right to
complain?"

"Others will have, if I have not. If you seize upon my goods, and force
a sale of them for one-fourth of what they are worth, you injure the
interests of my other creditors. They have rights, as well as yourself."

"Let them look after them, then, as I am looking after mine. It is as
much as I can do to see to my own interests. But it's no use for you to
talk. If you can pay the money or give security, well--if I not, things
will have to take their course."

"On this you are resolved?"

"I am."

"Even with the certainty of entirely breaking me up?"

"That, I have before told you, is your own look-out, not mine."

"All I have to say, then, is," remarked Layton, as he turned away,
"that I sincerely hope you may, never be placed in my situation; or, if
so unfortunate, that you may have a more humane man to deal with than I
have."

"Thank you!" was cuttingly replied, "but you needn't waste sympathy on
me in advance. I never expect to be in your position. I would sell the
shirt off of my back before I would allow a man to ask me for a dollar
justly his due, without promptly paying him."

Finding that all his appeals were in vain, Layton retired from the
store of his unfeeling creditor. It was too late, now, to make a
confession of judgment to some other creditor, who would save, by an
amicable sale, the property from sacrifice, and thus secure it for the
benefit of all. Grasper had already obtained a judgment and taken out
an execution, under which a levy had been made by the sheriff, and a
sale was ordered to take place in a week. Nothing could now hinder the
onward progress of affairs to a disastrous crisis, but the payment of
the debt, or its security. As neither the one nor the other was
possible, the sale was advertised, the store of Layton closed, and the
sacrifice made. Goods that cost four times the amount of Grasper's
claim were sold for just enough to cover it, and the residue of the
stock left for the other creditors. These were immediately called
together, and all that the ruined debtor possessed in the world given
up to them.

"Take my furniture and all," said he. "Even after that is added to this
poor remnant, your claims will be very far from satisfied. Had I
dreamed that Grasper was so selfish a man as to disregard every one's
interests in the eager pursuit of his own, I would, long before he had
me in his power, have made a general assignment for the benefit of the
whole. B