"I have here,"
he announced in his clerky voice with a touch of solemnity to it, "a
trial balance. I have not had time to make an exact inventory; but in
order to give you some idea of the condition of your father's
affairs, I have used approximate figures and prepared a profit-and-
loss account."
Bryce reached for the papers.
"You will note the amount charged off to profit and loss under the
head of 'Pensions,' Sinclair continued. "It amounts approximately to
two thousand dollars a month, and this sum represents payments to
crippled employees and the dependent families of men killed in the
employ of the Company.
"In addition to these payments, your father owns thirty-two thirty-
acre farms which he has cleared from his logged-over lands. These
little farms are equipped with bungalows and outbuildings built by
your father and represent a considerable investment. As you know,
these farms are wonderfully rich, and are planted in apples and
berries. Other lands contiguous to them sell readily at two hundred
dollars an acre, and so you will see that your father has
approximately two hundred thousand dollars tied up in these little
farms."
"But he has given a life-lease at nothing a year for each farm to
former employees who have been smashed beyond the possibility of
doing the hard work of the mill and woods," Bryce reminded the
manager.
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