But I'll bet a quarter you
didn't spell the man's name right," he added, looking at the page of
the sales book where I had entered it. "'Pon my word you did, though!
These Dutchmen's names bothered me so that I used to get almost choked
to death before I could speak one of them."

I had always been a diligent student of the literature of the
sign-boards, and I was tolerably familiar even with German proper
names. It is a good plan for a young man who is going into business to
read the signs in the streets as he passes along.

Mr. Land Limpedon rattled off a long bill of small items, and jumbled
in the technical terms of the trade, with the evident intention of
bothering me; but I was posted, and did not have to ask him to repeat a
single item. I entered the charge, and made out the bill.

"Capital!" exclaimed the young salesman, as he glanced at the bill. "I
couldn't have done it any better myself."

I was willing to believe him as I glanced at the page of the sales book
where he had made entries, and saw what a villanous hand he wrote, and
what blots and blunders he had inflicted upon the innocent white paper.
However, he was good-natured, and did not pretend to be a book-keeper;
so I was willing to forgive him.

"What time does Mr. Collingsby come to the counting-room?" I asked, as
he was looking over the bill.

"The young man comes about nine or ten; but he don't stay here much of
the time. Some days the old gentleman looks in about eleven, and some
days he don't," replied Land, as he left the office.

I was at the desk, and had made my first debit. The situation was
novel, but it was pleasing. It was DESK AND DEBIT, for which I had
been seeking for weeks.

The counting-room was divided into two apartments. In the first, which
occupied the front of the building, were the desk, the safe, the books,
and the papers. All the general business of the firm was transacted
here; and my position was behind the desk in this room. Separated from
it by a partition composed mostly of ground glass windows was the other
apartment, whose interior I had not yet seen. As Mr. Whippleton was the
bookkeeper, and had the general charge of the finances of the firm, I
concluded that the interior room was appropriated to the use of the
dignified senior partner and his father, the special partner, when the
latter chose to honor the establishment with his presence.

While I was taking a deliberate survey of the premises where I was t