I happened to fall into the company of Squire Floyd and Judge
Bigelow, not very long after the return of Delia and her husband to
New York. The conversation turned upon business, and I learned that
the Squire had thought of enlarging his mill, and introducing
steam--the water power being only sufficient for its present
productive capacity. Judge Bigelow was very much interested, I
found, in the particular branch of manufacture in which his neighbor
was engaged, and inclined to embark some capital with him in the
proposed extension of the works. They frequently quoted the Judge's
nephew, Mr. Ralph Dewey, as to the extent to which goods could be
put into market by the house of Floyd, Lawson, Lee & Co., who
possessed, it was conceded, almost unlimited facilities.
I listened to their conversation, which involved plans of
enlargement, statistics of trade, home and foreign production,
capital, and the like, until I began to feel that I was moving in a
narrow sphere, and destined, in comparison with them, to occupy a
very small space on the world. And I will confess it, a shade of
dissatisfaction crept over my heart.
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