“Why, by the parents of the children falsely swearing to their age.”
Alice looked at him in astonishment.
“Do you really mean it?” she asked.
“Why, certainly—and it would be the same here. If we had a law the lazy parents of many of them would swear falsely to their children's ages.”
“There could be some way found to stop that,” she said.
“It has not been found yet,” he added. “What is to prevent two designing parents swearing that an eight year old child is twelve—and these little poor whites,” he added with a laugh, “all look alike from eight to sixteen—scrawny—hard and half-starved. In many cases no living man could swear whether they are six or twelve.”
“If you really should make it a rule to refuse all children under twelve,” she added, “tell me how many would go out of your mill.”
“In other words, how many under twelve do we work there?” he asked.
She nodded.
He thought a while and then said: “About one hundred and twenty-five.”