ll, they prefer to have their health now, and wait for their sickness
until later on. You are doing no man a favor by making him sick when he
is feeling well. If God is willing for them to be well, and they want
to be well, and the only thing that keeps them from being well is you,
aren't you afraid that they will pile on to you and knock the daylights
out of you?"

"I am really working for their good."

"Then you want their stomachs to have what agrees with them?"

"Certainly."

"Well, I'll tell you something, then. Water doesn't always agree with
the stomach as well as beer does. You never worked at terrific muscular
exertion handling white-hot iron in a mill like this. You haven't got
the muscles to do it, and I doubt if you've got the heart. You can not
know the condition a man is in when he hits his hardest lick here. But
they know, and I know. Some of the men feel they can't drink water at
that time. My pal tells me that his stomach rejects it; his throat seems
to collapse as he gulps it. But beer he can drink and it eases him.
The alcohol in beer is a blessing at that time. It soothes his laboring
stomach until the water can get into his system and quench the man's
thirst. Iron workers in the Old World have used malt beverages for
generations. Why take away the other man's pleasure if it doesn't injure
you? If it was deadly we would have been weakened in the course of
generations. But look at the worker's body. It is four times as strong
as yours." I saw an envious look in his eye.

"Of course I inherited my muscular build," I apologized, "and so I
try to make the most of it in boasting to you fellows who haven't any
muscle. But really I envy you. You have education and brain power.
That's what I lack and that's what I want above all other things. I
try to study at night and educate myself. But I haven't got any chance
against you fellows who are born intellectual and have college training
on top of it. So if I have talked sharp to you, my cussedness is really
due to envy. I really want to be in your shoes, and I haven't got the
brains for the job."

This worked.

"There is nothing about me for a fellow like you to envy," he said
condescendingly. "I'm no better off than you are. In fact, I envy you
fellows. You are never sick; you can eat and digest anything. I really
envy you. You are built like a young Hercules and are never ashamed when
you strip. When I put on a bathing suit I am embarrassed until I g