ly. To return to your affairs I
shall charge you interest on the five hundred dollars you borrowed of
me, at the rate of seven per cent. You have had the use of the money
for three months."

"Then the interest will amount to eight dollars and three quarters,"
said Henry, promptly.

"Quite right; you are very quick at reckoning," said Mr. Hamilton,
looking pleased.

"That is not a difficult sum," answered Henry, modestly.

"I did not suppose you knew much about computing interest. You left
school very young, did you not?"

"At twelve, sir."

"You had not studied interest then, had you?"

"No, sir; I have studied it since."

"At evening-school?"

"No, sir; I studied by myself in the evening."

"How long have you done that?"

"For two years."

"And you keep it up regularly?"

"Yes, sir; occasionally I take an evening for myself, but I average
five evenings a week at studying."

"You are a remarkable boy," said the merchant, looking surprised.

"If you flatter me, sir, I may grow self-conceited," said Henry,
smiling.

"You have some right to feel satisfied with yourself. Tell me what was
your object in commencing this course of work."

"I picked up at a bookstore on Nassau Street an old book containing
the lives of some men who rose from obscurity; and I found that many
of them studied by themselves in early life, being unable to attend
school. It seemed to me that education was necessary to success, and,
as I had nothing else to depend upon, I began to work evenings."

"Did you not find it irksome? Were you not tempted sometimes to give
it up?"

"Just at first; but afterward I got to enjoy it."

Here Mr. Hamilton asked Henry a few questions, with a view of testing
his knowledge both as to extent and accuracy; and the result was so
satisfactory as more and more to prepossess him in favor of the boy.

He returned to business.

"It appears," he said, "that, interest deducted, you have ninety-one
dollars and a quarter to your credit with me. You are at liberty to
draw it, if you wish."

"What would you advise me to do, Mr. Hamilton?" asked Henry.

"You had better leave it in my hands for such use as I may think
likely to prove profitable. I shall dispatch a vessel to Marseilles in
a week. Would you like to take a share in this venture?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then, I will assign six hundred dollars to you. Five you may continue
to borrow of me. One is your own."

"Not quite, sir. You remember the