have to lose both
feet. I think he said his name was Scoville."

"What, not Ward Scoville?"

"I think Burns said that was the name."

Mr. Hardy rose from the lounge, then lay down again. "Oh, well, I can
go there the first thing in the morning. I can't do anything now," he
muttered.

But there came to his memory a picture of one day when he was walking
through the machine shops. A heavy piece of casting had broken from
the end of a large hoisting derrick and would have fallen upon him and
probably killed him if this man, Scoville, at the time a workman in the
machine department, had not pulled him to one side, at the risk of his
own life. As it was, in saving the life of the manager, Scoville was
struck on the shoulder, and rendered useless for work for four weeks.
Mr. Hardy had raised his wages and advanced him to a responsible
position in the casting room. Mr. Hardy was not a man without
generosity and humane feeling; but as he lay on the lounge that evening
and thought of the cold snow outside and the distance to the shop
tenements, he readily excused himself from going out to see the man who
had once saved him, and who now lay maimed for life. If anyone thinks
it impossible that one man calling himself a Christian could be thus
indifferent to another, then he does not know the power that
selfishness can exercise over the actions of men. Mr. Hardy had one
supreme law which he obeyed, and that law was self.

Again Mrs. Hardy, who rarely ventured to oppose her husband's wishes,
turned to the piano and struck a few chords aimlessly. Then she
wheeled about and said abruptly:

"Robert, the cook gave warning tonight that she must go home at once."

Mr. Hardy had begun to doze a little, but at this sudden statement he
sat up and exclaimed:

"Well, you _are_ the bearer of bad news to-night, Mary! What's the
matter with everybody? I suppose the cook wants more pay."

Mrs. Hardy replied quietly: "Her sister is dying. And do you know, I
believe I have never given the girl credit for much feeling. She
always seemed to me to lack there, though she is certainly the most
faithful and efficient servant we ever had in the house. She came in
just after Mr. Burns left, and broke down, crying bitterly. It seems
her sister is married to one of the railroad men here in town, and has
been ailing with consumption for some months. She is very poor, and a
large family has kept her struggling for mere existence. T