The large houses looked as if they
belonged to a toy village, and had been carefully put in rows by a
childish hand; it was easy to lose all sense of size in looking at
them. A cold wind was blowing bits of waste and paper high into the
air; now and then a snowflake went swiftly by like a courier of
winter. Mary Cassidy and Mrs. Kilpatrick hugged their old woolen
shawls closer about their round shoulders, and the little girl
followed with short steps alongside.
II.
The agent of the mills was a single man, keen and business-like, but
quietly kind to the people under his charge. Sometimes, in times of
peace, when one looks among one's neighbors wondering who would make
the great soldiers and leaders if there came a sudden call to war, one
knows with a flash of recognition the presence of military genius in
such a man as he. The agent spent his days in following what seemed
to many observers to be only a dull routine, but all his steadiness of
purpose, all his simple intentness, all his gifts of strategy and
powers of foresight, and of turning an interruption into an
opportunity, were brought to bear upon this dull routine with a keen
pleasure. A man in his place must know not only how to lead men, but
how to make the combination of their force with the machinery take its
place as a factor in the business of manufacturing. To master workmen
and keep the mills in running order and to sell the goods successfully
in open market is as easy to do badly as it is difficult to do well.
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