e awakenings. He had
not been compelled to suffer illness or pain or deprivation of any kind.
He saw people richer than himself, but he hoped to be rich. His family
was respected, his father well placed. He owed no man anything. Once he
had let a small note of his become overdue at the bank, but his father
raised such a row that he never forgot it. "I would rather crawl on
my hands and knees than let my paper go to protest," the old gentleman
observed; and this fixed in his mind what scarcely needed to be so
sharply emphasized--the significance of credit. No paper of his ever
went to protest or became overdue after that through any negligence of
his.

He turned out to be the most efficient clerk that the house of Waterman
& Co. had ever known. They put him on the books at first as assistant
bookkeeper, vice Mr. Thomas Trixler, dismissed, and in two weeks George
said: "Why don't we make Cowperwood head bookkeeper? He knows more in a
minute than that fellow Sampson will ever know."

"All right, make the transfer, George, but don't fuss so. He won't be a
bookkeeper long, though. I want to see if he can't handle some of these
transfers for me after a bit."

The books of Messrs. Waterman & Co., though fairly complicated, were
child's play to Frank. He went through them with an ease and rapidity
which surprised his erstwhile superior, Mr. Sampson.

"Why, that fellow," Sampson told another clerk on the first day he had
seen Cowperwood work, "he's too brisk. He's going to make a bad break. I
know that kind. Wait a little bit until we get one of those rush credit
and transfer days." But the bad break Mr. Sampson anticipated did not
materialize. In less than a week Cowperwood knew the financial condition
of the Messrs. Waterman as well as they did--better--to a dollar. He
knew how their accounts were distributed; from what section they drew
the most business; who sent poor produce and good--the varying prices
for a year told that. To satisfy himself he ran back over certain
accounts in the ledger, verifying his suspicions. Bookkeeping did not
interest him except as a record, a demonstration of a firm's life. He
knew he would not do this long. Something else would happen; but he saw
instantly what the grain and commission business was--every detail of
it. He saw where, for want of greater activity in offering the goods
consigned--quicker communication with shippers and buyers, a better
working agreement with surrounding commis