them. He used to say that while his captains
might save him money by deviating from instructions once, yet they
would cause loss in ninety-nine other cases. Once, when a captain
returned and had saved him several thousand dollars by buying his cargo
of cheese in another port than that in which he had been instructed to
buy, Girard was so enraged, although he was several thousand dollars
richer, that he discharged the captain on the spot, notwithstanding the
latter had been faithful in his service for many years, and thought he
was saving his employer a great deal of money by deviating from his
instructions.

Girard lived in a dingy little house, poorer than that occupied by many
of his employees. He married a servant girl of great beauty, but she
proved totally unfitted for him, and died at last in the insane asylum.

Girard never lost a ship, and many times what brought financial ruin to
many others, as the War of 1812, only increased his wealth. What
seemed luck with him was only good judgment and promptness in seizing
opportunities, and the greatest care and zeal in improving them to
their utmost possibilities.

Luck is not God's price for success: that is altogether too cheap, nor
does he dicker with men.

The mathematician tells you that if you throw the dice, there are
thirty chances to one against your turning up a particular number, and
a hundred to one against your repeating the same throw three times in
succession: and so on in an augmenting ratio. What is luck? Is it, as
has been suggested, a blind man's buff among the laws? a ruse among the
elements? a trick of Dame Nature? Has any scholar defined luck? any
philosopher explained its nature? any chemist shown its composition?
Is luck that strange, nondescript fairy, that does all things among men
that they cannot account for? If so, why does not luck make a fool
speak words of wisdom; an ignoramus utter lectures on philosophy?

Many a young man who has read the story of John Wanamaker's romantic
career has gained very little inspiration or help from it toward his
own elevation and advancement, for he looks upon it as the result of
good luck, chance, or fate. "What a lucky fellow," he says to himself
as he reads; "what a bonanza he fell into." But a careful analysis of
Wanamaker's life only enforces the same lesson taught by the analysis
of most great lives, namely, that a good mother, a good constitution,
the habit of hard work, indomitable ene