n families, yet spendin'
their days on earth tryin' to beat their neighbors in the same game.

"It's funny how we're livin'. It's amusin', it is--our ethics of
Christianity. We've baptised everything but business. We give to the
church an' rob the poor. We weep over misfortune an' steal from the
unfortunate. We give a robe to Charity one day and filch it the
nex'. We lay gifts at the altar of the Temple of Kindness for the
Virgin therein, but if we caught her out on the highways of trade an'
commerce we'd steal her an' sell her into slavery. An' after she was
dead we'd go deep into our pockets to put up a monument over her!

"We weep an' rob, an' smile an' steal, an' laugh an' knife, an' wring
the hand of friendship while we step on her toes with our brogans of
business. Can't we be hones' without bein' selfish, fair without
graspin', make a profit without wantin' it all? Is it possible that
Christ's religion has gone into every nook an' corner of the worl'
an' yet missed the great highway of business, the everyday road of
dollars an' cents, profit an' loss!

"So I am goin' to build the mill an' run it like God intended it
should be run, an' I am goin' to put, for once, the plan of salvation
into business, if it busts me an' the plan too! For if it can't stand
a business test it ought to bust!"

He planned it all himself, and, aided by Captain Tom, and Alice, the
beautiful structure went up. Strong and airy and with every comfort
for the workers. "For it strikes me," said the old man, "that the
people who wuck need mo' comforts than them that don't--at least the
comforts of bein' clean. The fust thing I learned in geography was
that God made three times as much water on the surface of the earth
as he did dirt. But you wouldn't think so to look at the human race.
It takes us a long time to take a hint."

The big mountain spring settled the point, and when the mill was
finished there were hot and cold baths in it for the tired workers.
"For there's nothin' so good," said the old man, "for a hot man or a
hot hoss as a warm body-wash. It relaxes the muscles an' makes them
come ag'in. An' the man that comes ag'in is the man the worl' wants."

In the homes of the workers, too, he had baths placed, until it grew
to be a saying of the good old man "that it was easier to take a bath
in Cottontown than to take a drink."

The main building was lofty between floor and ceiling, letting in all
the light and air possible, and