"He is standing it pretty well, and is greatly cheered by the fact that he can see out of his left eye practically as well as ever. He is going back to the oil fields and learn the business. I am going to put him to work. What are you going to do with Bennie?"
"Do with him? What can I do with him?"
"He is a bright boy."
"I'm bright, too, but I have all I can do to get by."
"It is a shame to think he will grow up into what his father was."
Margie Fulton wheeled and her blue eyes were dark. "I suppose you think
I'm a bad mother. But what do you know about it? How do you know what
I've gone through for him; the sacrifices I've made? I've made plenty
and they came hard."
"I'd like to help you make a man of him."
"What? You? How?"
"I'd like to put him in business and teach him that there is no profit in short-changing customers; that the real wise guy isn't the fellow who gets the best of every bag of peanuts, but the one who can go back to the same customer and sell him another bag. The abstract principle has been put much more succinctly, but I doubt if it would carry the same weight with him. I'd enjoy giving the boy a hand up, but—he is more than I'd care to tackle alone."
"There's Mallow to help you. He'd be a refining influence." The mother's lip curled.