It was your example that infected him, as it did the others. Why could you not stick to your last?
Monsen.
Remain a lumberman, like my father?
The Chamberlain.
Was it a disgrace to be in my employment? Your father made his bread honourably, and was respected in his own class.
Monsen.
Yes, until he’d almost worked his life out, and at last went over the waterfall with his raft. Do you know anything of life in that class, Chamberlain? Have you ever realised what the men have to endure who toil for you deep in the forests, and along the river-reaches, while you sit comfortably at home and fatten on the profits? Can you blame such a man for struggling to rise in the world? I had had a little more schooling than my father; perhaps I had rather more brains too——
The Chamberlain.
Very likely. But by what means have you risen in the world? You began by selling brandy. Then you bought up doubtful debts, and enforced them mercilessly;—and so you got on and on. How many people have you not ruined to push yourself forward!
Monsen.