ne had pointed and about
these every one had talked until, in the public mind, they had
multiplied in number and assumed a proportion that the facts did not
bear out.

Here and there a relative "played a favorite," but even with the push
and influence behind him "the lucky one," as he was termed, did not
seem to make progress, unless he had merit. It was not long before Bok
discovered that the possession of sheer merit was the only real factor
that actually counted in any of the places where he had been employed
or in others which he had watched; that business was so constructed and
conducted that nothing else, in the face of competition, could act as
current coin. And the amazing part of it all to Bok was how little
merit there was. Nothing astonished him more than the low average
ability of those with whom he worked or came into contact.

He looked at the top, and instead of finding it over-crowded, he was
surprised at the few who had reached there; the top fairly begged for
more to climb its heights.

For every young man, earnest, eager to serve, willing to do more than
he was paid for, he found ten trying to solve the problem of how little
they could actually do for the pay received.

It interested Bok to listen to the talk of his fellow-workers during
luncheon hours and at all other times outside of office hours. When
the talk did turn on the business with which they were concerned, it
consisted almost entirely of wages, and he soon found that, with
scarcely an exception, every young man was terribly underpaid, and that
his employer absolutely failed to appreciate his work. It was
interesting, later, when Bok happened to get the angle of the employer,
to discover that, invariably, these same lamenting young men were those
who, from the employer's point of view, were either greatly overpaid or
so entirely worthless as to be marked for early decapitation.

Bok felt that this constant thought of the wages earned or deserved was
putting the cart before the horse; he had schooled himself into the
belief that if he did his work well, and accomplished more than was
expected of him, the question of wages would take care of itself. But,
according to the talk on every side, it was he who had the cart before
the horse. Bok had not only tried always to fill the particular job
set for him, but had made it a rule at the same time to study the
position just ahead, to see what it was like, what it demanded, and
then,