hop Wallingford found Mr. Albert Wright at a
foot-power circular-saw, with his hair and his eyebrows and his
mustache full of the same fine, white wood dust that covered his
overalls and jumper; and up over the saw, against the wall, was tacked
the time-yellowed placard of a long-since-eaten strawberry festival.
With his eyes and his mind upon this placard, Mr. Wallingford
explained his new boon to humanity: the great opportunity for a
four-year loan, without interest or security, of from ten dollars to
five thousand.

"But this is nothing more nor less than a lottery, under another
name," objected Mr. Wright, poising an accusing finger, his eyes, too,
unconsciously straying to the strawberry festival placard.

"Not a bit of it," denied Wallingford, shocked beyond measure. "It is
merely a mutual benefit association, where a large number of people
pool their small sums of money to make successive large ones. For
instance, suppose that a hundred of you should band together to put in
one dollar a week, the entire hundred dollars to go to a different
member each week? Each one would be merely saving up a hundred
dollars, but, in place of every one of the entire hundred of you
having to wait a hundred weeks to save his hundred dollars, one of you
would be saving it in one week, while the longest man in would only
have to pay the hundred weeks. It is merely a device, Mr. Wright, for
concentrating the savings of a large number of people."

Mr. Wright was forcibly impressed with Wallingford's illustration,
but, being a very bright man, he put that waving, argumentative
finger immediately upon a flaw.

"Half of that hundred people would not stay through to the end, and
somebody would get left," he objected, well pleased with himself.

"Precisely," agreed Mr. Wallingford. "That is just what our company
obviates. Every man who drops out helps the man who stays in, by not
having any claim upon the redemption fund. The redemption fund saves
us from being a lottery. When you have paid in two hundred and fifty
dollars your bond matures and you get your money back."

"Out of--" hesitated Mr. Wright, greatly perplexed.

"The redemption fund. It is supplied from returned loans."

Again the bright Mr. Wright saw a radical objection.

"Half of those people would not pay back their loans," said he.

"We figure that a certain number would not pay," admitted Wallingford,
"but there would be a larger proportion than you think who wo