then comes John D. Rockefeller from Cleveland, with his plans of
co-operation and consolidation. Pratt talked it over with Rogers, and
they decided that the combination would steady the commercial sails and
give ballast to the ship. They named their own terms. The Rockefellers
sneezed, and then coughed. The next day John D. Rockefeller came back
and quietly accepted the offer exactly as Rogers had formulated it.

The terms were stiff,