“Yes, I am after the same thing that you are; you are trying to find out what is in your redemptioner, and I in mine.”
“That’s a queer way to find out.”
“It is somewhat different from yours, but suppose you had a colt and wanted to bring out his real disposition, which would be the surest way, to keep him short, work him hard, give him a cold stable, never bed or curry him, or to give him plenty of provender, a warm blanket, a good bed, and dress him down every day?”
“I suppose if there was any spirit or any ugliness in him, the good keeping would bring it out.”
“I think so, and if my man is of that nature that he can’t bear nor respond to good treatment I don’t want him.”
“But you are taking a very costly way to get information; and if, after all your expense of sending him to school, clothing, and buying books for him, he gives you the slip, you have failed of your object, which was to get cheap labor, and lost much money. While I, if my man proves worthless, have only lost a portion of the passage money.”
“I shall not have failed of my object, since it was not my intention in taking this lad to obtain cheap labor, or to make money out of him.”
“I should like to know what you did take him for? You’re a sharper man than I am, can make two dollars where I make one, and calculate to get labor as cheap as any body.”
“I took him because I thought it my duty to befriend a friendless boy. His being a redemptioner had nothing to do with it; but his youth, his misery, and his liability to be abused had. I don’t believe in cheap labor, which means dear labor in the end. I don’t believe in losing fifty bushels of wheat for the sake of saving two shillings on a man’s wages in harvest. Thus I shall not fail of my object if the boy does not turn out well, because I shall have discharged my duty. It seems to me, neighbor, that upon your principle of not risking anything, not trusting anybody, nor letting the laboring man have a fair chance, lest he should take advantage of it, that business could not go on, or if it could, that the relish would be all taken out of life.”
The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the hour for afternoon meeting.