"Of course he is! You see, Mrs. Jackson, Nat isn't stuck on his present job. I shouldn't be either if I expected to do it for life. It is not a position that inspires you with the feeling that you are well on your way toward being a captain of industry," Peter chuckled. "No, I'm afraid there is more than one step between being a toggle-boy and being president of the company." Nat smiled in spite of himself. "Now, Mrs. Jackson, to make our career a little clearer to you I'll tell you more about the toggle-boys," Peter continued. "When the dyed leather is sent over from the other factories to be made into patent leather it is first stretched on the wooden frames, as I told you, so that the gloss can be put on. The reason why they stretch the leather on frames instead of boards is because a frame, being open, allows the wet japan to run off the edges of the material and drip through to the floor as it could not do if it were stretched to a solid surface. They have found that for many reasons it is much better not to nail the leather to the frames. Nails make holes in the stock and waste it; besides the tacks might catch in the brushes as the men work and cause the dressing to spatter. Then, too, the leather is irregular in shape and some of it does not reach to the edges of the frame anyway. So steel nippers, or toggles, are snapped at intervals around the edge of the material and by means of strings knotted to the nippers the leather can be pulled out tightly and tied to the frame. Do you understand?" Mrs. Jackson nodded. "And you boys are the ones who put on the toggles?" "Well, no, we're not," replied Peter, a little apologetically. "But we shall be some day. Just now we are employed in taking from the toggles that have already been used the strings that have been cut or knotted, and substituting instead new, long strings so that the nippers will be ready for the men." "It isn't much of a job, Mother," put in Nat, ruefully. "I admitted it was not next to the presidency," declared Peter, laughing. "But just keep in mind that we are not going to do it always." And Peter's prediction was true, for in a few days notice came that the boys were to be promoted to a more difficult task. Strangely enough, and fortunately too for the beginners, it was their cheery old friend McCarthy who gave them their first lesson in trimming off the stock to fit the frames; attaching the toggles, or nippers; and tying the leather so that every part of it could be drawn out taut. "The finishers, or slickers as we call them, cannot put any gloss on unless the leather is perfectly tight," insisted McCarthy. Peter tugged at his twine. "What kind of stock do they use for patent leather?" he puffed. "Let me see! This must be----"