Year: 1870

dealings with others, we are miserably
poor, heaping up dross instead of gold.
am very sorry to see you taking
advantage of a poor mans necessity"


Nonsense !" said Mr.. Rankin, con-
lemptuously. "Your nice distinctions OF
right and wrong will not bear the wear
and tear of business"


They will bear the light OF eternal
truth and whatever can survive that or
deal can bear the best of this poor,
pcrishable world. According to your ex-
pressed ideas ofconducting business, you
make it sin to accumulate wealth"


"lIow so"


IF there is no way of making business
remunerative through strict integrity,
then it is wrong to accumulate wealth;
and il wrong to accumulate it wrong to
possessit Thus would you sweep away
the moral right to engage in any enter
prise dependent upon money for advance
ment. All branches OF business are not
equally emolumental; man is free 10
choose


"Ah, my little theorist nothing short
OF theocracy could ever bring men up
to your Standard


II would have every man heed the
whiSperings of the conscience which God
has planted in his breast. Had you given
Joe Miller terms n little easier you would
be better satisfied with yourself, my hus-
band you know the conditions are hard. >


ale went away satisfied in all, save
wanting his pay on every twenty
cords. But knew he would not cut on
such terms half as much. They w III have
to work 4 little harder but when they get
| it done, they will have more money than
ever they had nj once. 1t fine chance
for Joe Miller TO pay for his land. in
tend to give them all the chopping they
can do for year. but he is n slow, in
/ decisive sort OF fellow-one of your
honest sort. wife. Bah! despise such
men. They are mere fungi in everything
they undertake that requires tact and
perseverance-always poor"


The victims OF too many good bargains
perhaps"


Mr.. Rankin bit his lip in chagrin.
Your conclusions are forced and cruel,
continued his wife. III you can afford
To paw Thomas Barucs one dollar per
cord-sud vou are not the man to pay it
unless you find it profitable-you can
and ought TO pay Joe Miller the same.
He has a large, needy family, and prob
apply felt compelled to make the most OF
the opportunity"


Il tell you, wife, he was delighted
when he cast up the amount, and found
that he could so nearly pay for his land.
| told him would give him on such terms
all the chopping he can do"


Therein lies another wrong. You
held up glittering temptation that the
poor man could not resist. Alas tor poor
human nature, Il seemed SO easy TO
reach out his hand and grasp the-bubble )
for bubble it is. John Rankin, you know
he cannot fill that contract without dis
tressing his family, and you could. rs well
as not, have given him more time, as you
will not draw the wood before next fall
or winter


.IIe can ill it if he tries hard"


You have made no allowance for any
DELAYS that may occur. and the mere fact
of your putting the price ut scventy-iive
cents in case of his failing TO have il ready
| in the time specified, shows that you en-
/ tertaned a doubt, at least, about it.
/ Twenty.iour dollars 10 that poor man is
a deal To lose, and there is no telling what
privalions the family may have 10 endure
by his trying to fill the contract. You
will pay Thomas Barnes forty dollars
more for the same amount of work than
YOU will Joe Miller, and he is not half so
needy. The difference in drawing is
worth something to you, according to
your own estimate. to say nothing of the
wood rs it stands"


That is nothing 10 him, rs he is going
to clear his land, whether have the wood
or not"


There was anger in his tones, for he
had sienced just such thoughts in his
own breast.


Mrs. Rankin could not see him deliber-
ately wronging y poor man without re-
monstrating, though she knew from bitter
experience that to her husband her words
were as sounding brass.


1T may be nothing to him." she said,
"but to you know it is. He has taken
I'D n piece of wood land, and 10 make the
first payment, has paid out the last dollar
he possesses. To make out the required
amount he sold his COW. In The contract.
you give him fifty days. and if the two
hundred cords are not ready for measure
ment in that time, you are to pay him
only seventy-ive cents"


That was put in as spur, for want
the wood, and would have agreed to pay
him one dollar. rather than not have it {;
though Iexpect man to do as he agrees {;
l always do"


"Yes; but you are very careful as TO
what you agree" said his wife, with u
meaning smile.


"Ah! therein lies one great secret OF
snccnss i'm hnsiness. | made sufficient al