The “crusader’s” talk on the child-labor question set Hamilton’s mind working, and as soon as he got back to Washington and was busy tabulating the manufacturing statistics which had been gathered and sent in, he tried to learn something about the employment of children.  He chanced to meet one of the photographers who had been with the Congressional commission, and the tales this man told were even more detailed.  Hamilton found that the figures quoted had not been overstated, and he determined that just as soon as he grew old enough he would do all he could toward correcting this abuse.

But Hamilton found the actual statistical work not a little tedious, although it was work which usually he enjoyed, and this sense of the time dragging was largely due to the fact that the boy had not heard a word about his being considered in line for the population work.  It was therefore a considerable relief to him when Mr. Burns said to him suddenly one morning: 

“So you’re going over to the population side, I hear?”

“Am I?  I didn’t know,” Hamilton replied.  “I had wanted to go, but not hearing anything about it, I was afraid the plan had been shelved.”

“The Director told me this morning that you were going to be transferred.”

“The Director himself?”

“Yes.  I had a talk with him about the figures for the manufactures of the New England States, and we happened to mention you; he knew your name, so I told him that your schedules had averaged six and a third per cent better than those of any one else in that section.  So he said, ’That reminds me, I had almost forgotten that I had decided to put Noble on the population work.  I’ll see that arrangements for that transfer are made,’ and he scribbled something on a pad.”

“That was awfully kind of you, Mr. Burns,” said Hamilton, “to mention me to the Director in that way.”

The statistician looked at him curiously.

“I wasn’t dealing in kindness,” he said dryly, “I was dealing in percentages.  If that turned out well for you, it is yourself you have to thank, not me.  I merely stated the figures, and they read in your favor.”

The boy laughed outright.

“I believe, Mr. Burns,” he said, “that you would more easily forgive a man who attacked you personally than one who gave you an incorrect list of figures.”

“Certainly I would,” the statistician replied.  “I could hit back in the first case, but in the second who can tell how far I might be led astray!”

“Well,” the boy answered, “I’m glad at any rate that my figures tallied up all right.”

“I don’t want to seem inquisitive,” said the older man, “but when did you get in the population examination?”

“There was some talk of my being accepted without going through the exam,” said Hamilton, “because of the fact that I was doing census work of a more difficult character already, but I thought I would rather feel that everything had been done in the usual manner.  I took the exam at New Haven, one afternoon.”