"No, sir. I do not," replied Alec, his cheeks aflame at the captain's words. "But I realize there are so many things to learn that I must be moving on or I'll be an old man before I'm ready to start in the business."
"So you're still determined to be an oysterman?"
"Absolutely."
"That's very good. But if I were you I'd wait a while before I tried to teach old oystermen how to run their business."
"If you think that's the way I feel," cried Alec indignantly, "you are very much mistaken. What I want to do now is to learn all there is to know about oystering. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to learn some of the things oystermen have never done. I don't know what they are, yet, but there are some such things. You don't catch oysters to-day the same way you did when you were young. Then you didn't have gasoline engines, or telephones, or motor-boats, or automobiles. And to-morrow we shall be using lots of things we don't use to-day. I'm going to find out what they are and learn all about them, so I'll be right up-to-date when I become an oyster shipper."
The shipper looked long and hard at Alec. "Why are you so all-fired keen about doing things in what you call an 'up-to-date way'? Suppose a man doesn't take up with these newfangled notions, he's still an oysterman, isn't he, and he still has his beds and still sells oysters, doesn't he?"
"Yes, for a time," said Alec slowly.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean," said Alec, "that no man and no business can be very much behind the times and remain successful. If a merchant lighted his store with candles instead of electricity, he would not keep his trade very long in these days. Some of the oystermen are still using sails, I notice, while the rest of you are using gasoline. Well, they will eventually be driven out of the oyster business. They have to pay the same wages for hands that you do, and they don't catch more than half as many oysters in the same time. See how that cuts their margin of profit. When they strike a poor season, a lot of them will go broke."
"I reckon you're about right."