“Nonsense!” Mr. Barriscale gave a grunt of displeasure. “If people are poor, in nine cases out of ten it’s their own fault. It’s because they’re lazy and improvident. If they’re down and out it’s the result of indolence or dissipation. The only way to help them is to give them hard and steady work, as we do here. This settlement business and uplift business and all such schemes are more or less of a fad and a farce. Work and discipline are the only remedies for deplorable social conditions. What does your aunt, Miss Halpert, think you ought to do?” “Well, she thinks I ought to do something to develop grit and backbone and muscle and things like that.” “Exactly! Miss Halpert is a woman of good judgment. We don’t agree on some things; but she isn’t lacking in common sense, and she isn’t afraid to express her opinion.” Mr. Barriscale smiled grimly as he recalled some vigorous clashes with that public-spirited and determined woman. He rather liked an opponent who fought him openly and fairly and straight from the shoulder. “Well,” he added, “that’s all for to-day. Ben, you remain here. I have some work for you to do.” As Hal went out into the street and swung along toward home he wondered if Mr. Barriscale’s view of life was preferable to his own. And he thought that some day, when he was older, he would like to argue it out with him. But he never did. His association with Ben at the armory when they were engaged in a common task could not help but result in a certain kind of friendship. But it did not develop at any time into comradeship, nor even into close companionship. Through the years that slipped by, they were friends and fellow-students, nothing more. CHAPTER IV It was the Fourth of July in the year 1913. In accordance with the law of precedent and of patriotism every town and city in the United States should have had a public celebration of the day. But Fairweather was to have none. With the exception of a flag-raising on the plaza in front of the Barriscale mills the national anniversary was to go entirely unrecognized in the town so far as any public demonstration was concerned. But the flag-raising in itself was to be no inconsiderable event. Through the liberality of certain public-spirited citizens, principally gentlemen belonging to the Barriscale Manufacturing Company, a tall and beautifully tapering staff had been erected, capped with a gilded ball, and a handsome American flag had been procured and was ready to be drawn aloft. It was a rare July day. The air was fresh and clear, the sky was cloudless, the heat was not oppressive. The exercises were to take place at three o’clock, and it now wanted twenty minutes of that hour, but people were already beginning to come. They were strolling lazily down the four streets that led into the plaza, standing expectantly at the corners, hugging the shade of the big mill building on the west.