In one day Ford had got the very opportunity he wanted--a job where he could study electricity at first hand. An hour later Mrs. Ford, who had spent the day drearily unpacking trunks and putting the telescope bags under the bed in a hopeless attempt to make a boarding-house bedroom homelike, received an enthusiastic note. "Got fine job already. Working all night. Go to bed and don't worry. Everything is settled splendidly.--Henry." He had forgotten to mention that his wages were forty-five dollars a month. CHAPTER XII LEARNING ABOUT ELECTRICITY Forty-five dollars a month and a twelve-hour-a-day job--for these Henry Ford had traded his big, pleasant home, with its assured comfort and plenty, and his place as one of the most prosperous and respected men in Greenfield. The change would have been a calamity to most men. Henry Ford was happy. The new job gave him a chance to work with machinery, an opportunity to learn all about electricity. His contentment, as he went whistling about his work after Gilbert left, would have seemed pure insanity to the average person. Forty-five dollars a month! "You see, I never did bother much about money," he says. "My wages were enough for food and shelter, and that was all I wanted. Money matters always seemed to sort of take care of themselves, some way. It's always that way. If a man is working at something he likes, he's bound to work hard at it, and then the money comes. Worrying about money is about the worst thing a man can do--it takes his mind off his work." His philosophy apparently justified itself. In the months that followed sub-station A had no more breakdowns. Now and then Manager Gilbert inquired how the new man was getting along. "A wizard at machinery--had some trouble with the dynamo last night, and he had it fixed in no time," he heard. Or, "Say, where'd you get him? He knows more about this plant than the man that built it." Ford himself was not in evidence. The manager, quitting work at about the time Ford arrived at the sub-station for the night shift, did not see him again until one day at the end of three months the engine at the main plant stopped. The engineer in charge looked at it and shook his head. "Can't do anything with it till to-morrow," he said. "We'll have to take it down." It was late in the afternoon, and the engine was needed to keep Detroit lighted that night. Gilbert, remembering the reports of the new man, sent for Ford. He came and fixed the engine. It was all in the day's work, as far as he was concerned. He went back to sub-station A and forgot the incident. He does not remember it now. Gilbert remembered it, but he did not go out of his way to pay any attention to Ford. He simply forgot about the mechanical work of sub-station A. He knew Ford would take care of it. A manager spends his time and thought on the poor workmen; a good man he leaves alone.