ice
waiting for him.

"Here I am, wasting time," he said, jokingly, "while two days' balances
and a mess of other work are waiting for me. Is there anything else
you want to speak about, Mr. Jones?"

The manager looked at him with eyes so unprofessional they might never
have focused on anything so mean as a past-due bill, or a head office
bull.

"Nelson," he said frankly, "you are the right sort of stuff to succeed.
You will succeed in the bank: but take my advice and get out of it. If
you stick you will some day be a city manager--but get out. How long
have you been in the service?"

"Almost two years."

"Well, if you had labored in some other business two years, with the
intelligence and ballast you have shown around here, you would now have
had a desk somewhere and a phone at your elbow."

The teller smiled embarrassedly, and rising, asked:

"When will your resignation go?"

"Right away."

While the manager and teller were discussing the philosophy of banking,
the ledger-keeper and junior were worrying a battered-looking savings.
Henty was leaning on his elbows and yawning. His eyes followed endless
columns of figures, while the ledger-keeper called from the ledger.
Filter purposely called an amount wrong, and kept going. When he was
five accounts past the "baited" balance Henty shouted:

"Hold on, call No. 981 again!"

"Well, I must hand it to you, Ape," said the ledger-keeper
sarcastically. "You certainly have a remarkable pair of eyes. You
travel several miles behind, like an echo or something, but you always
get there. Why don't you save your memory all that extra work?"

The good-natured junior laughed.

"Don't be cross, Gordon," he teased. "To tell the truth I was thinking
of Hilda Munn."

Filter looked exasperated.

"How in ---- do you ever expect me to find that difference if you
travel blindfolded? I'll bet a dollar we've passed over it."

Nelson came in the office.

"How much are you out?" he asked.

"Ten cents," said Filter; "this book--"

"Wait," interrupted Evan, "do you remember that deposit slip we changed
after the calling about two weeks ago? Was it fixed in the ledger?"

Filter's eyes brightened. He looked up the account and found his
difference. Henty regarded the teller with unsophisticated admiration,
then, on the impulse, grabbed him by the muscles and commenced backing
him around the office.

"Gee, you're a horse!" said Evan, wrenching himself free; "wh