k in a factory, as a lazy one would. A
lazy boy, who had been accustomed to get up when he pleased, and
consequently was seldom ready to breakfast with the rest of the family,
would have a hard time in breaking into such a factory life. The bodies
of these indolent fellows seldom wake up all at once. After their eyes
are fairly awake by much rubbing, opening, and shutting, their limbs
have to be coaxed and persuaded to start. Now they think they will start
up in just one minute, but the lazy body refuses, and one minute passes,
and then another, until, sometimes, a whole hour is lost in the futile
attempts of a weak will to make the limbs mind and get up. But Nat's
will was law to his members.

He had been accustomed to hear the factory bell of his native village
call others, but it never called him before. For this reason, he had
never thought much about its tones, nor hardly stopped to consider that
its call was very early. But now its very sound was different. It seemed
to understand that Nat was to be called, and it did not require a very
flighty imagination in him to perceive that it said Nat, as plainly as
any bell could. He was on his feet in a moment. He did not wait for the
bell to call twice, any more than he did for his parents to call twice.
Every part of him waked up at once, from his head to his feet. His feet
were as wide awake as his eyes, as any person would have inferred who
had seen them start from the bed. If the bell had no harder case to
arouse, it might have done its work with half the noise, and thus saved
a great quantity of sound for special occasions, such as the fourth of
July.

He was about the first to reach the factory on Monday morning.

"Hurrah! the bobbin boy is on hand," said the overseer as he entered.

"Yes, sir!" was Nat's short and modest reply.

"You'd rather go to school, I suppose," continued the overseer, "than to
carry bobbins?"

"I had," answered Nat, "though I can do what is for the best."

"That's right. If everybody would do that, we should have a different
world to live in."

The overseer said what he did to Nat, because he knew, as everybody else
did in the village, that the boy loved his books. His brightness, and
inclination to study, were themes of frequent remark among the people.
In the school-room, his manner of acquitting himself attracted the
attention of visitors. The teachers regarded him as a very promising
boy, and often spoke of his talents. In this