30 WALL STREET AND THE WILD 3 



didn't know the writers of books as I know them 

 now, and my faith that they understood what 

 thev talked about was childlike and bland. I 

 knew what happened to good boys in the great 

 city when employers recognized their merits. I 

 saw before me an invitation to house and home, 

 a salary that might touch four figures and the 

 promise of a partnership at the end of the year. 



Even now my hand shrinks from recording 

 the rest of the dream, for oh, I was a goose! 

 When in later years I talked with imaginative 

 youth from the employer's standpoint, the mem- 

 ory of my own foolish dream often shattered the 

 demeanor that should preserve the perspective 

 between employer and employed. Mr. Mar- 

 quand's next words punctured the iridescent bub- 

 ble my fancy had blown. 



"I expected to pay a boy a dollar, but I will 

 make your wages a dollar and a half a week." 



Gone was the golden dream, vanished the 

 Aladdin palace, for I had no thought of refusing 

 the offer. Indeed, in my punctured pride I 

 wondered if I could be worth even a dollar a week 



