“‘What’s the matter with your boy?’ I asked.
“‘So busy with tomfoolery––no time for anything else. I’ve had so much to do that I’ve rather neglected Harry, and now he’s too much for me. He knows that he’s got me beat on education, but that’s only the beginning of what he knows. Good fellow, you understand, but he’s young and thinks me old-fashioned. I wish you’d help me to make a man of him.’
“‘What can I do?’
“‘Get him interested in some kind of work. He doesn’t like my business. He hates Wall Street, and, knowing it as I do, how can I blame the boy? He doesn’t take to the law––’
“‘And, knowing it as I do, how can I blame him?’ I interrupted.
“‘But, somehow, he hasn’t the spring in his bow that I had––the get-up-and-get––the disposition to move all hell if necessary.’
“‘You can’t expect it,’ I said. ‘His mainspring is broken.’
“‘What would you call his mainspring?’ he asked.
“‘The desire to win money and its power. Mind you, I wouldn’t call that a high motive, but in a young man it’s a kind of a mainspring that sets him a-going and keeps the works busy until he can get better motive power. In Harry it’s broken.’