The Project Gutenberg EBook of Archie's Mistake, by G. E. Wyatt

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Title: Archie's Mistake

Author: G. E. Wyatt

Release Date: March 13, 2007 [EBook #20809]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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ARCHIE'S MISTAKE

BY

G. E. WYATT

_Author of "Follow the Right," "Archie Digby,"_
_"Johnnie Venture,"_
_&c. &c._

THOMAS NELSON AND SONS

_London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and New York_

1912

[Illustration: _"Simon Bond's strong hands grasped Stephen's ear and
collar."_
(1,680) Page 32.]

ARCHIE'S MISTAKE.

"Father, why do you have such a beggarly-looking hand at the mill as
that young Bennett?" asked Archie Fairfax of the great mill-owner of
Longcross.

"Why shouldn't I?" he replied. "He comes with an excellent character
from the foreman he has been under at Morfield. He does his work very
well, Munster says, and that's all I care for. I don't pay for his
clothes."

Archie said no more, but he still felt aggrieved. As a rule, his
father's work-people were a superior, tidy-looking set, but this new
lad was literally in rags, and his worn, haggard face and great,
hungry-looking eyes seemed, in Archie's mind, to bring discredit on
the cotton-mill.

"He's no business here," he said to himself.--"I wish you'd send him
away."

Archie had only lately had anything to do with the mill, as he had
been at a large public school. But now he was eighteen, and had left
school. He had come into his father's office as secretary, that he
might learn a little about the business which was to be his some day.

Mr. Fairfax had some excuse for the pride he took in his manufactory,
for a better looked after, better managed, or more prosperous one it
would have been difficult to find, though of course there were _some_
rough people among the workers. Long experience had taught his
work-people to respect and trust an employer who acted justl