eded well.

When the following spring trade opened, my business increased, and
continued to be good till late in the summer, when I began to think some
of opening an office in Chicago, and buying direct from the
manufacturers, who are almost exclusively located at Providence, Rhode
Island, and Attleboro, Massachusetts.

In July I was at Escanaba, Michigan, and happened to meet Mr. Weil, of
Henry Weil & Co., wholesale jewelers of Chicago; and after half an
hour's conversation with him he showed me a line of gold rings, and sold
and delivered to me right on the spot, nearly five hundred dollars'
worth on four months' time.

I then made known to him my anxiety to open an office in Chicago, and
buy direct. He said he could and would help me to do so, and offered me
desk room in his office till I could afford to rent a room of my own.

The following month I visited the city and called on him, and he gave me
a letter of recommendation to the eastern manufacturers. I also procured
letters from several others, with whom I had had either a business or
social acquaintance, and started for New York, where the manufacturers
all had representatives.

On my way there I stopped at Bronson, Michigan, and at Clyde, Ohio, and
paid all of my old debts, with eight per cent. per annum interest for
the whole time I had owed them. I paid one man two hundred and nine
dollars for a note of one hundred and forty dollars, and another man one
hundred and seventy-five dollars for a note of one hundred and
twenty-two; and still another ninety dollars for a note of fifty,
besides various open accounts for merchandise bought, and for borrowed
money; in all amounting to nearly one thousand dollars.

One gentleman I called on had almost forgotten me as well as the debt I
owed him, and when I said:

"I believe you have an account against me," he looked up over his
spectacles and remarked, as though he considered me foolish to refer to
it:

"Yes, but it has been outlawed for some time."

"Did the law balance your books?" I asked.

"No sir, but it canceled the debt."

"Indeed it did not, so far as I am concerned; and for once I'll prove
myself more powerful than the law by balancing up your books, which is
something it can't or at least won't do."

So saying I produced a roll of bills, and after figuring up and adding
eight per cent. per annum for the entire time the account had been
running, paid the amount over to him.

He said he had of