I consoled myself with the thought that the reason my earning capacity had not increased with my years and strength was because I had remained an unskilled labourer.

But it was different now.

I was beginning to work for skill, for a trade, for career and fortune, and the superintendent's daughter.
And I was beginning in the right way--right at the beginning.

That was the thing.

I was passing coal to the firemen, who shovelled it into the furnaces, where its energy was transformed into steam, which, in the engine-room, was transformed into the electricity with which the electricians worked.