as it ought. The "Palm Tree" ought
to have been under sail long ago. Mr. Vigeland comes here every day to
complain about it; he is a difficult man to have with one as part owner.

Aune: The "Palm Tree" can go to sea the day after tomorrow.

Bernick: At last. But what about the American ship, the "Indian Girl,"
which has been laid up here for five weeks and--

Aune: The American ship? I understood that, before everything else, we
were to work our hardest to get your own ship ready.

Bernick: I gave you no reason to think so. You ought to have pushed on
as fast as possible with the work on the American ship also; but you
have not.

Aune: Her bottom is completely rotten, Mr. Bernick; the more we patch
it, the worse it gets.

Bernick: That is not the reason. Krap has told me the whole truth. You
do not understand how to work the new machines I have provided--or
rather, you will not try to work them.

Aune: Mr. Bernick, I am well on in the fifties; and ever since I was a
boy I have been accustomed to the old way of working--

Bernick: We cannot work that way now-a-days. You must not imagine,
Aune, that it is for the sake of making profit; I do not need that,
fortunately; but I owe consideration to the community I live in, and to
the business I am at the head of. I must take the lead in progress, or
there would never be any.

Aune: I welcome progress too, Mr. Bernick.

Bernick: Yes, for your own limited circle--for the working class. Oh, I
know what a busy agitator you are; you make speeches, you stir people
up; but when some concrete instance of progress presents itself--as
now, in the case of our machines--you do not want to have anything to
do with it; you are afraid.

Aune: Yes, I really am afraid, Mr. Bernick. I am afraid for the number
of men who will have the bread taken out of their mouths by these
machines. You are very fond, sir, of talking about the consideration we
owe to the community; it seems to me, however, that the community has
its duties too. Why should science and capital venture to introduce
these new discoveries into labour, before the community has had time to
educate a generation up to using them?

Bernick: You read and think too much, Aune; it does you no good, and
that is what makes you dissatisfied with your lot.

Aune: It is not, Mr. Bernick; but I cannot bear to see one good workman
dismissed after another, to starve because of these machines.

Bernick: Hm! When the art of print