Thus it happened that my duties were vastly more interesting than
those of an office-boy in a large house to-day. I thoroughly enjoyed
the work. Gradually the auditing of accounts was left in my hands. All
the bills were first passed upon by me, and I took this duty very
seriously.

One day, I remember, I was in a neighbour's office, when the local
plumber presented himself with a bill about a yard long. This
neighbour was one of those very busy men. He was connected with what
seemed to me an unlimited number of enterprises. He merely glanced at
this tiresome bill, turned to the bookkeeper, and said:

"Please pay this bill."

As I was studying the same plumber's bills in great detail, checking
every item, if only for a few cents, and finding it to be greatly to
the firm's interest to do so, this casual way of conducting affairs
did not appeal to me. I had trained myself to the point of view
doubtless held by many young men in business to-day, that my check on
a bill was the executive act which released my employer's money from
the till and was attended with more responsibility than the spending
of my own funds. I made up my mind that such business methods could
not succeed.

Passing bills, collecting rents, adjusting claims, and work of this
kind brought me in association with a great variety of people. I had
to learn how to get on with all these different classes, and still
keep the relations between them and the house pleasant. One particular
kind of negotiation came to me which took all the skill I could master
to bring to a successful end.

We would receive, for example, a shipment of marble from Vermont to
Cleveland. This involved handling by railroad, canal, and lake boats.
The cost of losses or damage had to be somehow fixed between these
three different carriers, and it taxed all the ingenuity of a boy of
seventeen to work out this problem to the satisfaction of all
concerned, including my employers. But I thought the task no hardship,
and so far as I can remember I never had any disagreement of moment
with any of these transportation interests. This experience in
conducting all sorts of transactions at such an impressionable age,
with the helping hand of my superiors to fall back upon in an
emergency--was highly interesting to me. It was my first step in
learning the principle of negotiation, of which I hope to speak later.

The training that comes from working for some one else, to whom we
feel a res