long with my old barn until I had saved
the money to build the new one, I determined to borrow one thousand
dollars, and happening to meet Capt. Cole, I asked him if he knew
where I could get that amount for three years. He told me he did, and
offered to become my security. The money was borrowed and my barn
begun.

"A few weeks later Capt. Cole called to see me. Like 'Squire Black
to-day, he seemed delighted with everything he saw. His flattery put
me in the best possible humor, and when he asked me to indorse a note
of $5,000 for sixty days, and assured me that he could meet it (or
even twice as much) promptly, to the day, I consented against my
better judgment, and affixed my signature to the note. That act ruined
me. Before the sixty days expired I learned that he was bankrupt. My
farm was sold at a sacrifice, under the hammer, and when I paid the
thousand dollars which I had borrowed to build the barn with, I was
left penniless.

"With my history in your possession, do you wonder that I was alarmed
to-day when I saw you about to fall into the same trap? I tell you I
have a right to feel deeply on this subject. Would that I could make
my voice heard by every young man in the land. I would say to him,
shun as you would a serpent this evil which has brought ruin to so
many families. I realize fully what it means to put my name on another
man's paper, and it is just this--that I assume all the risks of his
business, without any voice in its management or any possible chance
of profit if he is successful; but with a fearful certainty that if
from any cause he makes a failure, my earnings must make it good, even
though it reduces my family to beggary. Since my own misfortune I have
made this a matter of study, and I find that a very large per cent. of
the business failures, of the country (and nearly all among farmers)
are due to this practice."

The remainder of my story is soon told. My father was deeply impressed
by Mr. Day's story, and before night I was dispatched to 'Squire
Black's with a note from father stating that after carefully
considering the matter he had decided not to sign the note. In less
than a year after this 'Squire Black was declared a bankrupt, and in
the final settlement of his business it did not pay ten cents on the
dollar.

Father felt that he owed a debt of gratitude to Mr. Day, and he
presented him with a good team and helped him to rent a farm. This
encouraged him, and he worked so ind