The Secretary wiped his eyes. "I hope I haven't seriously upset your household," he said to Jim. Jim shook his head. "Your coming will be one of the great events of her life. Supper will be late but it will be well worth eating." "Then," said the Secretary, "let us continue our private hearing. What have you been trying to do here on the dam, Mr. Manning?" Jim stood on the hearth rug and glanced at each of the three men seated before him, his gaze finally resting on the Secretary's face. "At first," he said, "I merely wanted to build the dam. I called it the Thumb-print that I would leave on the map, that should be emblematic of the old trail-making Puritan. But by a persistent indifference to their prejudices and to their personal wishes and welfare, I antagonized all the farmers on the Project." Jim paused, hesitated and then went on. "The woman whom I shall one day marry pointed out to me that my attitude here was typical of the general attitude of the so-called Old Stock here in America. She said that I was willing to build the dam but unwilling to sacrifice time or effort to administering it, to showing the farmer how to handle the fine, essentially democratic, idea that was in the Reclamation idea. She said that we had formed the government in America and left it to others to administer and that of this we were dying." Jim stopped and the Secretary said, "She seems intelligent, this young woman." Jim's smile was flashing and tender as he said, "She is!" Then he went on, "You wrote me that the human element was the important matter here on the dam. This--friend--of----" Jim hesitated for a name for Pen. "--of your heart," suggested the Secretary. "Thank you," replied Jim gravely, "--of my heart said that I was doing only half a man's part and that that was what was losing me my job. So I have been trying to enlarge my Thumb-print. I want to leave it not only in concrete but in the idea that the Project shall embody the rebirth of the old New England ideal of equality not in freedom alone, but in responsibility. I hoped I might make every individual here feel responsible for the building of the dam, for the payment of the debt, and for the development of the Project for the best good of every human being on it." Jim stopped, and the Secretary said, "Well?" Again Jim's wistful smile. "I woke too late to get my idea across. My successor comes tomorrow." The Secretary shook his head. "I had no idea you were to leave so soon, though I will admit that after I read of your interview with Freet I rather lost interest in your doings. You know, I suppose, that Freet was asked for his resignation at the same time you were? Last week, however, just before we started on a tour of the Projects, a young lady called on me. She was very good looking and my secretary is not ah--impervious--to externals, so he allowed her quite a long interview with me."