"I don't know. I don't want to stay in the factory any longer than I am obliged to; but that may be forever," replied Fred, with a clouded brow, as his mind reverted to the cause that brought him down to such work.
"I don't see why you need to stay in here. You have been clerk in a store, and have a good education, I suppose. If I only had an education——"
"Haven't you ever been to school?"
"I went to school a little in the old country, and three terms in Rhode Island; then I went into the factory. My father was sick, and couldn't work. After I had been in there about a year, my coat caught one day in the shafting and wound me round it so they had to shut down the water wheel to get me off. Everybody thought I was dead. That's what hurt my back and made it grow the way it is now."
"How long ago was that?" inquired Fred sympathetically.
"It was six years ago that I got hurt, but I did not get out of bed for almost two years afterward."
"Does your back trouble you now?"
"Yes, it aches all the time; but I've got rather used to it. Only when I do a lot of lifting here, it bothers me so I can't sleep."
"That's too bad. I'm sorry for you, and, as I said, will do all the heavy work. Then you didn't go to school any after you got out again?"
"No; I went back into the mill and stayed until my mother died; then I came here."