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The Pedler of Dust Sticks by Eliza Lee Cabot Follen
page 21 of 45 (46%)
services of another without making adequate compensation; or the
idea of any man exercising tyranny over his brother man.

Henry's workmen were the happiest and best in Hamburg. They loved
their employer with their whole hearts; there was nothing they would
not do for him. When his factory had been established twenty-five
years, the workmen determined to have a jubilee on the occasion, and
to hold it on his birthday. They kept their intention a secret from
him till the day arrived; but they were obliged to tell his
children, who, they knew, would wish to make arrangements for
receiving them in such a way as their father would approve of, if he
knew of it.

It was summer time; and on Henry's birthday, at seven o'clock in the
morning, (for they knew their friend was an early riser,) a strain
of grand and beautiful music broke the stillness of the early hour,
and a long procession of five hundred men was seen to wind around
the house.

The musicians, playing upon their fine wind instruments, and dressed
very gayly, came first. Then came those of his workmen who had been
with him twenty-five years; then his clerks and book-keepers; then
followed his other workmen, and then all the boys who were employed
in his factory. All wore black coats, with a green bow pinned on the
breast.

They drew up in a circle on the lawn before his house; and five old
men, who had been with him for twenty-five years, stood in the
centre, holding something which was wrapped up in the Hamburg flag.
Now all the musical instruments played a solemn, religious hymn.
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