“I will tell you,” said Mary. “A mechanic called a ship-carpenter built it for him. The merchant could not have built it for himself. He had to call a ship-builder, and tell him what he wanted, and then the ship-carpenter, with his men, built it, and the merchant paid him with his money. Do you see now how merchants and mechanics are dependent upon one another?” “Yes,” Charles said. “I will tell you more about a ship,” said Mary. “You know, that when you came home, you told us about all that you saw in the ship. You said the ship had masts and sails, and ladders made of rope, on which the sailors went up to spread out the sails, or to take them in; and you saw the little house on the deck where the steersman stood to guide the ship over the ocean; and the cabin, furnished just like a parlour, and the berths for sleeping rooms. “Before he could have all these necessary things in his ship, somebody must go into the woods and cut down the trees, out of which all the timber was got, and then it must be sawed into large and small sticks and into boards and planks. Then, too, the merchant had to employ a sail-maker to make the sails, and a rope-maker to make the ropes, and a cabinet-maker to make sofas and tables. So you see that the merchant cannot carry on his business without the help of all these different workmen and tradesmen, and they could not get money unless they earned it by working at their trades. Then there must be a captain and mates, and sailors, to take the ship on her voyage, for she could not sail without them. The merchant pays them for taking care of his ship, and with the money they receive from him they support their wives and children who stay at home while they are away at sea.” “I understand now, how merchants and mechanics are dependent upon one another,” said Charles. “But, Mary, are all sorts of people dependent upon one another in the same way? Are we dependent upon merchants?” “Yes,” said Mary. “The merchant’s ship goes away across the ocean to foreign countries, and brings back sugar and salt, and tea and coffee, and cloth and silks, and many other things which we use in our houses. Do you see now, how we are dependent upon the merchants?” “Yes,” said Charles, “for we could not get these things unless the merchant brought them in his ship.” “Now, Mary, will you tell us, how we are dependent upon authors and doctors and mechanics?” _Mary._ “Do you not know that printers and shoemakers and carpenters are mechanics?” Charles said, “He never knew exactly what a mechanic was until Mary told him.” _Mary._ “We could not get our books printed, you know, without the printers. We could not get our shoes made, without the shoemakers, and we should have no comfortable convenient houses to live in, if the carpenters did not build them for us.