more standing
upon _terra firma_, although the portion upon which his feet rested was
very small; still it was _terra firma_--and that was something.

The real causes of his ill success never for a moment occurred to the
mind of Jacob. He considered himself an "unlucky dog."

"Every thing that some people touch turns into money," he would
sometimes say. "But I was not born under a lucky star."

Instead of rigidly bringing down his expenses, as he ought to have
done, to four hundred dollars, if he had to live in a garret and cook
his own food, Jacob went back to his old boarding-house, and paid four
dollars a week. All his other expenses required at least eight dollars
more to meet them. He was perfectly aware that he was living beyond his
income--the exact excess he did not stop to ascertain--but he expected
an increase of salary before long, as a matter of course, either in his
present situation or in a new one. But no increase took place for two
years, and then he was between three and four hundred dollars in debt
to tailors, boot-makers, his landlady, and to sundry friends, to whom
he applied for small sums of money in cases of emergency.

One day, about this time, two men were conversing together quite
earnestly, as they walked leisurely along one of the principal streets
of the city where Jacob resided. One was past the prime of life, and
the other about twenty-two. They were father and son, and the subject
of conversation related to the wish of the latter to enter into
business. The father did not think the young man was possessed of
sufficient knowledge of business or experience, and was, therefore,
desirous of associating some one with him who could make up these
deficiencies. If he could find just the person that pleased him, he was
ready to advance capital and credit to an amount somewhere within the
neighbourhood of twenty thousand dollars. For some months he had been
thinking of Jacob, who was a first-rate salesman, had a good address,
and was believed by him to possess business habits eminently conducive
to success. The fact that he had once failed was something of a
drawback in his mind, but he had asked Jacob the reason of his
ill-success, which was so plausibly explained, that he considered the
young man as simply unfortunate in not having capital, and nothing else.

"I think Mr. Jones just the right man for you," said the father, as
they walked along.

"I don't know of any one with whom I had rat