of age, a neighbor once dropped in for a
little visit, and in conversation referred to Mr. Oliver's being a rich
man.

"Yes," said this kindly old Spartan, "yes, they say I am rich, but if I
didn't have a dollar, I would still be rich--with a wife like that!" and
he pointed to his partner of nearly half a century.

Mrs. Oliver smiled and said chidingly, "Now, James!"

But he continued, "I say, mother, if we did not have a dollar, we could
still earn our living with our hands at just plain hard work, couldn't
we?"

And the old lady (who really was never old) replied, "Yes, James, we
could still earn our living with our hands, and we would not be
miserable over it, either." Near the close of his wonderful career,
Pericles said, "I have caused no one to wear crape." The Honorable
Marvin Campbell, in a speech at South Bend, once quoted this remark of
the man who built the City of Athens and added, "Not only can we pay
James Oliver the compliment of saying that he never caused any one to
wear crape, but no one ever lost money by investing in either his goods
or his enterprises, and moreover no one ever associated with him who did
not prosper and grow wiser and better through the association."

A few weeks before his passing, some one told him this little story of
Tolstoy's: A priest, seeing a peasant plowing, approached him and said,
"If you knew you were to die tonight, how would you spend the rest of
the day?"

And the peasant promptly answered, "I would plow."

It seems the priest thought the man would answer, "In confession," or
"In prayer," or "At church." The priest heard the answer in surprise. He
thought a moment, and then replied, "My friend, you have given the
wisest answer a man can possibly make, for to plow is to pray, since the
prayer of honest labor is always answered."

The story impressed Mr. Oliver. He told it to several people, and then
made a personal application of it, thus, "If I knew I were to die
tonight, I would make plows today."

STEPHEN GIRARD

I do not value fortune. The love of labor is my sheet-anchor. I
work that I may forget, and forgetting, I am happy.

--_Stephen Girard_

[Illustration: STEPHEN GIRARD]

When we make a census of the sensible, and count the competent, we can
not leave out the name of William Penn. He was the founder of the City
of Philadelphia, and of the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, an