a few minutes later, Watson turned up about seven-thirty--the
savings-man had taken no nourishment at all. With a pair of red ears
and a mouth full of indelible he sat propped up to his savings ledger,
the picture of idiocy. His lips moved unintelligibly as he slowly
crawled up a long row of figures, smearing the sheet en route. At
regular intervals he stopped in the middle of a column, muttered
profane repetitions, and started at the bottom again. Watson cast a
twinkling eye on poor Perry.

"Hadn't you better graze, Port?"

No reply. This was a fight to the finish with Porter. His opponent
had him throttled, but still he was game. The current-account
ledgerman laughed ecstatically to himself. Castle was annoyed.

"Don't laugh, Watson," he said, again using his favorite imperative,
"you'll have to balance the savings yourself anyway."

Bill Watson squinted through the wire at his fellow-clerk.

"The 'Rules and Regulations' put that up to the accountant," he said,
still smiling. Castle ripped a blotted sheet out of his "blotter," but
made no answer.

Evan had hurried through with his mail and his supper, and was now
intensely occupied in adding the interest table. He was shown an
out-of-date table with figures at the bottom of each page, and told
that every month the junior had to add those stereotyped columns. Like
all bank beginners, Nelson did not use his brains. Juniors are taught
(1) to obey, (2) to work, (3) to ask no foolish questions. No matter
how absurd a task appears, perform it without a kick. The
happy-go-lucky boys take a chance and ask questions rather than do what
seems to be unnecessary work; but Evan was the conscientious kind, the
kind that obeys unquestioningly and never lets up until fully convinced
of error. There is a noble six hundred in the bank, as well as the
army; but in the bank the number is greater than six hundred.

Perry was working hard this balance-night, but not from a sense of
duty--he wanted to show the management that he could balance that
savings ledger. Porter was a bulldog; Evan more like a sleigh-dog.

The manager and the teller-accountant left the office about eleven
o'clock. Watson was "out" a small amount in the current ledgers, but
had left them to take down a new set of balances for Porter. Yawning
hopelessly, Perry leaned against the desk, wondering how on earth he
had ever managed to be out $396,492.11 in a ledger with deposits of
only $400,000.