230 DAYS IN THE OPEN 



ness way. Life in the country doesn't train one 

 to manufacture gas engines." 



" Well, I've never stopped to consider what I 

 owe in the matter of business success to my boy- 

 hood in the country, but now that you raise the 

 question, I'm inclined to believe that it gave me 

 pretty good training in some ways for the business 

 in which I am engaged. 



" When I came into this business at the age of 

 twenty I was given a place in the shipping depart- 

 ment at a salary of seven dollars per week. Now 

 I am at the head of the firm, while many of the 

 fellows who were with me in those days are still 

 working on salary. You see I had the advantage 

 of the city boys in being accustomed to work. On 

 the farm I had my regular tasks. Why, when I 

 was a little chap I wiped the dishes for mother, 

 and when I grew older I had to keep the wood-box 

 filled and go after the cows and pick up potatoes 

 and but you know what a lot of things there are 

 to do on a farm where 'a boy can help. 



" Now that I think of it, I imagine that I was 

 learning application, industry and self-control 

 big assets in business. The city-bred boy has never 

 had that schooling. He has not been trained to 

 hold himself to hard and continued effort. It is 

 not his fault, and I do not know that his parents 

 are to be blamed. I have two boys of my own born 

 in the city, and one of the questions which per- 

 plexes me most is how to provide them with regular 



