take it, for I am not going to make a mistake this time. I want
to show the folks down home who said I would make a failure here that
they didn't _know me_--they counted on the wrong man. No, insurance is
good enough for any one without ambition or ideas, who always wants to
be a clerk, but I'm not that kind of a man."

He was actually calling himself a man now.

"But I think mercantile business or manufacturing or banking would do
for me and would be suited to me. I wonder which is the best! Mercantile
business gives one a good chance to show what he is made of. A man with
ideas ought to succeed in it; that is, if he is pushing and has plenty
of originality. A. T. Stewart, what a fortune he made! He was original,
he did things in a new way, advertised differently, got up new ideas,
and pushed his business with close attention. He started without any
money. I have no money. He was a hard worker, a thinker, an originator,
a pusher. Why shouldn't I be a hard worker, a thinker, an originator and
a pusher? I think I will. But these qualifications will win just as well
in the manufacturing and banking business as in mercantile pursuits, and
if I have them I shall succeed anywhere. I wonder why those people in
Vermont thought I would not succeed here. I wish they could see the
chances I have.

"Well, I do not think I'll take to manufacturing, though here are a
dozen or so first class situations in that line. I might like it well
enough, but I believe banking would suit me better--that is, banking or
the mercantile business, and I don't care much which. Of course banking
will be easier at first than clerking, so I should have more time
for thought and study--time to get right down to the science of the
business. Yes, I believe I'll try banking. Here are four banks that want
a young man. I'll take a look at each, for I want the best one."

Thus young Randolph reasoned, feeling no uneasiness about procuring
a situation, though he had wasted in building foolish air castles so
much valuable time that he had really almost no chance of obtaining a
situation of any kind that day. This he learned to his sorrow a little
later, when he commenced in earnest the very difficult undertaking of
getting employment in a great city.

CHAPTER II.

AN EFFORT TO OBTAIN EMPLOYMENT.

What a common occurrence it is for people to do foolish things. How
often we see a man of education and broad influence--a hard headed man
of sense, who