able.

Castle looked at him with real anger, and came out of his cage.

"You darn young pup!" he exclaimed menacingly.

Watson raised his voice in a loud laugh, and drew the teller's
attention to the new man. Mr. Robb came back to the cage for some
change,--and the storm did not mature.

Evan was not relieved. He wanted to have a row with Castle. But it
was not the teller he worried about back at his own desk: it was
himself. He was ignorant! With all his high-school education and his
big marks in languages he did not know that combinations should not be
wound, or that three-dollar bills were not somewhere in circulation.
There _was_ knowledge for him in the bank, after all!

And he decided to make that knowledge his. He applied himself to the
office books, after that, and fought against the desire to quit and go
back to school. He would ask questions about everything and know all
there was to know.

CHAPTER II.

_SWIPE DAYS._

When Nelson was able to take out the collections Porter found himself
in line for the savings ledger. It never occurred to the Bonehead that
elevation was apt to bring added responsibilities; he thought only of
the promotion. Nothing now mattered except the fact that J. Porter
Perry was a ledger keeper. He managed to drop the information in every
store on his last trip round with the bills, and proclaimed his
successor in a tone that was very irritating to the new "swipe."

Evan ground his teeth--but thought of Frankie. He spoke respectfully
to all the bank's customers, and tried to act like a gentleman, on the
street. In a week's time he knew every merchant in town well enough to
speak to him, and had overcome the giggles and whisperings of counter
girls.

Mornings were always bright enough to him. When he first wakened a
kind of pall usually settled about his lonesome crib, but the May
sunlight soon helped him forget that he was "out in the world alone."
He knew that his father would gladly send him money and stand by him no
matter what happened. This was great consolation, although Evan did
not admit to himself that it was. He wanted to be an independent man,
as his forefathers had been; he was unwilling to have his father
support him any longer by store-labor. When he reflected that soon he
would be able to keep himself and make little gifts to his mother and
sister he took courage and forged through whatever difficulty happened
to be in the way.

Evan had