from men and
boys:

"There's the auction man. We'll have a circus to-night; he can talk a
man to death in five minutes. Wonder what he's got in that box."

In about thirty days from the day I made my first sale of jewelry I
arrived at Cheboygan, Michigan; and upon taking an inventory of stock
and cash, found I had cleared just six hundred and twenty-five dollars
over and above all our expenses.

On calling for my mail at this place I received a letter from the
proprietor of the wholesale house I had been dealing with, requesting me
to come to Chicago at once, as they had a very important proposition to
make to me. When I returned to the hotel I met my wife in the hall and
said: "Flo., I guess _G. & S._ want to take me in partnership with them;
at any rate they have written me to come to Chicago, and I think we'd
better start at once."

We boarded a small steamer for Traverse City, where we took the steamer
"City of Traverse," and after about forty-eight hours' ride arrived in
Chicago, and I immediately called on the firm with a feeling of almost
absolute assurance that thirty minutes later would find me a member of
the concern. After shaking hands and passing the time of day, one of the
firm called me into his private office and informed me that they had
concluded to put me on the road at a stipulated salary.

"But I never work on a salary. It's against my principles and ideas of
business."

"Yet you would certainly prefer a sure thing, wouldn't you, Johnston?"

"No, sir; not a bit of it. I wouldn't snap my finger for a sure thing.
There is no fun, excitement or satisfaction in a sure thing, and worse
still, no money in it."

"Well, you wouldn't refuse an extra good offer, would you?"

"Yes, sir, I think I would."

"Do you mean to say that money wouldn't hire you?"

"Oh, no. I don't say that."

"Well, now just stop to consider, Johnston, how many years you have been
working for yourself; and how much are you worth?"

"Indeed, Mr. S., I am worth more than you are, to-day."

"How so?"

"Experience."

"Experience? Do you claim that as capital?"

"Indeed I do, sir, and worth more than all your store. I have been
several years getting ready to make money, while you have been making it
before you got ready. I have had too many ups and downs in my early life
not to be able to profit by at least some of them sooner or later; and I
can't afford now to go to work for you on a salary, and give you the
benefi