t,' answered the
doctor. 'I'm willing to guarantee him to any extent. He's "all wool
and a yard wide" in everything he does, and, if you don't find his
lemonade is pure stuff, made of real lemons, my name is not James
Streeter. That little fellow has the respect and confidence of
everybody who knows him, and I'd trust him with anything I've got.'"

"That's all right as far as it goes," interrupted the grocer, "but he
hasn't made as much money as Ab. Ab has furnished straight goods, too,
and has never misrepresented things."

"Yes," answered the druggist, "but the almighty dollar has been his
sole aim and ambition. He has been selfish and miserly in the pursuit
of it, and money is all he has gained. Now Todd has been industrious
enough, and gone about his business quite as faithfully as Ab, but
instead of putting his head down like a dog on the scent of a rabbit,
he has had some thought of the people he passed. I like that in a
business man. Aside from any ethical consideration, a man makes more
in the long run if he cares for the good-will of his customers as well
as their cash."

"What have you to say on the subject, Mr. Brown?" asked the judge,
turning to the proprietor of the livery-stable.

"Well, my choice is for Chicky Wiggins," answered the man, tipping
back his chair and thrusting his hands in his pockets. "I may not have
as much book-learning as these other gentlemen, but there's one thing
that I do know when I see it, and that's a good steady gait either of
a horse or a man. Now Chicky is no thoroughbred, and he'll probably
never beat the record of them that is, but I've kept an eye on him
this summer, and I tell you he's developing the traits that win every
time. Last spring, when the judge made this offer, he was as skittish
and unreliable as a young colt. I wouldn't have trusted him around the
corner to do an errand for me. I've known him ever since he put on the
district messenger uniform, and I wouldn't have given one of his own
brass buttons for him. I've come across him too many times, when he'd
been sent on an errand, stopping to play marbles and fly kites with
the other boys.

"But since he's took up with that motto of his, he's settled down in
the harness as steady as a ten-year-old horse. Now I notice if there's
anything specially important to be done, Chicky's the one they pick
out. There's something almost pitiful in the way he's been trying,
when you recollect he has never had any raising,