of 'em don't do it. Hard work and plain food
is what the rising generation wants. I don't approve of airships--that
is as a rule," the crabbed old miser hastily added, "but, of course,
twenty thousand dollars is a nice prize to win. I only hope you get
it. Nephew Richard. I like to see you work. I'm going back now.
I'll tell your Aunt Samantha that you've at last learned how to do
something, even if it is only building an airship."

"Don't you call my studies at Kentfield something, Uncle Ezra?" asked
Dick.

"No sir! No, sir-ee!" cried the elderly man. "That's time and money
thrown away. But I see that you can do manual labor, Nephew Richard,
and if you really want to do useful work, and earn money, I'd be glad
to have you in my woolen mill. I could start you on three dollars and
a half a week, and you could soon earn more. Will you come?"

"No, thank you," said Dick. "Thank you just the same."

He had a vivid idea of what it might mean to work for his Uncle Ezra.
Besides, Dick's fortune was such that he did not have to work. But he
fully intended to, and he was getting a training that would enable him
to work to the best advantage. Just because he was a millionaire he
did not despise work. In fact he liked it, and he had made up his mind
that he would not be an idler.

Just now aviation attracted him, and he put in as many hours working
over his airship--hard work, too,--as many a mechanic might have done.

"Well, I'll say good-bye, Nephew Richard," spoke Uncle Ezra, after
walking about the big airship, and looking at it more closely than
would seem natural, after he had characterized it as a "foolish piece
of business."

"I'm sorry you won't stay until my father gets back," spoke Dick. "I
expect him tomorrow, or next day."

"Well, if I stayed I know my hired man would waste a lot of feed on the
horses," said Uncle Ezra. "And every time I go away he sits up and
burns his kerosene lamp until almost ten o'clock at night. And oil has
gone up something terrible of late."

"Well, I hope you'll come and see us again," invited Dick, as his uncle
started to go. "But won't you let me send you to the station in the
auto? It isn't being used."

"No, Nephew Richard. Not for me!" exclaimed Uncle Ezra. "You might
bust a tire, and then you'd expect me to pay for it."

"Oh, no, I wouldn't!"

"Well, then, there might be some accident, and I might get my clothes
torn. That would mean I'd have to have