“I’m trying a new operator, too, this morning.”
“We ought to start a school for them,” answered the manager, thinking of his talk with the western prospector.
“And I’d like to have you give him a job,” added the engineer.
“Certainly,” answered his companion. “Hire all of them you can find that’ll do. Your new man ever had any experience?”
“A little. But he isn’t a man. It’s my own boy, Royce.”
“Roy, your son,” exclaimed Mr. Atkinson, as if surprised. “How old is he?”
“Just over seventeen. But I think he’ll do. He’s spent all his Saturdays here since we started up, and now his school’s out, and he’s determined to go to work.”
“And you aren’t afraid to let him take a chance in the new machine?” asked the manager.
“I guess he understands it about as well as any of us.”
“I’ve seen him around here a good deal.”