return. Have you any money?"

It so happened that at this time John's savings were invested in a few
bonds of an old and conservatively managed railroad. His heart fell. He
didn't want to buy any bank stock.

"No," he answered. "My salary is small enough and I need it all. I don't
save any money."

"Oh, well," said the magnate, "I will try and fix it up for you. I will
arrange for a loan with the ---- Bank on the stock. Remember, I'm doing
this to help you. That is all. You may go back to your books."

Next day John was informed that he had bought five shares of ---- Trust
Company stock in the neighborhood of three hundred, and he signed a note
for one thousand four hundred and twenty-five dollars, and indorsed the
stock over to the bank from which the money had been borrowed for him.
The stock almost immediately dropped over fifty points. John paid the
interest on the note out of his salary, and the dividends, as fast as
they were declared, went to extinguish the body of the loan. Some time
afterward he learned that he had bought the stock from the magnate
himself. He never received any benefit from it, for the stock was sold
to cover the note, and John was obliged to make up the difference. He
also discovered that ten or fifteen other employees had been given a
similar opportunity by their generous employer at about the same time.
John, in prison, says it was a scheme to keep fifty or a hundred shares
where it could easily be controlled by the president, without risk to
himself, in case of need. Of course, he may be wrong. At any rate, he
feels bitterly now toward the big men who are at large while he is in
jail.

John continued to keep up with the acquaintances formed during his years
in the broker's office, many of whom had started little businesses of
their own and had done well. Part of their stock-in-trade was to appear
prosperous and they took John out to lunch, and told him what a fine
fellow he was, and gave him sure tips. But John had grown "wise." He had
had all the chances of that sort he wanted, and from a bigger man than
any of them. He ate their lunches and invited them in return. Then he
economized for a day or two to even up. He was not prosperous himself,
but he did not accept favors without repaying them.

One thing he observed and noted carefully--every man he knew who had
begun a brokerage business and kept sober, who attended to business and
did not speculate, made money and plenty of it. He