ll for it myself," she replied.

"Very well, Miss Ketcham."

The old cashier was knocked topsy-turvy at receiving a check for such a
sum from a young typewriter. As they were going out Gertie Clayton came
by and said:

"They told me you had opened a bank here, Bob, and I wanted to see if it
was true," and she looked up at the sign on the big plate glass front.

Callie caught her hand, kissed her as girls do, and said:

"Oh, Gertie, it's just too grand for anything in there! Would you
believe it, I am the first depositor on their books!"

"I wish I could put money in the bank, but I can't. It takes all I can
make to keep a roof over our heads."

"Why don't you strike old Bowles for a raise in your salary?" Bob asked
her.

"It is useless. He told me to-day he would not want me after this week."

"The deuce he did! What's the matter?" Bob blurted out.

"I am sure I don't know. He has never found fault with my work, He said
I could go back to Bryant's, as he had said I could always find a place
there."

"Well, don't you go there," said Bob. "I'll see if I can't find another
place for you."

"I am such a trouble to you, Bob."

"Indeed you are not."

Fred and Callie had gone on ahead, and Bob walked with Gertie. They
passed Broker Bryant on Broadway, and Gertie gave a shudder as she saw
him, saying to Bob:

"I am afraid of that man. He looks at me sometimes as though he wanted
to kill me."

"He is bad enough to do it," Bob said. "He hates me like poison, and
would poison me if he could."

"I believe he paid Mr. Bowles to discharge me."

"Why, what good would that do him?"

"He thinks I'll go back to his office if I can't get a place anywhere
else."

"Well, if you can't get a place, you can have deskroom with us and do
chance work. You must not go back to him," and Bob was very earnest in
his way as he spoke.

Bob saw her to her home and then hastened to his own humble domicile.
When he got there he found the sidewalk in front of the tenement piled
up with furniture. Two families were being ejected for non-payment of
rent--$9 each. The landlord was there directing the officers. Bob looked
on for a few minutes, and then quietly handed a ten-dollar bill to each
of the two mothers, saying:

"Go across the street and get rooms. You can get 'em for $8 over there."

They both sprang up and showered blessings on his head and curses at the
landlord.

One day a week later Bob received a tip from Gertie