FIRST DAYS IN WALL STREET 35 



long-forgotten name which dazzled me with a 

 price that equalled eight weeks of my wages. I 

 did my best, but even my country appetite failed 

 to soak up the rent of a Broadway store, and the 

 deficit grew until I had to serve legal papers on 

 my friend, the tenant, and go back to my pie man. 



My working hours were from nine to four, with 

 my chief duty while in the office to stand at my 

 desk or sit beside it. I tried to coin these vacant 

 hours, and contracted to address a lot of circulars. 

 The work was honorably paid for, but my cus- 

 tomer's refusal to renew the contract was ex- 

 pressed in unqualified terms. 



I took the savings I had reserved for clothing 

 and invested in a course at a writing academy. 

 My hand was propped up with a stick to hold it 

 in proper position, and if I moved a muscle or 

 changed my expression during the lecture that 

 followed I was rebuked for lack of attention. I 

 graduated from the school with a number of new 

 defects grafted on a hand already abundantly 

 supplied. Yet those were happy days, often re- 

 called to me by Whittier's words : 



