18 THE NATURALIST OF THE ST. CROIX 



' ' I knew a boy, son of a poor man, who was faithful 

 to his parents and did every task given him. When but 

 thirteen years old a nearby merchant asked him if he 

 would not like to come to his store as clerk, saying, 

 ' I have been watching you for a year or two and think 

 you would suit me.' He was engaged for a j^ear which 

 he served out faithfully. Another merchant had been 

 watching this boy of fourteen years and engaged him in 

 his employ, where he remained for five years at high 

 wages. About this time a neighboring merchant, whose 

 partner had retired, told this young man that he had 

 been watching him for five years and if he could be 

 spared by his present employer he would give him a 

 good chance and perhaps make him a partner in his 

 business as soon as he became of age. This was arranged 

 and the next year, 1839, when he became twenty-one years 

 old, he was made a partner in the best and largest lumber 

 concern on the St. Croix river." Then, as was Mr. 

 Boardman's way in all his entertaining writings, he 

 enforced the moral of this incident by saying : ' ' Did not 

 this boy make money every day when the rich men were 

 watching him ? His faithfulness to little things — to all 

 things that came in his way — was what made a fortune 

 for him, as it would for any other boy who acted similarly. 

 Somebody will tell other somebodies, until the boy's 

 character is known as far as he is known." 



Such is a true picture of the starting in business life 

 of George A. Boardman, from his own pen. The man 

 who had watched the boy so closely and taken so deep 

 an interest in him on account of his faithfulness to his 

 employer's interests was Mr. William Todd, one of the 

 early pioneers and business men on the St. Croix river. 



