evil is to be overcome.

"I must think about this," said James, as he put the money in his
pocket. "If it is true in one case, it is true in another. Mr. Carman
don't correct mistakes that people make in his favor, and he can't
complain when the rule works against him."

But the boy was very far from being in a comfortable state. He felt
that to keep half a dollar would be a dishonest act. Still he could
not make up his mind to return it, at least not then.

James did not return the half-dollar, but spent it to his own
gratification. After he had done this it came suddenly into his head
that Mr. Carman had only been trying him, and he was filled with
anxiety and alarm.

Not long after Mr. Carman repeated the same mistake. James kept the
half-dollar with less hesitation.

"Let him correct his own mistakes," said he resolutely; "that's the
doctrine he acts on with other people, and he can't complain if he
gets paid in the same coin he puts in circulation. I just wanted half
a dollar."

From this time the fine moral sense of James Lewis was blunted. He had
taken an evil counselor into his heart, stimulated a spirit of
covetousness--latent in almost every mind--which caused him to
desire the possession of things beyond his ability to obtain.

James had good business qualifications, and so pleased Mr. Carman by
his intelligence, industry, and tact with customers, that he advanced
him rapidly, and gave him, before he was eighteen years of age, the
most reliable position in the store. But James had learned something
more from his employer than how to do business well. He had learned to
be dishonest. He had never forgotten the first lesson he had received
in this bad science; he had acted upon it, not only in two instances,
but in a hundred, and almost always to the injury of Mr. Carman. He
had long since given up waiting for mistakes to be made in his favor,
but originated them in the varied and complicated transactions of a
large business in which he was trusted implicitly.

James grew sharp, cunning, and skilful; always on the alert; always
bright, and ready to meet any approaches towards a discovery of his
wrong-doing by his employer, who held him in the highest regard.

Thus it went on until James Lewis was in his twentieth year, when the
merchant had his suspicions aroused by a letter that spoke of the
young man as not keeping the most respectable company, and as spending
money too freely for a clerk on a mode