“Better let it alone. I suppose you and Bill want to come back, too?” he added, turning to the next two in the line. “All right, report to Tim. Do you want work?” he inquired of the last of the quartette, a big bashful man with the shoulders of a Hercules. “Yes, sir,” answered the latter uncomfortably. “What do you do?” “I'm a cant-hook man, sir.” “Where have you worked?” “I had a job with Morgan & Stebbins on the Clear River last winter.” “All right, we need cant-hook men. Report at 'seven,' and if they don't want you there, go to 'thirteen.'” Daly looked directly at the man with an air of finality. The lumberman still lingered uneasily, twisting his cap in his hands. “Anything you want?” asked Daly at last. “Yes, sir,” blurted the big man. “If I come down here and tell you I want three days off and fifty dollars to bury my mother, I wish you'd tell me to go to hell! I buried her three times last winter!” Daly chuckled a little. “All right, Bub,” said he, “to hell it is.” The man went out. Daly turned to Thorpe with the last flickers of amusement in his eyes. “What can I do for you?” he inquired in a little crisper tones. Thorpe felt that he was not treated with the same careless familiarity, because, potentially, he might be more of a force to deal with. He underwent, too, the man's keen scrutiny, and knew that every detail of his appearance had found its comment in the other's experienced brain. “I am looking for work,” Thorpe replied. “What kind of work?” “Any kind, so I can learn something about the lumber business.” The older man studied him keenly for a few moments. “Have you had any other business experience?” “None.” “What have you been doing?” “Nothing.” The lumberman's eyes hardened. “We are a very busy firm here,” he said with a certain deliberation; “we do not carry a big force of men in any one department, and each of those men has to fill his place and slop some over the sides. We do not pretend or attempt to teach here. If you want to be a lumberman, you must learn the lumber business more directly than through the windows of a bookkeeper's office. Go into the woods. Learn a few first principles. Find out the difference between Norway and white pine, anyway.” Daly, being what is termed a self-made man, entertained a prejudice against youths of the leisure class. He did not believe in their earnestness of purpose, their capacity for knowledge, nor their perseverance in anything. That a man of twenty-six should be looking for his first situation was incomprehensible to him. He made no effort to conceal his prejudice, because the class to which the young man had belonged enjoyed his hearty contempt.