"Albert Gregory," said the merchant, "I occupied the seat in the car in front of you last evening. I heard you exulting and wickedly boasting how you had deceived a distressed old man. Mr. Randal, is this the boy who lied to you, and caused you to get out at the wrong station?"
Mr. Randal looked earnestly at Albert. "I declare! Now I remember him.
It is! I"m sure it is."
It was useless for Albert to attempt any vindication of himself. His stammered excuses stuck in his throat, and he was glad to hide his mortification by an early escape. Crestfallen, he slunk away, taking all his "testimonials" with him.
"Lyman," said Mr. Conway, kindly, "I shall be very glad to employ you in my store. You shall have good pay if you do well, and I am sure you will. You may begin work at once."
Lyman"s eyes danced with joy as he left the counting-room to receive his instructions from the head clerk.
Mr. Conway paid to Mr. Harrington the money owed him by Mr. Randal, and a heavy load was lifted from the good old farmer"s heart. He remained a visitor two or three days in Mr. Conway"s house, where he was treated with the utmost deference and attention. Mr. Conway also purchased for him a suit of warm clothes, and an overcoat, and sent his confidential clerk with him on his return journey to see him safely home. Nor was good Mrs. Randal forgotten. She received a handsome present in money from Mr. Conway, and a message full of grateful affection. Nothing ever after occurred to disturb the lives of the aged and worthy pair.
Albert Gregory obtained an excellent situation in New York, but his false character, and his wanton disregard of others" feelings and rights, made him as hateful to his employers as to all his a.s.sociates, and he soon found it desirable to seek another place.
He has changed places many times since, and his career has been an unhappy one--another example of the penalty of frivolous habits and a heartless nature.
Lyman Dean is now a successful merchant, a partner of Mr. Conway, and occupies a high position in society, as an honorable, enterprising man.
What is it that gives to the plainest face The charm of the n.o.blest beauty?
Not the thought of the duty of happiness, But the happiness of duty.
UNFORGOTTEN WORDS
"Have you examined that bill, James?"
"Yes, sir."
"Anything wrong?"
"I find two errors."
"Ah, let me see."
The lad handed his employer a long bill that had been placed on his desk for examination.
"Here is an error in the calculation of ten dollars, which they have made against themselves; and another of ten dollars in the footing."
"Also against themselves?"
"Yes, sir."
The merchant smiled in a way that struck the lad as peculiar.
"Twenty dollars against themselves," he remarked in a kind of pleasant surprise. "Trusty clerks they must have!"
"Shall I correct the figures?" asked the lad.
"No, let them correct their own mistakes. We don"t examine bills for other people"s benefit," replied the merchant. "It will be time to rectify those errors when they find them out. All so much gain as it now stands."
The boy"s delicate moral sense was shocked at so unexpected a remark.
He was the son of a poor widow, who had given him to understand that to be just was the duty of man.
Mr. Carman, the merchant in whose employment he had been for only a few months, was an old friend of his father, and a person in whom he reposed the highest confidence. In fact, James had always looked upon him as a kind of model man; and when Mr. Carman agreed to take him into his store, he felt that great good fortune was in his way.
"Let them correct their own mistakes." These words made a strong impression on the mind of James Lewis. When first spoken by Mr.
Carman, and with the meaning then involved, he felt, as we have said, shocked; but as he turned them over again in his thoughts, and connected their utterance with a person who stood so high in his mother"s estimation, he began to think that perhaps the thing was fair enough in business. Mr. Carman was hardly the man to do wrong. A few days after James had examined the bill, a clerk from the house by which it had been rendered, called for settlement. The lad, who was present, waited with interest to see whether Mr. Carman would speak of the error. But he made no remark. A check for the amount of the bill rendered, was filled up, and a receipt taken.
"Is that right?" James asked himself this question. His moral sense said no; but the fact that Mr. Carman had so acted, bewildered his mind.
"It may be the way in business"--so he thought to himself--"but it don"t look honest. I wouldn"t have believed it of him."
Mr. Carman had a kind of way with him that won the boy"s heart, and naturally tended to make him judge of whatever he might do in a most favorable manner.
"I wish he had corrected that error," he said to himself a great many times when thinking in a pleased way of Mr. Carman, and his own good fortune in having been received into his employment. "It don"t look right, but it may be in the way of business."
One day he went to the bank and drew the money for a check. In counting it over he found that the teller had paid him fifty dollars too much, so he went back to the counter and told him of his mistake.
The teller thanked him, and he returned to the store with the consciousness in his mind of having done right.
"The teller overpaid me by fifty dollars," he said to Mr. Carman, as he handed him the money.
"Indeed," replied the latter, a light breaking over his countenance; and he hastily counted the bank bills.
The light faded as the last bill left his fingers.
"There"s no mistake, James." A tone of disappointment was in his voice.
"Oh, I gave him back the fifty dollars. Wasn"t that right?"
"You simpleton!" exclaimed Mr. Carman. "Don"t you know that bank mistakes are never corrected? If the teller had paid you fifty dollars short he would not have made it right."
The warm blood mantled the cheek of James under this reproof. It is often the case that more shame is felt for a blunder than a crime. In this instance the lad felt a sort of mortification at having done what Mr. Carman was pleased to call a silly thing, and he made up his mind that if they should ever overpay him a thousand dollars at the bank, he should bring the amount to his employer, and let him do as he pleased with the money.
"Let people look after their own mistakes," said Mr. Carman.
James Lewis pondered these things in his heart. The impression they made was too strong ever to be forgotten. "It may be right," he said, but he did not feel altogether satisfied.
A month or two after the occurrence of that bad mistake, as James counted over his weekly wages, just received from Mr. Carman, he discovered that he was paid half a dollar too much.
The first impulse of his mind was to return the half-dollar to his employer, and it was on his lips to say, "You have given me half a dollar too much, sir," when the unforgotten words, "Let people look after their own mistakes," flashing upon his thoughts, made him hesitate. To hold a parley with evil is to be overcome.
"I must think about this," said James, as he put the money in his pocket. "If it is true in one case, it is true in another. Mr. Carman don"t correct mistakes that people make in his favor, and he can"t complain when the rule works against him."
But the boy was very far from being in a comfortable state. He felt that to keep half a dollar would be a dishonest act. Still he could not make up his mind to return it, at least not then.