arrival of the college men, but the steps and sidewalk were filled. Amzi
looked over the crowd musingly, and beckoned to Fred.

"Get me a box to stand on and a piece of soap--laundry soap. I want
to--"

He waved his cigar toward the window in vague explanation, and Fred
dived into a grocery and came back with the articles demanded. Main
Street's curiosity had never been so whetted and teased. If it had been
any one but Amzi; but it was so unmistakably Amzi! Amzi placed the box
under the window and stood upon it. Then with characteristic nonchalance
he removed the wrapper from the cake of soap, while the crowd surged and
shuffled, filling the street again in its anxiety to miss nothing. Amzi
broke the bar of soap in two, and calmly trimmed half of it to serve as
a crayon. As he began to write upon the glass, his guards were
hard-pressed to hold back the throng that seemed bent upon pushing the
banker through his rival's window. To ease the tension the boys struck
up--

"The pirates of the Wabash,
A jolly crowd are they."

Amzi wrote slowly, in a large round hand, beginning immediately under
the "First National Bank" lettering. The faint tracings of the soap were
legible only a few yards away and the yell-leader began reading for the
benefit of the crowd. And this was Amzi's announcement:--

I hereby guarantee all deposits in this bank.

Interest on Sycamore Traction bonds will be paid here April 1.
Persons from whom I have bought such bonds may redeem same at
price I paid for them, without discount.

A. MONTGOMERY.

When he had completed his first sentence, he paused to inspect it.
Murmurs of astonishment gave way to shouts of approval, and then the
street grew silent as the remainder was read word by word.

"Let her go now, for A. Montgo_meree_!" cried the yell-leader, and while
necks craned and men jostled and pushed, the students cheered. When
Amzi had written, "at the price I paid for them," he made a period, and
then, after a moment's reflection, drew out his handkerchief and erased
it to add--"without discount."

He threw away the soap and began to retrace his steps, but the whole
town seemed now to have massed itself in the intersecting streets. The
nearest students flung themselves together as an escort, and amid cheers
Amzi returned to his own bank, where Phil opened the door and demanded
to know what he had been doing to be cheered as only a football hero is
cheered when hi