"We can't all run thousand-horse-power engines, Caleb," said Philip, hoping to console his friend. "If we could, I'm afraid a great lot of the world's necessary work would go undone. Watches, worked with what might be called half-mouse-power, are quite as necessary and useful in their way as big clocks run by ton weights; and a sewing machine, worked by a woman's foot, can earn quite as much, over running expenses, as a plough with a big horse in front and a big man behind it." "Like enough. But the trouble with me is that the machine I've been makin' o' myself is the kind that needs an awful lot o' power, an' the power ain't there an' can't be put there." "There are plenty more machines with exactly the same defect, old chap," said Philip, with a sigh, "so you've no end of company in your trouble. I could tell you of a machine of my own that lacks the proper power--sufficient steam, as you've expressed it." "I want to know! An' you the pictur' of health!" "Oh, yes. Health is invaluable, so far as it goes, but 'tisn't everything. Going back to steam for the sake of illustration, you know it comes of several other things--water, a boiler, some fuel, and draught, each in proper proportion to all the others. I don't doubt there's a similar combination necessary to human force, and its application, and that I haven't the secret of it, for I know I've failed at work I've most wanted to do, and succeeded best at what I liked least." "Reckon you must have hated storekeepin' then, for you've made a powerful go of it." "Thank you; I'm not ashamed to confess to you that 'tis the last business in the world that I'd have selected." "Well, as to that, there's no difference of opinion between us, an' yet, here I've been storekeepin'--an' not for myself either--'most twenty year." "And doing it remarkably well, too. As to not doing it for yourself, you may change your position and have an interest in the business whenever you wish it. I'm astonished that my uncle didn't say the same to you." "But he did--after his fashion. He meant fair, but I said 'No,' for I hadn't given up hopes of what I'd wanted to do, so I didn't want to give the store all my waking hours, as an owner ought to do most of the time." "Indeed he ought. If it isn't an impertinent question, what had you selected as your life's work?"