"But suppose it should rain?" questioned Peter, eager to get all the
information he could out of the friendly workman.

"If the weather is bad of course we do not put out the leather; in case
a sudden storm comes up while it is out the factory whistle sounds and
every man understands that he is to drop whatever he is doing, no matter
what it is, and rush to the yard to help rescue the stock before it is
spoiled."

"I never heard of anything so funny!" cried Peter.

"Funny, is it? You'll not be thinking so when you have to take your turn
at it," protested the Irishman, grimly. "Just you be busy at doing some
fussy thing you can't leave and wait till you hear the blast of the
whistle! Out you'll have to cut and run like as if you were a schoolboy
going through a fire drill. Then, you see, there are all those frames of
wet leather to be set up somewhere indoors where they won't be injured
until the storm is over and they can be carried out again."

"And suppose the stormy weather lasts several days?"

"No leather can be dried. Nor can you put it out on very dusty days lest
the particles in the air stick on the moist surface and dry there. A
strong wind is another bad thing, because it catches the frames as if
they were sails and often smashes them all to pieces, spoiling the
leather stretched on them."

"Well, it does seem as if somebody might be smart enough to think of
some plan to prevent all this. Have people tried--lots of people, I
mean--to make a gloss that will not need the sun to dry it?"

"Many and many a man has experimented and failed," replied the workman.
"For years chemists have been working at the puzzle, but so far they
never have got anywhere."

"If I only knew more about chemistry I'd try," cried Peter.

The old man looked amused at the boy's enthusiasm.

"Would you, indeed!" grinned he. "Well, if you succeeded you would be
the first. But I'm not discouraging you, sonny. Sure if none of us were
young and hopeful nothing great would be done in the world. You sound as
if you might be Peter Strong--the lad they talk so much of in the other
factories."

"I am Peter Strong."

"I might have guessed it! Carmachel said I'd know you because you had
the strength of a tiger cub, the smile of the sun across the lake of
Killarney, and the courage of a fighting cock. It's good to see you,
laddie, starting out to move the world. I was going to do it once
myself, but somehow I never did. It does no harm,