other, and the interview was not a pleasant one, though she did
not give me a whipping.

I used to read novels, any number of them, in those days--all about
Indians, pirates, and all those blood-and-thunder tales--lies. You can
not get any good out of them, and they do corrupt your mind. I would
advise the young people who read these lines, and older folks also, if
this is your style of reading, to stop right where you are. Get some
good books--there are plenty of them--and don't fill your mind with
stuff that only unfits you for the real life of the years to come.

[Illustration: A NOON SHOP MEETING ADDRESSED BY MR. RANNEY.]

CHAPTER II

FIRST STEPS IN CRIME

I was getting tired of school and wanted to go to work. I had a good
Christian man for my Sunday-school teacher, Mr. M., a fairly rich man,
and I did think a good deal of him. I liked to go to Sunday-school and
was often the first in my class. The teacher would put up a prize for
the one that was there first. Sometimes it would be a baseball bat,
skates, book, or knife. I would let myself out then and would be first
and get the prize.

I asked Mr. M. to get me work in an office. After a few weeks he called
and told my mother he had got me a job in Jersey City, in the office of
a civil engineer, at $3 a week. I was a happy boy as I started in on my
first day's work. It was easy; all I had to do was to open up and dust
the office at 8 A. M., and close at 5 P. M. I used to run errands and
draw a little. But after a few weeks the newness of work wore off and I
wished I was back at school again, where I could play hookey and have
fun with the other fellows.

THE FIRST THEFTS

I had lots of time on my hands, and you know the saying, "Satan finds
some mischief still for idle hands to do." He certainly found plenty for
me. The boss was a great smoker and bought his cigars by the box. He
asked me if I smoked, and I said no, for I had not begun to smoke as
yet. Well, he left the box of cigars around, always open, so I thought I
would try one, and I took a couple out of the box. See how the Devil
works with a fellow. He seemed to say, "Now if you take them from the
top he will miss them," so he showed me how to take them from the
bottom. I took out the cigars that were on top, and when I got to the
bottom of the box I crossed a couple and took the cigars, and you could
not tell that any had been taken out. That was the beginning of my
stealing. The cigars