st as good a chance as anybody."

"Have you got any tickets in the lottery?"

"Yes, I bought a fifth of a ticket yesterday."

"Where do they sell? 'em?" asked Sam.

His companion told him.

"I guess I'll go round and buy one," he said. "It must be better than
putting the money in the savings-bank."

"That's what I think. You may not get a big prize the first time, to
be sure, but it's worth waiting for."

Sam was not much of a financier, nor did he know how little real
chance there was of drawing the large prize he desired. He did not
know that it was about the most foolish use he could make of his
money. He was deceived by the consideration that somebody would win
the prize, and that his chance was as good as anybody. It is always
unlucky for a boy or young man when he yields for the first time to
the fatal fascination of the lottery. He may fail time after time, but
continue to hug the delusion that the next time will bring him luck.
There are clerks in New York and other large cities who have not only
squandered all their own savings, but abstracted money from their
employers, led on by this ruinous passion.

During his noon intermission Sam went round to the lottery office, and
returned with the coveted ticket.

He put it away with great complacency, and gave himself up to dreams
of future wealth. If he could only win that twenty thousand dollars,
how rich he would be! How he would triumph over Henry, with his poor
thirty-five dollars in the savings-bank!

"Poor Henry! I'll do something for him, if I only win the prize," he
thought. "Maybe I'll buy out some big business, and make him my clerk,
with a good salary. Won't it be jolly?"

No doubt it would, but Sam was counting chickens that were not very
likely to be hatched.

There was another bad consequence of his purchase. It made him lavish
of the money he had left. It amounted to nine dollars and some odd
cents. Had he followed Henry's advice, a part of this would have been
deposited in the bank; but Sam's dreams of wealth led him to look upon
it as a mere trifle, hardly worth taking into account. So day by day
it melted away till there was none left.

CHAPTER XI.

HENRY BECOMES A MERCHANT.

While Sam was impatiently awaiting the drawing of the Havana lottery,
Henry; too, made an investment, but of an entirely different
character.

He was in the employ of a shipping house, which dispatched vessels to
different parts of the world with as