er receiving it._ Some people are quite negligent in this matter
and carry cheques around in their pocket-books for several days before
presenting them for payment. It may not be convenient to take them to
a bank, and so they are carried around; perhaps their owners forget
they have them. They ought not to do so, for the reason that the maker
of a cheque really says to the holder: "This is an order that I give
to you on my bank for the money mentioned. If you go at once you can
get payment, but I do not promise to keep it there always for
you--only for a short time." Now if a person is willing to accept a
cheque at all, he ought to present it within the time the holder
intended, and if he does not and the bank fails, the loss falls on the
holder and not on the maker.

_What time does the law fix for presenting cheques for payment?_ The
rule everywhere is that the holder must present a cheque received by
him, if drawn on a bank in the place where he lives, on the day of
receiving it or on the next day. If the cheque is drawn on a bank at
a distance, out of town, then he should send it to that bank, either
directly or by leaving it with another bank for that purpose, on the
same day as he received it or the next day. In other words, _he must
take steps to collect the cheque either on the day of receiving it or
the following one_.

A friend of mine gave a cheque to a merchant in payment of a small
bill. Both lived in the same town, where the bank on which the cheque
was drawn was also located. About a week afterward the bank failed and
the merchant wrote to him, stating the unwelcome fact and that the
cheque had not been collected and desired him to send another. I asked
my friend if he complied with the request, and he said: "Certainly." I
told him that he ought not to have done so, for he was under no
obligation either in law or morals to do such a thing. Had he known
the above rule he would not have sent the second cheque, for it was
pure negligence on the part of the merchant in not presenting it--in
fact, on the same day it was received.

A person may, of course, hold a cheque for a much longer period than
the time above mentioned and present it and receive payment, but the
point that we are trying to make clear is that _the risk of holding
it_ during this period _is the holder's and not the risk of the maker
of the cheque_. I suppose the merchant in the above case had, perhaps,
lost the cheque. Every now and then