第159章

The story of the adventures, experiences, and journeyings of Mr.

Joseph Hutchinson, his daughter, and the invention, if related in detail, would prove reading of interest; but as this is merely a study of the manner in which the untrained characteristics and varied limitations of one man adjusted or failed to adjust themselves to incongruous surroundings and totally unprepared-for circumstances, such details, whatsoever their potential picturesqueness, can be touched upon but lightly.No new idea of value to the world of practical requirements is presented to the public at large without the waking of many sleeping dogs, and the stirring of many snapping fish, floating with open ears and eyes in many pools.An uneducated, blustering, obstinate man of one idea, having resentfully borne discouragement and wounded egotism for years, and suddenly confronting immense promise of success, is not unlikely to be prey easily harpooned.Joseph Hutchinson's rebound from despair to high and well-founded hope made of him exactly what such a man is always made by such rebound.The testimony to his genius and judgment which acknowledgment of the value of his work implied was naturally, in his opinion, only a proper tribute which the public had been a bull-headed fool not to lay at his feet years before.So much time lost, and so much money for it, as well as for him, and served 'em all damned well right, he said.If Temple Barholm hadn't come into his money, and hadn't had more sense than the rest of them, where would they all have been? Perhaps they'd never have had the benefit of the thing he'd been telling them about for years.He prided himself immensely on the possession of a business shrewdness which was an absolute defense against any desire on the part of the iniquitous to overreach him.He believed it to be a peculiarly Lancashire characteristic, and kept it in view constantly.

"Lancashire's not easy to do," he would say hilariously, "Them that can do a Lancashire chap has got to look out that they get up early in the morning and don't go to bed till late."Smooth-mannered and astute men of business who knew how to make a man talk were given diffuse and loud-voiced explanations of his methods and long-acknowledged merits and characteristics.His life, his morals, and his training, or rather lack ot it, were laid before them as examples of what a man might work himself up to if "he had it in him." Education didn't do it.He had never been to naught but a village school, where he'd picked up precious little but the three R's.It had to be born in a man.Look at him! His invention promised to bring him in a fortune like a duke's, if he managed it right and kept his eyes open for sharpers.This company and that company were after him, but Lancashire didn't snap up things without going into 'em, and under 'em, and through 'em, for the matter of that.

The well-mannered gentlemen of business stimulated him greatly by their appreciative attention.He sometimes lost his head a trifle and almost bullied them, but they did not seem to mind it.Their apparently old- time knowledge of and respect for Lancashire business sagacity seemed invariably a marked thing.Men of genius and powerful character combined with practical shrewdness of outlook they intimated, were of enormous value to the business world.They were to be counted upon as important factors.They could see and deal with both sides of a proposal as those of weaker mind could not.

"That they can," Hutchinson would admit, rolling about in his chair and thrusting his hands in his pockets."They've got some bottom to stand on." And he would feel amenable to reason.

Little Ann found her duties and responsibilities increasing daily.

Many persons seemed to think it necessary to come and talk business, and father had so much to think of and reason out, so that he could be sure that he didn't make any mistakes.In a quiet, remote, and darkened corner of her mind, in which were stored all such things as it was well to say little or nothing about, there was discreetly kept for reference the secretly acquired knowledge that father did not know so much about business ways and business people as he thought he did.

Mother had learned this somewhat important fact, and had secluded it in her own private mental store-room with much affectionate delicacy.