me as FIG. 8. Note high crown large prominent nose;
very full backhead.]

"Yes, but only enough to live on."

"Had time to study, didn't you?"

"No--always had to work."

"What about your evenings? Have to work nights?"

"No."

"Had a pretty good time, didn't you?"

"Oh, yes."

"Out with the fellows and the girls about every night?"

"Yes."

"Wore good clothes, smoked good cigars, hired livery rigs, took in good
shows, lived pretty well, shook dice a little, risked a few dollars on the
ponies now and then?"

"Oh, yes; I was no tight-wad."

"You had to be a good fellow, eh?"

"Sure, I am only going through this world once, so I have had a good time
as I've gone along."

"You couldn't have put in two or three nights a week studying and still
have had a good time?"

"Oh, I might have, I s'pose, but I didn't have the money to buy books."

"How much do you figure you spent, on an average, on those nights you were
out with the boys?"

"Oh, I don't know; sometimes a dime for a cigar, sometimes three or four
dollars for theater tickets, supper, and the trimmings."

"Well, would it average two bits?"

"Yes, I guess so; all of that. Maybe more."

"If you had saved that for two nights a week, it would have counted up
about two and a quarter a month. Buy a pretty good book for that, couldn't
you?"

"S'pose so."

"And if you had been buying books and studying them, going to
night-school, or taking a correspondence course all these years, you would
have had an education by now, wouldn't you?"

"Well, I don't know. Some men are born to succeed. They have more brains
than others."

"Who, for instance?"

"Well, there's Edison."

"Yes; and while you were having a good time with the boys, wearing good
clothes, and enjoying the comforts of life, Edison was working and
studying, wearing shabby clothes and patched shoes, so that he might buy
books. What right have you to say that Edison has a better head,
naturally, than you until you have done what Edison did to develop his?"

"Well, if you put it that way--none, I guess."

"Then you might have been an Edison if you had sacrificed, worked, and
studied as Edison did?"

"Perhaps."

"Then where does the 'hard luck' come in? While you were having a good
time, Edison was having a hard time. Isn't that so?"

"Yes, and now Edison is on Easy Street and I am headed for the Bay. I see
your point, Mr. Socratic. I guess it isn't luck, after all. It's my fault