e dazzling than ever.

"When shall I come to work?" I asked gratefully.

"But," said the superintendent, "you could not expect to enter
immediately into the engine-room. There must be preparation for that.
And through the fire-room, of course. Come, you see the matter clearly,
I know. And you will see that even the mere handling of coal is a
scientific matter and not to be sneered at. Do you know that we weigh
every pound of coal we burn? Thus, we learn the value of the coal we buy;
we know to a tee the last penny of cost of every item of production, and
we learn which firemen are the most wasteful, which firemen, out of
stupidity or carelessness, get the least out of the coal they fire." The
superintendent beamed again. "You see how very important the little
matter of coal is, and by as much as you learn of this little matter you
will become that much better a workman--more valuable to us, more
valuable to yourself. Now, are you prepared to begin?"

"Any time," I said valiantly. "The sooner the better."

"Very well," he answered. "You will come to-morrow morning at seven
o'clock."

I was taken out and shown my duties. Also, I was told the terms of my
employment--a ten-hour day, every day in the month including Sundays and
holidays, with one day off each month, with a salary of thirty dollars a
month. It wasn't exciting. Years before, at the cannery, I had earned a
dollar a day for a ten-hour day. I consoled myself with the thought that
the reason my earning capacity had not increased with my years and
strength was because I had remained an unskilled labourer. But it was
different now. I was beginning to work for skill, for a trade, for
career and fortune, and the superintendent's daughter.

And I was beginning in the right way--right at the beginning. That was
the thing. I was passing coal to the firemen, who shovelled it into the
furnaces, where its energy was transformed into steam, which, in the
engine-room, was transformed into the electricity with which the
electricians worked. This passing coal was surely the very
beginning-unless the superintendent should take it into his head to send
me to work in the mines from which the coal came in order to get a
completer understanding of the genesis of electricity for street railways.

Work! I, who had worked with men, found that I didn't know the first
thing about real work. A ten-hour day! I had to pass coal for the day
and night shifts, and, des