it required no effort of the mind to add six
and five, four and seven, nine and three, eight and two, or nine and
one; and the mental process was eleven, twenty-two, thirty-four,
forty-four, fifty-four.

I had practised this system until I could carry it along as rapidly as
I could by adding a single figure at a time. Mr. Whippleton made his
figures in duplicate when he wrote them, and added one himself to prove
that I was right or wrong. Before he was half done, I had my result.

"You are wrong," said he, decidedly, when he had finished. "I would
rather have you use twice as much time, and have the result right, than
do it quick, and have it wrong. Accuracy first, and speed next."

That was just what my father had always told me, and I was rather
mortified at the failure. I went over the columns again, with the same
result.

"I get it so again, sir," I replied, when I had added the columns in an
opposite direction from that taken the first time.

Mr. Whippleton added his figures a second time; but there was still two
hundred dollars' difference in the two amounts.

"You add mine and I will add yours," said he, as we exchanged papers.

This time I made his figures come out right; but I was also astonished
to find that he too made mine come out correctly.

"I see it, sir," I added. "In the fourth item the five on your paper is
a three on mine, and we are both right."

"Exactly so! You'll do, young man, though I should like to see you make
out a bill. We sell Tobey Tinkum forty-two thousand Michigan pine
boards, clear, at thirty dollars;" and he proceeded to give me several
items, which I could not have written down if I had not been a
carpenter, for the technical terms would have bothered and defeated me.

When my late employer, Mr. Clinch, found that I had some knowledge of
arithmetic and accounts, he used to set me at work on his bills, to see
if they were cast up correctly. This experience had prepared me for
precisely the ordeal I was at present undergoing. I wrote the bill as
handsomely as I could, though without straining over it, and figured up
the prices, extending them and adding them. The examiner seemed to be
very much pleased, and wanted to know where I had learned so much about
the lumber business. I explained, and told him I had used about all my
evenings for two years in studying.

"You'll do," said he. "Now, what wages do you expect?"

"I don't know; what do you pay?"

"Well, we pay three