It was the worst thing she could have said.
“No, I don’t. But if he is, all the more reason why he should go to the tannery and learn to skin cows! And the sooner the better!”
“Don’t you want to see your own son famous?”
“I’ve got no guarantee he’ll be famous. But I’m sure, darned sure, of the money he can earn between now and the time he’s twenty-one. Anyhow, knowing how to work and earn money ain’t goin’ to stop him bein’ famous, as a poet or anything else, if he’s got it in him!”
“But these years of his life are the most valuable he’ll ever have!”
“The more reason why he ought to learn to make money in ’em!”
“It’s a mystery why God sends children to such as you!”
“Well, He sends ’em and I reckon He knows his business. He’s been running this planet a darned long time.”
Threat, appeal, argument did no good. Nathan went into Caleb Gridley’s tannery, into the foul, revolting, messy, nauseating part of the business, and for six days of working from 6:30 in the morning until 6:30 at night he received four dollars, not in cash but in credit on the old harness bill. In sixteen weeks the debt was paid. Then Johnathan “began realizing good hard cash” on Nathan’s earning abilities.
Nathan’s sister went on through the graded school and high school. It was Nathan’s money which bought her graduation dress.