pass by the one who is late at the end where he ought to
be early, and early at the end where he ought to be late.

I simply mention these things in passing, but, frankly, I am afraid that
you have a streak of the Bill in you; and you can't be a good clerk, let
alone a partner, until you get it out. I try not to be narrow when I'm
weighing up a young fellow, and to allow for soakage and leakage, and
then to throw in a little for good feeling; but I don't trade with a
man whom I find deliberately marking up the weights on me.

This is a fine country we're running through, but it's a pity that it
doesn't raise more hogs. It seems to take a farmer a long time to learn
that the best way to sell his corn is on the hoof.

Your affectionate father,
JOHN GRAHAM.

P.S. I just had to allow Donnelly his claim on those hams, though I was
dead sure our weights were right, and it cost the house sixty dollars.
But your fool letter took all the snap out of our argument. I get hot
every time I think of it.

+------------------------------+
| No. 7 |
+------------------------------+
| From John Graham, at the |
| Omaha Branch of Graham & |
| Co., to Pierrepont Graham, |
| at the Union Stock Yards, |
| Chicago. Mr. Pierrepont |
| hasn't found the methods |
| of the worthy Milligan |
| altogether to his liking, |
| and he has commented |
| rather freely on them. |
+------------------------------+

VII

OMAHA, September 1, 189-

_Dear Pierrepont:_ Yours of the 30th ultimo strikes me all wrong.
I don't like to hear you say that you can't work under Milligan or any
other man, for it shows a fundamental weakness. And then, too, the house
isn't interested in knowing how you like your boss, but in how he likes
you.

I understand all about Milligan. He's a cross, cranky old Irishman with
a temper tied up in bow-knots, who prods his men with the bull-stick six
days a week and schemes to get them salary raises on the seventh, when
he ought to be lis