In a planing-mill in which
I had found employment I contracted with the boss to plane doors,
sandpaper them, and plug knot-holes at fifteen cents a door. It
was his own offer, and I did the work well, better than it had been
done before, so he said himself. But when he found at the end of
the week that I had made $15 where my slow-coach predecessor had
made only ten, he cut the price down to twelve cents. I objected,
but in the end swallowed my anger and, by putting on extra steam
and working overtime, made $16 the next week. The boss examined
the work very carefully, said it was good, paid my wages, and cut
down the price to ten cents. He did not want his men to make over
$10 a week, he said; it was not good for them. I quit then, after
giving him my opinion of him and of the chances of his shop. I do
not know where he may be now, but wherever he is, I will warrant
that my prediction came true. There is in Danish an old proverb,
"Falsk slaar sin egen Herre paa Hals," which is to say that chickens
come home to roost, and that right in the end does prevail over
might.
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