h profit. If
there is I ought to have two thirds of it as I put in the most capital."

"Yes, as far as cash goes, but brains count too, and I think you will
admit that the ideas have been furnished by me chiefly; besides my
trousers were burned more than yours. But I don't care--divide things as
you like. I am agreed."

II.

AS OFFICE BOY.

When all was definitely settled between Ned and himself, and the assets
of the firm disposed of, Hal felt, for some days, as if he had been to a
funeral. He wandered around the house disconsolately, and then,
suddenly, a new influence crossed his path which promised tangible and
immediate rewards in other fields of labor. Money prizes were offered to
graduates of the High Schools for the best two essays which should be
written, one on the Colonial Policy towards Quakers; the other on the
Value of Republican Government. The money was not considerable, but the
work looked toward political journalism, perhaps on to a career like
Motley's or Bancroft's. Hal had always been an attentive lounger around
newspaper offices on election nights, and in the Representatives Hall
of the State House when any interesting bill was being debated. This he
considered as proof of his love of history; history was the one study,
too, in which he invariably gained the highest marks at school. These
"indications" greatly encouraged him now. He felt impelled to write the
essays, even if they should be failures, because he was really
interested in the subjects and had often talked with his father about
them both.

The closing day of school soon came. The boys marched, sang, received
their diplomas and then threw up their hats, when free and in the
street. Very early the next morning Hal visited three libraries and took
down the titles of innumerable books and sketched two plans for he
intended, as I have before said, to write two essays, each in different
style thus to increase his chance of success. He selected "Nisus Sum"
and "America," as signatures. He furnished himself with a quart bottle
of ink, a box of pens, two dozens of lead pencils and two reams of
paper, and greatly enjoyed these preliminaries.

Thus equipped, he began with no depressing circumstances, except his
mother's words, that if by the first of September he had not decided
what he should like to do, she should decide for him. He went out of
town, as usual, in the hot weeks; he fished, and climbed hills, and got
lost, as usual; but