though, to set out
thinking you're going to budge the universe. Now listen to me. There is
no kindly feeling toward you two boys in this place. Tolman is scared
that you'll get his job away from him, so he's sore on your being sent
here; the men are afraid of him so they side with him. Let me give you a
bit of advice: work the best you can and have little to say to those
around you. If you want to find out things keep your questions until
you see me outside and I'll tell you all you want to know. I have been
here twenty years, and what I can't answer I can ask. We'll beat Tolman
yet, the three of us!"

And so to the kindly old McCarthy Peter and Nat entrusted their
fortunes.

"I do believe we are going to like it at this factory, after all,"
announced Peter to Nat. "Certainly we shall not want for excitement.
There is the chance to invent a better patent leather varnish which will
dry indoors; there is the chance to learn the mystery of making patent
leather despite Tolman; and there is the daily liability of having to
tear out into the yard and rescue the stock from a sudden shower. It is
going to be great sport, Nat!"

But Nat was not so sanguine.

Being a toggle-boy was far from easy work.

"And what is a toggle-boy?" inquired Mrs. Jackson at the end of their
first day.

Peter and Nat only laughed.

They enjoyed using big words that mystified her.

"Why, you see, Mother, toggle-boys are what we are at present," said
Nat, teasingly.

"But what does one have to do to be a toggle-boy?" persisted she.

"I am afraid a toggle-boy is not as grand a person as he sounds, Mrs.
Jackson," interrupted Peter. "Nat and I are down at the lowest rung of
the ladder again. We couldn't get much lower unless they set us to
making the wooden frames the leather is stretched on before it is
japanned. Somebody has to do that. The frames are about three yards long
and two yards wide, roughly speaking; it isn't much work to make them,
though, because the light thin boards come cut just the right size and
simply have to be nailed together at the corners. Still I should not
want to be set to doing carpentry. Even a toggle-boy's work is better
than that--eh, Nat?"

"He is at least an inch nearer making leather," admitted Nat grudgingly.

"Of course he is! You see, Mrs. Jackson, Nat isn't stuck on his present
job. I shouldn't be either if I expected to do it for life. It is not a
position that inspires you with the feeling that you