y moderately;
but I think I had some tact in adapting myself to the different classes
of persons with whom I came in contact; at any rate, I was always
polite, and that helped me. So my sales increased, and I did a good
thing for my employer as well as myself. He would have been glad to
employ me for a series of years, but I happened to meet a traveling
salesman of a New York wholesale house, who offered to obtain me a
position similar to his own. As this would give me a larger field and
larger profits, I accepted gladly, and so changed the nature of my
employment. I became very successful. My salary was raised from time to
time, till it reached five thousand dollars. I lived frugally and saved
money, and at length bought an interest in the house by which I had been
so long employed. I am now senior partner, and, as you may suppose, very
comfortably provided for.

"Do you know why I have told you this?" asked Mr. Preston, noticing the
eagerness with which Paul had listened.

"I don't know, sir; but I have been very much interested."

"It is because I like to give encouragement to boys and young men who
are now situated as I used to be. I think you are a smart boy."

"Thank you, sir."

"And, though you are poor, you can lift yourself to prosperity, if you
are willing to work hard enough and long enough."

"I am not afraid of work," said Paul, promptly.

"No, I do not believe you are. I can tell by a boy's face, and you have
the appearance of one who is willing to work hard. How long have you
been a street peddler?"

"About a year, sir. Before that time my father was living, and I was
kept at school."

"You will find the street a school, though of a different kind, in which
you can learn valuable lessons. If you can get time in the evening,
however, it will be best to keep up your school studies."

"I am doing that now, sir."

"That is well. And now, about the shirts. Did your mother say how long
it would take her to make them?"

"About three weeks, I think, sir. Will that be soon enough?"

"That will do. Perhaps it will be well, however, to bring half the
number whenever they are finished."

"All right, sir."

"I suppose your mother can cut them out if I send a shirt as a pattern?"

"Yes, sir."

Mr. Preston rose, and, going to a bureau, took therefrom a shirt which
he handed to Paul. He then wrote a few lines on a slip of paper, which
he also handed our hero.

"That is an order on Barclay & Co.,"