"There are plenty of things that I want to ask him if he ever turns up," Peter replied. "I only hope he will be decent to us. I am sure he would if he knew how hard we are trying to learn. One thing I am anxious to know is why on earth they don't dry the freshly varnished patent leather in the factory. Look at the work it makes for the men to bring it out here in the yard and stand it up against these hundreds of wooden racks. I should think by this time it would have dawned on somebody that it would be lots less trouble to dry it indoors in a hot room; shouldn't you?" But it wasn't Nat who answered. Instead a voice with a decided Irish brogue replied kindly: "Well, you see, my lad, no way has ever been found to dry patent leather except by the sun's rays. If somebody could invent a kind of japan that would dry in the house his fortune would be made. But nobody ever has. Every fine day the hundreds of frames have to be brought out and propped up in the sun--a jolly bit of work, I can tell you!" "But suppose it should rain?" questioned Peter, eager to get all the information he could out of the friendly workman. "If the weather is bad of course we do not put out the leather; in case a sudden storm comes up while it is out the factory whistle sounds and every man understands that he is to drop whatever he is doing, no matter what it is, and rush to the yard to help rescue the stock before it is spoiled." "I never heard of anything so funny!" cried Peter. "Funny, is it? You'll not be thinking so when you have to take your turn at it," protested the Irishman, grimly. "Just you be busy at doing some fussy thing you can't leave and wait till you hear the blast of the whistle! Out you'll have to cut and run like as if you were a schoolboy going through a fire drill. Then, you see, there are all those frames of wet leather to be set up somewhere indoors where they won't be injured until the storm is over and they can be carried out again." "And suppose the stormy weather lasts several days?" "No leather can be dried. Nor can you put it out on very dusty days lest the particles in the air stick on the moist surface and dry there. A strong wind is another bad thing, because it catches the frames as if they were sails and often smashes them all to pieces, spoiling the leather stretched on them." "Well, it does seem as if somebody might be smart enough to think of some plan to prevent all this. Have people tried--lots of people, I mean--to make a gloss that will not need the sun to dry it?" "Many and many a man has experimented and failed," replied the workman. "For years chemists have been working at the puzzle, but so far they never have got anywhere." "If I only knew more about chemistry I'd try," cried Peter. The old man looked amused at the boy's enthusiasm.