Here were automatic machines upon which empty boxes traveled along until they reached a device that filled each one with the exact number of pounds to be contained in it, the package afterward passed to women who sealed it tightly and gave it the final touch before it was shipped. Other women were packing loaf or domino sugar, while down-stairs in a cooper shop men moved about constructing with great rapidity the barrels that were to carry larger quantities of sugar to the wholesale and retail stores. "I guess by this time you've had all the sugar-making you want for one day," declared the superintendent. "I'm afraid I've given you quite a stiff lesson. You see I am so interested in it myself that I forget to have mercy on my listeners." He smiled down at the boys. "I'm sure we have had a fine morning with you, Mr. Hennessey, and we certainly have learned a lot," Bob said, putting out his hand. "I can't swear, though, that we could make white sugar even now." "Faith, I'd be sorry if I thought I could teach any one the whole process in three hours. It would make my twenty years of study and hard work brand me as pretty stupid," chuckled the big superintendent. CHAPTER VI A FAMILY TANGLE It was not until the boys were in the motor-car and returning home that Bob ventured to mention to Van his strange behavior of the morning. "What on earth was the matter with you, Van?" he asked. Van stirred uneasily. "Bobbie," he said, "I'm going to tell you something. I've been wondering whether I'd better or not, and at last I've decided to. I didn't want to go to your father's refinery to-day or, in fact, at all. You've all been very kind to me, although it was not until I got a letter from my father this morning that I realized how kind." He paused. "Has your dad told you anything about my people?" he asked abruptly. "Of course he knows, but he may have thought best to keep it to himself; at any rate it has not prevented him from giving me as cordial a welcome to your home as he would if--" "If what?" "Well, if I weren't the person I am." "What do you mean?" "Why, he's trusted me and treated me as if he really liked me; and yet under the circumstances you can't expect him actually to mean it." "Mean what? What are you talking about?" "Hasn't he spoken to you about my father?" "Of course not; why should he?" "Then you haven't heard anything?" "Not a word. I don't understand what you are driving at at all," Bob declared, somewhat irritated. "Out with it. What's the matter?" Van hesitated as if uncertain how to begin.