undred miles away.

"How long is he going to stay?"

"He didn't say," answered Mr. Canterfield.

"I'll tell you what he ought to do," said the lady. "He ought to make
you a partner in the firm, and then he could go away and stay as long
as he pleased."

"He can do that now," returned her husband. "He has made a good many
trips since I have been with him, and things have gone on very much in
the same way as when he is here. He knows that."

"But still you'd like to be a partner?"

"Oh, yes," said Mr. Canterfield.

"And common gratitude ought to prompt him to make you one," said his
wife.

Mr. Tolman went home and wrote a will. He left all his property, with
the exception of a few legacies, to the richest and most powerful
charitable organization in the country.

"People will think I am crazy," said he to himself, "and if I should
die while I am carrying out my plan, I will leave the task of defending
my sanity to people who are able to make a good fight for me." And
before he went to bed his will was signed and witnessed.

The next day he packed a trunk and left for the neighboring city. His
apartments were to be kept in readiness for his return at any time. If
you had seen him walking over to the railroad depot, you would have
taken him for a man of forty-five.

When he arrived at his destination, Mr. Tolman established himself
temporarily at a hotel, and spent the next three or four days in
walking about the city looking for what he wanted. What he wanted was
rather difficult to define, but the way in which he put the matter to
himself was something like this:

"I would like to find a snug little place where, I can live, and carry
on some business which I can attend to myself, and which will bring me
into contact with people of all sorts--people who will interest me. It
must be a small business, because I don't want to have to work very
hard, and it must be snug and comfortable, because I want to enjoy it.
I would like a shop of some sort, because that brings a man face to
face with his fellow-creatures."

The city in which he was walking about was one of the best places in
the country in which to find the place of business he desired. It was
full of independent little shops. But Mr. Tolman could not readily
find one which resembled his ideal. A small dry-goods establishment
seemed to presuppose a female proprietor. A grocery store would give
him many interesting customers; but he did not