"I will see what I can do for you; but I'm sure the Master will not be
willing to spare you one of his shop hands."
To get a large amount of contract work done, and show the figures that
were received for it, was the Master's way of recommending himself to
the Board of Directors; and it was what enabled him to keep his place.
It must be an apparent fact to the most shallow comprehension, that
dollars and cents are essential to the welfare of humanity; but there
are various ways of calculating their benefit.
The "almighty dollar" enlarges and increases in value, as it is
contemplated, and its advantages dwelt upon. In the same ratio does an
appreciation of human suffering decrease as it becomes familiar to the
observation. The Master had evidently been through the mental process in
both directions. The dollar had grown till it covered the whole surface
of human life; the suffering had diminished till it became a mere speck
in the distant view which he took of it.
"Let me have Callahan?" I proposed.
"I don't believe it would be best," and he shook his head wisely. "You
would get along with her, and she would make you no trouble; but it
wouldn't be a week before she would be in a broil with the other women,
and I should be obliged to lock her up."
"When she was in here before, she was in the kitchen four months,
without being locked up, wasn't she? She gets locked up where she is
now."
He saw that I was informed upon Callahan's past history. She did a great
deal of work in the shop; the Master would not be willing to spare her.
He knew that to transfer her to the kitchen would be to interfere with
Mrs. Hardhack's plan of breaking her temper, and she would resist her
removal. His influence was not strong enough to overcome that of the two
combined. He shook his head,--
"I'm afraid I cannot, and I do not think it would be best." He
understood how to make his refusal palatable. "I think you are getting
along well. I have been intending to tell you that I am satisfied with
your management. The kitchen is clean and quiet; and the meals are
prompt, much more so than they were for a long time before you came.
They are well cooked, too."
"Thank you! but my women are worked beyond endurance. It makes my heart
ache to see those poor cripples lifting out tubs of swill that two men
could scarce handle; and bucketful after bucketful of that large, heavy
coal from the cellar, with all of their other lifting and scrubbing."
"I'll see what can I do about sending you another woman. Do the best you
can!"
"I will certainly do that."