Putnam patriot., 1913-05-02
HARE AND TORTOISE
Another instance Where Honesty Proved the Best Policy
 and Won Out.
By GEORGE ELMER COBB.

Tortoise" Mowbray they called him al school. in contradistinction to Hare" Snyder; and never were two sobriquers more fairly earned. Shy der was the particular bright boy of the class. and always at the top. while Tortoise" Mowbray Jagged respect ably near the bottom of it. When Hare" Snyder took advantage of the honor code to cover his cuffs with hie- reglyphics and passed his examina- ton for college with honors. Tor toise" Mowbray got in by the skin of his teeth and kept his soul un- sullied.
 After college 1t was the same. Hare Snyder and Tortoise" Now bray obtained positions in the same corporation. Snyder through pull. Mowbray because the straightforward. clean-cut appearance of the young man favorably impressed Henry Da- venrich. the president And Snyder went up and up by means of sundry devious and doubtful short cuts. while Tortoise" Mowbray remained pretty much where he had started. in the accounting office.
 The hare" made money and spent it reckIessly. while the tortoise" put his aside. added to it, and lived modestly and soberly. They were always friends of sort, for Mowbray was patronized by Snyder and never openly resented il.
 The test of this friendship came when they both fell in love with the same girl. Cynthia Lanfrey was a niece of Davenrich and lived in a big building on Madison avenue. where she kept house for him. At this period the hare and the tor. toise" had been working with the cor poration for nearly ten years. Snyder was pretty near the top. thanks to the pull aforementioned and was a constant visitor at Davenrich's s home Mowbray was invited casually, on some grand occasion; but Cynthia liked him and he was invited again.
 Then. one evening. Mowbray told Cynthia his story in a plain. slow spoken. manly fashion. He had loved her for long time. he said simply, and he was quite sure he would never love anyone else. He could not ask her 10 share his thirty-five dollars a week. but could he dare ask her to wait?
 And Cynthia had laughed little and cried little and treated him like big, overgrown school boy. Somehow everybody treated Mowbray pretty much in the same fashion.
 You're too late" she said. with a little sob and following laugh. "James-Mr. Snyder-asked me yes- terday"
 But that was always the "tortoise's" way. He was always one lap behind the hare" So. because he had not expected anything different, he went away Next day Snyder, who had somehow guessed his secret, began laughing at him. He told some of the men in the ofiee. and they laugh ed at him, too. But these men were toadies of the hare"
 It was about this time that the tortoise was temporarily placed in charge of the books of enc of these toadies and discovered something that made him sit up all night, think ing. In the morning he went straight to Snyder and told him what he had found. Snyder leaped out of his chair.
 My God. Tortoise he yelled. did old Davenrich put you in charge of the bookss- Then he came to his senses
 You'd have done the same if you'd been in my place. Tortoise, he whined. How did you suppose was going tc keep up my style of living on seventy five dollars a week. Be sides, t wasn't really crime. for Davenrieh is going to make way for me next year. and he owns half the stock in the concern Then, when I've married Cynthia. fl will be practically my own business. won't it' What are you going to do about it,'
 These defalcations." said the tor toise" slowly. cienching his flats for somehow he always hated to hear the hare pronounce Cynss:As name