age yard.

"Isn't the business paying as well as you thought it would, Henry?"

"Oh, the business is all right. The trouble is the way the president
manages it," and Henry smiled ruefully. "You remember I told you dad
had taken most of the surplus capital for one of his schemes," and he
looked inquiringly at Dick.

"Yes, I remember, you said he thought there were thousands of dollars in
it."

"Well, they're still there," said Henry, with dry humor. "Dad hasn't
been able to induce 'em to come forth and nestle in his or my pockets.
That's why I haven't enough money to buy a new horse and wagon. If I had
it I could cover more ground in a day and do more business. As for
this--this--well, I don't know what to call him. He reminds me of a heap
of old iron, sticking out seven ways from Sunday, as the old saying is.
You see his bones stick out like so many points."

"They do, for a fact," and Dick looked at the horse, that presented more
angles than he had ever before imagined a horse possessed.

"There's one consolation," went on Henry. "He's cheap, but there's
another disadvantage, he looks it. So does the wagon. Whenever I start
away from home to collect old metal I always tell dad not to worry if I
don't get back that night. There's no telling which will break down
first--the horse or the wagon. It's like taking a voyage in a sailing
ship, no telling when you'll arrive.

"Still," he went on, "there's one advantage. It keeps my journeys from
being monotonous. Nothing like having a horse that may develop spavin,
ring bone or heaves on the road any minute, or a wagon that may drop
all four wheels at once and break every spring. It keeps me from getting
lonesome."

"I'm sorry to hear the old metal business is so poor," remarked Dick.
"What caused the trouble?"

"Well, dad got an idea that he knew a lot about old iron and such
things. He started in to do the buying and I was to go after the stuff,
when he had purchased it, and bring it home. He did buy some iron scrap
and a lot of old horseshoes that I made a profit on. Then he heard of
some metal at an old factory. Someone told him it had a lot of platinum
in it. Now, platinum is very valuable. Dad thought he had struck a
bargain. He paid a big price for the stuff. In fact, he used up every
cent I had put away in order to get hold of that metal he thought had
platinum in it."

"Didn't it?" asked Dick, as Henry stopped.

"Not a bit. Someone worked off a lot of ste