the whole outfit--or all there was left of it--and established "The Bank
of Stephen Girard," with a capital of one million two hundred thousand
dollars.

When near the close of the war the Government was trying to float a loan
of five million dollars, only twenty thousand was taken. "The Colonies
are going back to the Mother Country," the croakers said. If so, all
public debts would be repudiated.

Girard stepped forward and took the entire loan, although it was really
more than his entire fortune.

The effect was magical. If Old Girard was not afraid, the people were
not, and the money began to come out of the stockings and ginger-jars.

Girard believed in America and in her future. "I want to live so as to
see the United States supreme in liberty, justice and education," he
used to say.

He loved pets and children, and if he was cold it was only to grown-ups.

On each of his ships he placed a big Newfoundland dog--"to keep the
sailors company," he said. The wise ones said it was because a dog was
cheaper than a watchman. Anyway, he loved dogs, and in his yellow gig,
or under it, was always a big, shaggy dog. He drove a slow-going, big,
fat horse, and used to say that if times got hard he at least had a
horse that could plow. During the last twenty years of his life he used
to make daily trips to his farm, where Girard College now stands, and
work there like a laborer with his trees and flowers. If he did not love
Venus, he certainly did Ceres and Pomona. "If I knew I should die
tomorrow, I would plant a tree today," he once wrote.

* * * * *

By his will Girard left many benefactions for the betterment of
humanity. His bequests to the City of Philadelphia and the State of
Pennsylvania were these: To the Philadelphia Hospital, thirty thousand
dollars; to the Pennsylvania Institute for the Deaf, twenty thousand
dollars; to the Philadelphia Orphan Asylum, ten thousand dollars; to the
Philadelphia Public Schools, ten thousand dollars; to the City of
Philadelphia for the distribution of fuel among the poor, ten thousand
dollars; to the Masonic Loan Association, twenty thousand dollars; to
the City of Philadelphia for the improvement of its streets and public
squares, five hundred thousand dollars; to the Philadelphia Public
Library, forty thousand dollars; for the improvement of canals in the
State of Pennsylvania, three hundred thousand dollars; and greatest of
all, two million do