us can escape the direct results of our own actions. In another
sense, however, it is merely a fresh opportunity--a chance to substitute
success for failure, to make good at a different kind of work. It is in
this light that you must try and regard it, son. I want to make a man of
you if I can. I must make a man of you. You are the only child I have,
and if I stand by and allow you to make a fizzle of your life I shall be
quite as much to blame as you. Remember that unhappy as you are this
affair is costing me something, too."

There was a break in Mr. Coddington's voice.

As the boy raised his head and looked into the face bending over him he
read in it an expression quite new--a softness and sympathy that he had
never before caught in the gray eyes which, but a moment previous, had
regarded him so sternly.

As a result when Peter answered much of the bitterness had crept out of
his tone.

"I suppose all the men at the factory will have to know who I am," he
reflected.

"I'm afraid so. I see no way that that can be avoided," assented his
father.

"I hate to have them. They will all be grinning over the knowledge that
I was put into the factories because I flunked at school. Isn't there
any way to prevent their knowing? Couldn't I take another name when I go
into the tannery and let them think I am somebody else?"

Mr. Coddington mused a few seconds before answering.

"Why, yes," he replied meditatively, "I suppose it could be done. Nobody
knows you at the works, so there would be no danger of your being
recognized. My plan to send you there I have kept to myself. You could
easily enter under some other name if you chose. You must consider,
however, that if you decide to go in simply as an ordinary boy I shall
not be able to help you much; nor can you expect to be favored in any
way by the men. You would have to stand on your own feet and take your
own chances." Again Mr. Coddington ruminated. "That might not be a bad
idea, either," he observed, half aloud.

"Oh, I would so much rather take another name, Father," pleaded Peter.

But Mr. Coddington did not heed the interruption; he was still thinking.

"I do not mean to stand behind you after you are in the tannery,
anyway," he went on. "In every department there is a foreman to whom you
will be accountable--not to me. Nor must you come running home and here
report every real or fancied injustice. So far as business goes I am the
president of the company and