be game."

He looked very frankly and earnestly into his father's eyes.

"Wild oats sown! My boy, after all!" thought the father. "Respected his
mother! Well, didn't I respect mine? Of course--and let him! It is good
principles. It is right. He has health; that is better than schooling."

In place of the shock of the son's will against his, he was feeling it as
a force which might yet act in unison with his. He expanded with the
pride of the fortune-builder. He told how a city within a city is created
and run; of tentacles of investment and enterprise stretching beyond the
store in illimitable ambition; how the ball of success, once it was set
rolling, gathered bulk of its own momentum and ever needed closer
watching to keep it clear of obstacles.

"And I am to stand on top like a gymnast on a sphere or be rolled under,"
thought Jack. "And I'll have cloth of gold breeches and a balancing pole
tipped with jewels; but--but--"

"A good listener, and that is a lot!" thought the father, happily.

Jack had interrupted neither with questions nor vagaries. He was gravely
attentive, marveling over this story of a man's labor and triumph.

"And the way to learn the business is not from talks by me," said his
father, finally. "You cannot begin at the top."

"No! no!" said Jack, aghast. "The top would be quite too insecure, too
dizzy to start with."

"Right!" the father exclaimed, decidedly. "You must learn each department
of itself, and then how it works in with the others. It will be drudgery,
but it is best--right at the bottom!"

"Yes, father, where there is no danger of a fall."

"You will be put on an apprentice salary of ten dollars a week."

"And I'll try to earn it."

"Of course, you understand that the ten is a charge against the store.
That's business. But as for a private allowance, you are John Wingfield's
son and--"

"I think I have enough of my own for the present," Jack put in.

"As you wish. But if you need more, say the word. And you shall name the
department where you are to begin. Did you get any idea of which you'd
choose from looking the store over to-day?"

"That's very considerate of you!" Jack answered. He was relieved and
pleased and made his choice quickly, though he mentioned it half timidly
as if he feared that it might be ridiculous, so uncertain was he about
the rules of apprenticeship.

"You see I have been used to the open air and I'd like a little time in
which to acclimatize m