DAWS ON '11- FORTUNE HUNTER. eon / DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER DAWSON '11 FORTUNE HUNTER BY JOHN T. McCUTCHEON PICTURED BY THE AUTHOR NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1912 COPYRIGHT 1911, 1912 BY JOHN T. McCUTCHEON The cartoons in this book have appeared serially in the CHICAGO TRIBUNE DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER OW, don't you worry about me, Mother. I'll get a job all right, and before you know it I'll be driving back here in a hansom hack drawn by four white horses. And, besides, Chicago isn't a long way off, and I'll be home on a visit before you'll realise I'm gone. I'll write every week and 2O26S54 2 DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER report progress. . . . Certainly, if I need any I'll let you know. . . . Well, I'm not going to get into any trouble, Dad, so you needn't worry about that. . . . All right, I'll promise to tell you if I do. . . . Yep, Mother, every night, one chapter. You put it in my grip, did you ? . . . Sure, Sis, I'll send you a set of the prettiest ones I can find, all in colours ; and say, kid brother, as soon as I can, I'll send you the baseball mask. . . . Now, please don't, Mother; I'll soon see you again. Good-bye, all; I'm off to make my fortune and I must hurry before the rest of the 'n crop get all the good DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER DEAR MOTHER: I arrived safely and am living in a boarding-house down on Wabash Avenue, one of the prin- cipal streets of Chicago. I secured my room at a great bar- gain for the landlady but it does very well for sleeping pur- poses. I'm sending you a rough sketch of it. My home life is simple. I eat in a little restaurant near by I call it a near- 4 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER restaurant but the cooking is not as good as it used to be. So far I haven't created a great stir in the city, but I've suc- ceeded, by alert activity, in keeping from being run over by the street cars. This has kept me so busy that I haven't yet had time to secure a position. But the job-hunting crusade is in full blast just the same. I've struck sixteen different employers, but they seem to be too busy to be interested in a would-be wooer of Mammon from the tall grass. About half tell me to call again, and when I do they have left on their summer vacation. One man gave me some good advice, told me to aim high, etc. Perhaps I'll get work on the seventeenth floor of some building. Still, this job hunting is good practice, and in time I expect to be the most expert job hunter in Chicago, if experience counts for anything. Everything is hustle, bustle, and rustle up here, and the energy in the air is so infectious that I find myself busier than I've ever been before. My health is so good that I have to do a lot of walking to keep it under control. Consequently, I do not patronise the street cars, much to the dismay of the magnates. My funds are lasting pretty well and I don't apprehend hard times for some days yet. By that time I expect to establish friendly relations with the business end of some concern that needs a young man of my height and complexion. There I'll lay the corner stone of a swollen fortune that will put the Dawson tribe on Easy Street. Don't worry about me. I'm feeling great and hope to report grand results in my next letter. I enclose some post- DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 5 cards for Sis and send you all oceans of what requires no extra postage. I shall now peruse the evening paper and then repair to my luxurious boudoir. This is James' evening out, so I'll have to undress myself. CHARLEY. DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER DEAR MOTHER: Things are coming along beautifully. I haven't quite reached the pinnacle of success yet, but if all goes well, I hope to get started soon. They say that "Opportunity knocks once at every man's door," and one of these fine days some discerning magnate will observe me floating along among the by-products of civilisation and will recognise that his opportunity has arrived. Then is when yours truly will DAWSOX 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 7 modestly but firmly arise to ornament the niche of Fame and Fortune that is reserved for him. In the meantime I am in an actively receptive state. I am on the waiting list of some of the biggest concerns in Chicago. I've walked a rut in the best sidewalks and am now one of the landmarks of the city. People steer by me. There are several prominent firms here that wouldn't think the day had started right if they hadn't gone through the ceremony of refusing me a job. This is their daily programme : 8 A. M., unlock the store; 8:10 A. M., unlock the safe; 8:15 A. M., refuse Dawson a job, and so on ad nauseam. If I should fail to appear some morning it would throw the whole force in confusion. I've made quite a study of city life, but the one particular thing I've inferred from having heard it repeated several hundred times is that summer is the dull season. Then is when com- merce yawns and puts its feet on the desk. The marts of trade hum in a lower key and jobs are as scarce as farm hands in the country. The modest suppliant who comes wooing a job is asked to come around later. I never seem to get around late enough. However, don't think I am discouraged. Hope is surging within me, where there is always lots of room. I wake up in the morning with it buzzing away, and sometimes am kept awake nights by it. We are great chums. And above all, please don't worry about me. I'll get along all right. I've moved from my sumptuous rooms in Wabash Avenue because I 8 DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER didn't like to make a vulgar display of my wealth. I am now more centrally located. Tell Sis I'll send her a set of those postcards before long. Give my regards to the hammock that hangs under the apple trees, and tell the fried spring chickens with cream gravy that I haven't forgotten them. With lots of love, I am, your incipiently successful son, CHARLEY. P. S. Excuse pencil; my private secretary is having his evening out. DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER P\EAR MOTHER: Success at last is hovering near, with * ^ both arms full of laurel leaves. While I have not yet got my full name on a pay roll, yet I feel that I am worm- ing my way on, a letter at a time. The ramparts and bastions of commerce can't hold out long against my combined assaults, and something soon will have to give, and it won't be your loving io DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER son, either. He couldn't if he tried. However, don't worry on that score, for I still have money left. They haven't got it all away from me yet, and before that time comes, Victory, from her proud perch upon my banners, will be eating out of my hand. The triumphal chariot upon which I plan the joyous ride adown Life's rugged stream is at the door, panting to be off, but on account of tire trouble there is a slight delay in starting. Don't be discouraged! Success that comes too easily is not the best kind, and if I dropped into a fat job the very first thing, it would spoil my biography when future historians write it. You know that all successful men have modest beginnings, accompanied by slight disappointments. They are what make character, and while unpleasant at the time, like mathematics, they have a grand effect on mental discipline. Thus far the Moguls of Finance have not shown that fierce competition for my services that I had hoped to see. But they will soon awake to the fact that there is a determined man in town, and then there will be articles in the financial columns about one Dawson getting a job. And then look out! Some fine day you will see coming down the pike eight white horses and a hack, within which will be seated the proud figure of your loving son the erstwhile Napoleon of Job Hunters. I've been having some very interesting and amusing ex- periences from the standpoint of a sociologist. I wish very much I were the latter so that I could enjoy them. I've been collecting data and statistics upon why business men do "not DAWSOX 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER n wish to assume the responsibility of giving me a job. I think I hold the world's record for waiting to see busy men. They listen patiently to the story of my life, and ask me to come around next Thursday and they'll see what they can do. I wait impatiently for Thursday, and they forget all about it. One man told me to call at three, and when I got there he was leav- ing the office at 2 145. I tried to catch his eye but muffed, and he made a home run. I went to the office three times after that and learned that he had sailed for Europe. I don't be- lieve I'll follow him. I dreamed about you last night. We were eating fried chicken. That's the fourth time this week I've dreamed about eating, and it's only Thursday. When next I write I'll hope to have grand news, so don't be discouraged! Love to all and oceans of it for you. . CHARLEY. 12 DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER DEAR MOTHER: Don't think of letting Sis stop her music lessons on my account. I'll be able to manage things up here until I connect with a friendly pay roll, so please don't think of sending me any money. You'll have enough to worry about in putting up blackberry jam sufficient to supply me when I come home to visit next fall. That is now your DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 13 sole mission in life, so far as I am concerned. Just settle back in your arm-chair and swat the hot spell with a large palm-leaf fan, and when you think of me, which I hope is often, just pic- ture me on the trail of a swollen fortune, such as will make John D. and Pierpont turn green with envy. I am designing a ten-cylinder touring car for you and a beautiful new plug hat, model 1911, for Dad. His present hat is about due to come back in style in another year or two, however. News is scarce this week. The supply of work is just one short of meeting the demand. I had hoped to chronicle the pleasing item that C. Dawson, Esq., Journeyman Fortune Hun- ter, had accepted lucrative employment on the sunny side of a roll-top desk, or a bench, but such is not the fact at the time we go to press. The Eternal Law of Economics has decreed otherwise. Fortune is trying me out in her crucible a little longer, so that by the time I get my opportunity I will not only greatly appreciate it, but will work twice as hard to make the most of it. I am like the crude iron ore that is going through the furnace before it becomes steel The weather has been open to some much needed criticism during the last week. When your shoes stick in the asphalt and the sun kisses with the ardent passion of a busy mustard plaster, it is no nice way to do, to say the least. Consequently the crusade for employment has languished somewhat. Last Monday I invited, dared, and implored eleven business men to hire me, and was just on the point of putting an "ad" in the i 4 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER paper when the twelfth man dangled a rose-coloured bunch of Hope before me. He told me to come in Wednesday and he'd see what he could do. I felt sure I had a place landed, but when I went back Wednesday he was out playing golf ; on Thurs- day he was at a directors' meeting and sent out word for me to come Friday without fail, and on Friday he went to New York. His office boy said he'd be back in a week or ten days. For about three minutes I was somewhat disheartened, but then Hope, like Atlas rising from the sea, sprang up with a loud cry and swatted Despair a staggering jolt, and Optimism once more reigned supreme. You have no idea how beautiful the parks are. The moon is beautiful and hundreds of young couples are out looking for jobs as husbands and wives. It reminded me of the campus in June. Have you seen Nell lately? How is she? I haven't written to her because I didn't like to write until I could tell her I had succeeded. When you see her, write and tell me everything she said. I saw Scads Allcott on the street last week. He is going to Wisconsin for the summer and intends to try for a position here in the fall. Well, I guess that is about all this time. I have spent a lot of time in the parks; it's so much cooler than my room. And I'm trying a new dietary system. I think people eat too much in the summer. The body does not require much food to create the heat necessary to the system when the weather sup- plies quite enough. So I am going light on heavy foods. .How- DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 15 ever, if you should happen to have fried chicken, just please remember me lovingly to a couple of bites in the second joint. I am trying absent treatment on my appetite. Love to all, and don't worry about me. Lots of love to you. CHARLEY. 16 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER TT\EAR MOTHER: Just a post card to-day it's threat- ^-^ ening to clear up and get hot again. I intended to write you a nice, long, fat letter last night, with at least four cents' worth of postage on it, but out of sympathy for the poor postman who would have to lug it, I am compromising on this silver-lined post card. It is a picture of one of the boulevards with miles of mansions and thousands of automobiles. "In the DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 17 foreground you will see a handsome man with a silk hat. That's going to be me ! And that large automobile just behind is the one in which I expect to show you the town when you come up to visit me in the fall. You wouldn't enjoy coming now, it's so hot and sticky. But in the fall you and Sis and Bud and Dad must hop on the cars and come up and we'll have a regular orgy of sight- seeing, with at least two hours every day in the dressmaking shops. Won't it be great when we're all together again? I can feel my mouth water right now for one of the kisses that Mother used to take. My chauffeur will explain the sights as we ride along. I suppose you are anxious to hear what luck I've had this last week. Well, let's see; I hardly know where to begin. I tried a few benighted business men on Monday, but they said it was the dull season. Perhaps a little later, etc. One man told me to come back Thursday because I had an honest face that inspired confidence. Hooray! Bouquet for loving son! So on Tuesday I spent the day reading in the public library, and on Wednesday I met Mr. Graves from home and had dinner with him a regular gorge that made kind host comment fa- vourably upon the relative capacity of the city appetite as com- pared to the untrained country one. I thanked him in gut- tural tones tones choked with food and tried to wear my hon- ours with becoming modesty. Well, I thought my luck had changed and was certain that Thursday would dawn with the banners of Hope flying high in the heavens and with joy singing 1 8 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER arias all around me. I was sure that the closed season for jobs was over and that before the shades of evening fell upon the great city I would be attending my own coronation on Easy Street. I was too confident. I counted my chickens before they were hatched; in fact, I not only counted them but had them all fried in cream gravy served out on a beautiful table built for five. Well, at the appointed hour I was on hand with hair brushed and face washed until it glistened. My prospective employer was waiting for me.. He was a fine-looking gentle- man, with a grey cutaway, a diamond pin in his cravat, and two handsome diamond rings on his fingers. He certainly looked like ready money from top to bottom. At last, thought I, I am about to realise a life-long ambi- tion and get a job, with real money rolling in every week. He didn't ask any questions about references or experience, but said he'd give me twenty-five dollars a week to start on. I nearly fell over with joyl I would have thrown up my hat, but was afraid of breaking the electric-light fixtures. He then said he wanted me to get some better clothes and began count- ing out some money for that purpose. Real money! I pinched myself a couple of times to make sure. He told me that it was important to put up a good front and then explained the work I was to do. He said with my face and some good clothes I could easily make a hundred dollars a week in commissions aside from my salary. There was something about it that didn't look -FORTUNE HUNTER 19 quite honourable to me. So I refused the job, and the real money, and departed with my hat and other possessions intact. I'm sure you will think I did right, and I'd give a good deal just to see you to-night to explain the whole thing. IVe never wanted to see you so much as I do to-night not that I am dis- couraged. Not much ! We'll land something in a day or two, never fear! I think I hear Opportunity knocking at my door now. So good-night, with lots of love. Am moving, and until I get settled you'd better address me care General Delivery. CHARLEY. 20 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER The Rural Free Delivery DAWSOX 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 21 DEAR MOTHER: Your welcome letter with the money arrived just before dinner yesterday, although what in the world you sent it for I can't imagine. I hope you haven't got die impression from my letters that I needed any. But that's just you, mother, all over always denying yourself for us kids. I suppose it's a habit by this time. And you'll al- ways go on thinking of me as a little boy instead of a grown- 22 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER up. But you mustn't send me any more, for I know how much you need it at home, and instead of you sending me money I ought to be sending some to you. It makes me feel a little ashamed, as though you thought I was not making good up here. I'll keep the ten for the present, however, although I'm going to prove before long that your investment of twenty- one years of unselfishness in Son Charley will bring you a rich reward. I'll refuse to compromise on less than a thousand per cent, interest in cash and a million per cent, in love, in proof of which I hereby send you a large instalment of the latter and hope soon to send some of the former. I've had some funny experiences in the last two weeks you'll laugh when you hear them. I've answered about forty- 'leven ads, but always found that somebody else had got the job just before I arrived, thus proving that you've got to get there early. At one place the choice narrowed down to two of us, and I think I'd have got the place, but the other fellow was married, had two children, and had been out of work for three months. I withdrew in his favour and he got the job. He needed it more than I did, and his gratitude was worth the temporary loss of my meal ticket. Another ad that I answered was at a large business place. When I got there the boss was in a towering rage and wouldn't be bothered with me. One of the clerks told me that the old man had just got his tax assess- ment and they had raised him from $12,000 to $15,000. The clerk said his collection of paintings alone was worth $200,000, DAWSON f 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER 23 and I decided that my rich friend must he a gigantic liar at least. I don't want to work for such a man. I'd rather go hack home and work in the livery stable. I also called upon a prom- inent philanthropist to lay before him a proposition whereby I was to be allowed to ornament his pay roll. He gives hundreds of thousands of dollars to charity every year or so, and when I heard that he pays some of his girl employes only five a week I decided he wasn't good enough for me. I'm sometimes doubtful whether I can adjust my ideals to the practical necessities of the situation up here, but I'm going to keep on trying, at least for a while, anyway. So don't be dis- couraged. Keep a stiff upper lip. When I do get a job it will be something neither of us will be ashamed of, whether it pays very much or not. I have moved to a little boarding-house and have a room with a window. I eat at restaurants, spend my time after banking hours in the public library, and am giving a theater party for myself to-night at the moving-picture show. Oh, this is a delirious life, surrounded by wealth and luxury, but so far I have not contracted any of the expensive vices of the idle rich. I have organised the rest of the boarders into a Seeing Chicago club. They've elected me president. Each Saturday afternoon we shall go on excursions, and in the winter we'll have debates and readings. Am enclosing a poem I copied from one of the books in the library; I thought you'd enjoy it. 24 DAWSON 'n FORTUNE HUNTER Give my love to the old-fashioned hammock that hangs in the trees, and with oceans of love to all of you. CHARLEY. P. S. This is the time of year when everybody wishes he had a vacation and didn't have to work, so you see I'm in a somewhat enviable position. DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 25 "Charley's got a job, Mrs. Dawson!" 26 DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER P\EAR MOTHER: I enclose $10 and 10,000 kisses, which -*-^ please apply to my long-standing indebtedness to you. You probably don't want any payment except in the latter me- dium, but I intend to pay you back both in cash and love, or as far as they can go toward paying you. If I live to be a mil- lion years old and made weekly payments I couldn't begin to discharge the debt in full, but at least you will always know that I am not forgetting what I owe you for skimping and denying yourself so much, that I might get an education. DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER 27 The account stands as follows, according to my reckoning: To sitting up five (5) hundred nights when I was a baby, @ $10 . $ 5,000.00 To walking 2,000 miles (approximately) trying to put me to sleep, @ $i per mile. . . 2,000.00 To rocking me to sleep nine (9) hundred nights, @ $5 4,500.00 To singing while rocking nine (9) hundred nights, @ $10 per song 9,000.00 To various sums advanced for circuses, ice cream, candy, etc., etc. (approx.) 500.00 To interceding with father in times of impending danger 2,550.25 To dresses you needed but you didn't get while I was going to school and college 2,000.00 To efforts to make me wash, say prayers, read Bible, go to Sunday School, and other Herculean tasks 10,000.00 To loss of sleep while worrying about me when I went swimming, etc. 2,000.00 To cash advanced on present fortune hunting cru- sade 35.00 To interest on above 50,000.00 $87,585.25 Deducting the ten which I enclose leaves $87,575.25, which is still due you, and I shall vigorously fight any com- 28 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER promise, no matter how much you may insist upon settlement in affection alone. Your last letter was so full of encouragement and good cheer that it made me feel like old Mr. Alexander the Great when he went out looking for more worlds to conquer. Things certainly have changed a lot in the last two weeks. I don't mind confessing to you now that for a while I was almost dis- couraged. Nobody seemed to need me, no matter how much I tried to convince them differently. But now, how different! The birds are singing and the sun is shining, and down in the innermost recesses of my pocket there is the musical jingle of real money; while in the equatorial region there is a compla- cent snugness that eloquently tells me that I have recently eaten a good meal. This evening I am sitting here in my luxurious boudoir, clasped in the friendly arms of an easy-chair, with the Goddess of Fortune smiling graciously down upon me from the frame of the old master that hangs on the wall. Two weeks ago she wouldn't look at me, and yet here she now is, practically eating out of my hand and making eyes at me something scandalous. I think she likes me. The financial centre of the world is slowly shifting in my direction, and I have twelve dollars of actual money in my pocket, with more waiting for me at the end of the week. It's perfectly wonderful how it rolls in at the rate of $16 a week. I like my new boss, and if he proves to be honest and in- dustrious I'll stick to him. As a general thing all employers de- DAWSOX 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 29 mand honesty and industry from the men they hire, and it seems just as important that the employes should demand the same from their employers. So as long as my boss is on the square he can count upon me through thick and thin. I haven't heard a word from NelL I wrote her when I got my job. Is she at home now? Scads AUcott is here after his summer in Wisconsin. He says he is looking for a position. Love to all and more anon. CHARLEY. P. S. You needn't worry. I'm not going up in one of those aeroplanes. DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER DEAR MOTHER : Another week gone by, and I'm just that much, plus $8, nearer my fortune. It certainly feels good to be rich. I started a bank account to-day, and I understand it created considerable excitement in the financial district The money market steadied and consols went up a few points, and I expect every minute to hear that the magnates are getting jealous of me. But that's the way the world goes. They DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 31 never noticed me when I was poor, except to ask me to call around later when business picked up. It was the same way with the late Mr. Jason. Before he found the Golden Fleece he was hardly able to borrow a dollar in Athens, but after he found it, he was the High Cock-a-lorum of the Forum. Anybody would lend him money when they found he didn't need it. Now, when I first came to Chicago, I couldn't have borrowed a dollar, but now that I've started a bank account, I could easily borrow a hundred times more than I could then. It seems to me that 32 DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER if Jason could make good, Dawson can, with all the modern appliances, although the Fleece seems particularly scarce around here just at present. Things have been rather dull at the office lately, and I'm sometimes apprehensive that they may try to run the business without me. Every time the manager sends for me, I have nervous prostration for fear he may tearfully inform me that the firm and I have come to a parting of the ways, and that hence- forth they will try to struggle along alone. But if that day ever comes, it will take the whole office force to fire me. It's a big concern, with an enormous factory out in the edge of town, and they employ an army of hands. I was sent out there last DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER 33 week, and I made up my mind that if the chance ever comes I'll ask to be transferred to the factory. I can learn more about the business there than in the office. I'm reading up now on the various processes they use, and have sent for a set of con- sular reports dealing with the development of the business in the Argentine. I met Scads Allcott on the street the other day. He's liv- ing in a swell boarding-house on the north side. He likes it up here and says he's been to the theatre every night and the ball game every afternoon, and looks for a job in the forenoon. He told me he had several letters from Nell, which, of course, cheered me up considerably. If she is looking for a husband who can make nine holes in bogey and has a lovely tan, then Scads is exactly the party for her. I must close now. I want to walk down past the bank where my $8 dollars are. Did you get the book I sent you, 34 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER and how did Sis like the set of post cards? Give my love to the cook and with oceans of it for you and the rest. CHARLEY. P. S. Am enclosing some original sketches showing life in Chicago. P.S. *cdT -W- UfrKu.^ o^A^^ DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 35 DEAR MOTHER: Fortune favours the Busy ! The boss knows me by sight now, and upon three different occa- sions he has honoured me by inquiring my name. It will not be long before he knows me both ways at once, and then is when Fortune will begin to take notice of her humble suitor. Fifty years from now the historians will say: "At about this point the fortunes of the future money monarch underwent a change. His wages were raised to the proportions of a salary 36 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER and it was noticed that a large smile overspread his classic features." Of course, coming back to earth again, I haven't had a raise yet and I haven't done anything to deserve one, but I'm on the job every consecutive minute and am taking a real in- terest in the work. I have a theory, as yet unexploded, that these things will count in the long run and that some day the boss will want a man for a big place and will say to the man- ager : "How about this young fellow Dawson ? I've been watch- ing him for some time and I think there's something to him." So you see, Mother, I've got it all figured out, and when the call comes I'll be within hearing distance. I'm afraid you'll begin to think that my sole object in life is to get rich, and I don't mind confessing that it was when I came up here. My one dream was to make a lot of money and then go back home and drive up and down Main Street in a gilded hack. I wanted to see old Mr. Allcott, who never noticed me in his life, hustle down the steps of the bank to greet me as an old-time friend, and to have Nell's father invite me to sit on the bench with him at the courthouse. That would have been glory enough for one lifetime. But somehow I've changed my mind since then. I still want to get rich, of course, but, first of all, I want to do it in a way that we both can be proud of. There's something about money that hardens people who think of nothing else, and I don't want to get the disease. I believe I'd rather be like old DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 37 Judge Courtright down home, with all his friends and high ideals, than any rich man I know. You may be sure that if I ever do make a fortune there will not be a cent of it whose source I shall wish to hide or the method of its acquisition con- ceal. Why, there are people up here, with more money than they know what to do with, who own property which is rented for all sorts of improper purposes. I sometimes wonder how they can let their children enjoy money that comes from such sources. I'd rather be just comfortably rich and feel serene in my own mind than to have barrels of money without the re- spect of my neighbours. Scads Allcott doesn't agree with me. We had quite a talk about it last night. He says this is a commercial age and everybody looks up to the man who has the stuff. A big pile is the hall-mark of success and a man is a fool who doesn't go out and get as much as he can. Every man ought to look out for Number One, and, if anybody gets in the way, climb over him. He says when he makes more than he wants he will become charitable. Scads is certainly a chip off the old block. And you know how much every one down home loves old All- cott. If he lost his money to-morrow there wouldn't be a person who would sympathise with him. With these few remarks I'll close before the letter needs 4 cents postage. I'm going to try to come down in a week or two, so please fatten up a chicken or two and have an o. f. kiss and hug ready. Loads of love to all. CHARLEY. 38 DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER 39 At Home, 1 1 30 p. M. DEAR MOTHER: It's after u, and so I'll just write a little two-for-a-cent one to-night. Some of the other boys here in the boarding-house dropped in to-night and we had a great discussion. We came out for clean politics. I know you'd like them. One of them, Jim Merritt, is in the office with me and is an awfully nice fellow. He got me to come to this boarding-house. He showed me a picture of his mother, and she's an awfully nice-looking lady almost as nice looking as you are. Compliment ! Two of the boys are in a bank and a wholesale house, and another, Sewell, is a stenographer, a sort of assistant private secretary, to the head of the firm of Dodge & Co. They are our strongest rivals in business, but Sewell and I get on all right. He's a quiet chap and seldom says very much. Well, we had it hot and heavy from politics and finance and back again by the way of matrimony, colleges, and athletics. We decided everything before we got through. Well, in the middle of it who should come in but Scads Allcott. You could have knocked me over with a feather. He said he had nothing to do and thought he might as well come over and see how I was situated. He incidentally told me he had received a letter to-day from Nell. By the way, how is she? I don't want to ask Scads. He hasn't got a job yet, but says his father is trying to get him in a broker's office. After the other boys had gone to bed Scads sat here and talked until I thought he never would go. You see, he doesn't have to get up early. He says 40 DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER I ought to move to a better neighbourhood and get acquainted with the kind of people who can be useful to me. I told him I didn't like the idea, and he called me a chump, and we let it go at that. No more for to-night. With love to all Your loving son, CHARLEY. DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER __ DEAR MOTHER: I don't know that I ought to tell you, but I might as well now as later. The fact is that I've had a little trouble with the head of the firm and I'm very much afraid that he is going to try to worry long without me. I'll know on Monday. Perhaps there'll be another Chicago fine, in which I will figure prominently as the fire-ee, but anyway, whatever happens, you mustn't worry for a minute. The fall is a good time to look for a position, and with my experience I'll have no trouble whatever in landing another one. So don't wor- ry for a second. 42 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER This is what happened : You remember I wrote you about a fellow named Sewell who lives at my boarding-house. He seems like a nice fellow, rather quiet and not very confidential, but I liked him and found that he could give me a lot of good advice about my work. He's with Dodge & Co., which is in the same line as our firm in fact, I suppose they're our strongest competitors. Both firms do an enormous business and I guess there isn't the best feeling between them because they are constantly bidding against each other on big contracts. Well, Sewell has been dropping in to see me every evening of late, and a couple of times we have gone to the theatre together. He's been just as friendly as any one could be and said he might be able to put me in the way of making a lot of money outside of my regular work. He didn't tell me how. Last Saturday he telephoned for me to have lunch with him, and I met him down at the entrance of our building. Just as I met him the manager of our firm came out of the elevator and nodded to me. I thought he looked rather queerly at Sewell. Since then I've found out that Sewell used to work for our firm, but suddenly left for some reason or other, I don't know what. Late Saturday afternoon the boss sent for me. Well, maybe I wasn't excited! I felt like a girl who knows she is about to have her first proposal. It was the first time I had been offi- cially noticed by the Grand Mogul and I went into the private office with my heart in my throat. I thought maybe he was DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER 43 going to take me into the firm or consult me about next year's policy. He glanced up, motioned to a chair, and then abruptly asked me how much I was getting. I told him sixteen and he smiled pleasantly. "I suppose you would like to make more," he said, and I supposed I grinned expectantly. He asked me how I liked the work, where I lived, where I had come from, if my parents were living, and a lot more things. It was becoming quite a social occasion. Suddenly his smile faded and his face became serious. "Young man," he said, "I don't mind telling you that we have had our eye on you lately. Whenever a young man shows promise we are disposed to give him every chance for ad- vancement, and I thought it might interest you to know that we are looking for some way to help you along. In a couple of weeks we hope to get a large contract if our bid is success- ful, and if we do we may be able to put you in on that work at a considerable advance at once, with bigger opportunities later. You will have a chance to show what's in you." Well, say ! Talk about joy ! I was in for jumping up on the chandelier and giving nine rahs for everything and every- body. I thanked him in a choking voice and as he turned to his work I started out. "Oh, by the way," he then said, like an afterthought, "you live with young Sewell of Dodge & Co. ?" 44 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER "Yes, sir," said I, wondering what was coming next. "It just occurred to me that you might be of some service to us. The Dodge people are bidding on this contract, and perhaps you might get a little line on their bid from Sewell. Do you know him very well?" I was amazed. You could have knocked me over with a feather. "You want me to find out their bid from Sewell?" I man- aged to say. "Why, certainly; not in a dishonest way, but just casually, you know. Perhaps you can get a slight indication of their bid." I got up and was almost afraid to speak, I was so near crying. It seemed as if the lights had all gone out. He didn't seem to notice my agitation, for he turned to his desk and began to fumble with his papers. "Just think it over," he said; "it may mean a good deal to you. Let me know in a few days." Then I found my voice. "Mr. Morrill, I can let you know now. You and everybody around here have been kind to me and I don't want to seem ungrateful, but I can't do what you suggest. I don't want to succeed that way." I started out and was getting madder and madder every minute. At the door I stopped and turned around and blurted out: "Mr. Morrill, before I go I want to tell you that I'd see you and your old firm and your contracts DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER 45 plumb to thunder before I'd do that kind of crooked work." I then retired while the retiring was good, and now you know the whole situation. I suppose I'll be fired, but I had the satis- faction of stating my position. I'll let you know how it comes out. Lovingly, CHARLEY. P. S. Don't worry. 4 6 DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER DEAR MOTHER: Well, the plot has thickened and thinned a good deal since I wrote you. Everything is lovely now and the goose hangs high, although I don't mind confessing that the goose hung pretty low for awhile, especially just after I had told my boss, Mr. Morrill, that I'd see him in thunder before I'd try to find out Dodge & Co.'s bid from Sewell. When I went home that night and had time to cool oft I felt pretty blue. All my dreams seemed to have collapsed. At 8 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 47 o'clock I was a pale blue, at 9 a deep blue, and at 10 a fright- fully deep blue. And it was just then that Sewell dropped in to see me and at once asked me what was the matter. I told him I had had some words with the boss, but didn't tell him the cause. He advised me to go back and apologise and by all means to hold my job. He said that it would mean a good deal of money to me in the long run. I asked him how, and he said that with me in Merrill & Co. and him in Dodge & Co., and both these concerns bidding against one another on big contracts, we each could do pretty well if we worked together. It suddenly began to dawn upon me what Sewell was driving at, but I thought I'd let him go on just to see what sort of a fellow he was. "For example," said he, "just now there's a job worth several millions that they are bidding on. If you can find out Merrill's bid and let me know it will be worth a pretty good sum of money to you, more than you can make in a year plugging along at your present salary." I think he saw that I was getting mad, because he continued: "Now I suppose that idea shocks you. You are just out of college and have a lot of fancy ideas about honour and moral ethics. I was that way ten years ago, but I found that it didn't pay. Business nowadays is a cutthroat game, and the object is to win out, no matter how, and the man that is useful to his firm is the one who gets boosted along. Why, there isn't a big business in this city that doesn't do a lot of things that wouldn't look well in broad daylight, and somebody has to do them. The stockholders 48 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER want dividends, and they are not very particular just how they get them. If there is any crooked work necessary they shut their eyes and only open them the day their dividend cheques come in. If the dividend is reduced they want the manager fired and a new one put in who will produce the dividends. You would be surprised to know how much crookedness goes on in business affairs and at the respectable people who wink at it. "Now sooner or later you will discover that there will come a time when you will be asked to do something that seems a little shady. If you refuse, out you go, and if you consent you will hold your job and be regarded as a very useful and valuable man. The firm will stand by you as long as you can produce results. For five years I plugged along on a high moral plane, was fired four times, and finally decided that I would get into the money-grabbing game regardless of meth- ods or morals. You will probably be shocked to know that it has paid, and that I am now the boss's private secretary. I suppose I've done a lot of things that aren't strictly on the square, but I've been a useful and willing worker. I've had to perjure myself on the witness stand several times, but I believe it is only right to stand by your boss in trouble as long as he stands by you. Now, Dawson, you think it over. I don't want to persuade you to do something you don't want to do, but in ten years you will thank me for the advice I'm giving you. You can't get rich working on a salary, and you know you can DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER 49 always reform after you've made your pile and your children are going to college. I'm going to cut out all this crooked work some day, but not until I am safe on Easy Street." I was perfectly amazed. I couldn't imagine anybody talking in such a cold-blooded way, and I didn't know exactly what to say. But finally I found my voice. "I suppose you mean all right, Sewell, from your point of view. And I suppose you will succeed up to a certain point, but I'd like to bet anything I'll ever have that in the long run you'll lose out. They'll get you just at the time when it will hurt you most, perhaps years from now when you have children in school and your wife has a lot of nice friends. Then the exposure will come and your whole family will be disgraced and ashamed. Every day or so I read of how some fellow gets caught, and I honestly believe that it always comes sooner or later. I intend to be on the square, and if it doesn't pay very much at first I believe it will win out in the long run. Now, Sewell, I wish you would go out and never come in my room again." He flushed up a little, then smiled queerly, and said : "All right, my boy, you go your way and I'll go mine. If you ever need any money let me know." With that he walked out. Now comes the real joke. When I went down to the office on Monday the boss sent for me. I didn't care what hap- pened, so I walked boldly in. He was smiling and very pleasant. "Dawson," said he, "you are a very excitable young man, but I'm convinced you are all right Sometimes we take 50 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER queer measures to find out which of our men are honest, and it was to test you that I proposed last Saturday that you try to get the Dodge bid from Sewell. The manager had seen you with Sewell, you know. You answered me just as I hoped you would, and if you keep on in that way you may be certain that we'll not overlook it. I've asked the treasurer to advance you to $20 a week." He shook my hand and smiled pleasantly, and so I am still on the pay roll. I thought you'd like to hear all about it, and so I've written it all out. There's one thing you may be sure of, Mother, and that is, when you are old and grey you will not be trembling in fear of being disgraced by any exposure of crookedness on the part of your loving son CHARLEY. DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 51 DEAR MOTHER: This is certainly pumpkin-pie weather, isn't it? Do you ever think of such worldly things? It's funny, but I got to thinking of it this morning while dressing, and I haven't been able to think of anything else since. I can't get it out of my mind. I'm simply haunted by the pleasant ghosts of bygone 52 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER pies, and I don't know what I am going to do about it unless I organise an expedition of one and go down home for much needed relief. To-day is Sunday, and as I walked through the park and smelled the leaves and breathed in the fresh October air, the whole world seemed to whisper pumpkin pie to me. The little flurries of wind and the whirl- ing leaves sang pumpkin pie until I felt exalted and uplifted as though I were in a great cathedral, with an organ swelling in mighty volumes of sound and with an angel chorus carolling an anthem all about pumpkin pies. To tell the truth, I was considerably homesick for pumpkin pie and "the mother that made pumpkin pie famous" at least famous to me. Why, I had never even heard of pumpkin pie before you first introduced it to my polite attention, and I may say that I have always remembered it favourably. I liked the poetry you put into it, as well as the music, and when- ever I think of one of your pumpkin pies, which I do with staggering frequency, I think of it as an edible golden sunburst, glorified by the skill of a master in pie craft. Some day, when I am rich and philanthropic, intent upon handing myself down to fame and reflected glory, I shall erect a marble monument to the memory of your justly cele- brated pumpkin pies. I planned it all out while walking through the park this morning and picked out a suitable site for it. First, there will be a marble pedestal fifty feet square, at the end of a long avenue lined by Maxfield Parrish poplars and DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 53 pilasters. Upon the four sides of the pedestal will be the words, "To die memory and glorification of pumpkin pie, the pie of the Pierides, erected by Charles Dawson, the eminent connoisseur and pie-lanthropist." On top of the pedestal will be a big bronze pie, 400 feet high, high enough to be a landmark for sailors coming down from Milwaukee and points north, and lighted at night by a row of arc lights around the edge like a golden diadem. Perhaps I'll have this pie revolve, like die Ferris wheel, but that hasn't been definitely decided as yet. I'll have a famous sculptor do the decorations around die border of the pie, and when I get ready to build the memo- rial I want you to send me some of your thumbmarks and linger prints, so that the pie may be historically correct. Also, I shall keep a candle burning in front of the pedestal, day and night, to impress people with the solemnity of the surroundings. Of course, I'll invite you up to the unveiling, so don't make too many engagements far ahead. And don't tell anybody just yet, because I don't want it to get into the papers until the Municipal Art Commission has approved the plan of the "Pie Beautiful Memorial." Now I suppose I'll have to leave this pleasant theme and come down to worldly affairs. I suppose Bud has been out nutting these days and that the farmers are waiting for the first frost before beginning their husking. I'd like to be down there, wading through the leaves in Marshall's woods, with a bag of shell barks on 54 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER my back and with my fingers black from walnut stains. I tell you that's the kind of life that gives a fellow a grand appetite, and by the time he gets home and catches a whiff of fried chicken and biscuits and honey, with the hallowed perfume of pumpkin pie hovering near, he is in a most recep- tive mood as regards the supper hour. I can see you now, standing at the kitchen stove, sur- rounded by a circle of eager little faces, including Old Shep, and with ever)' eye following the supper preparations with alert and expectant interest. Those were grand old days, those days when I was on the jury to judge your cooking. Loud cheers for them, and viva la Pumpkin Pie I Here I am again talking about pie, so I guess I'd better stop before I use up all my stationery. Give my love to the kitchen stove and to my place at the table, and be sure to keep my napkin-ring polished up ready for an emergency. With oceans of love to you and all the folks. CHARLEY. DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 55 DEAR MOTHER : Only about four weeks more till Thanksgiving, and then LOOK OUT ! You'll see a familiar figure dash down the road from the depot, jump the fence in one leap, and light right smack in the family circle with a choice lot of hugs and kisses imported especially from Chicago for home consumption. I may have to come down on the night train, but I hope I may be able to arrange to take the afternoon train the day before. It will be simply great, and I'm look- ing forward to my visit as eagerly as I used to look forward 56 DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER to Christmas. Why, already I've lived over my trip home a hundred times in anticipation, and each time it gets nicer. Sis must play over all the grand tunes she's learned, and Bud must give me a few lessons in how to crack hickory nuts and eat Belleflower apples. I'm afraid I've gotten completely out of practice since I came up here. You see, they don't specialise in eating hickory nuts in the good old way up here. They don't know that the only genuine way to enjoy hickory nuts is to crack them on a flatiron in front of a roaring fire and without company manners to hamper your technique. I suppose Nell Courtright is at home now and will be when I come down. Scads Allcott dropped in again last night and casually mentioned that he had received a letter from her, but I didn't ask any particulars, for fear of afford- ing him the pleasure of being considered an authority on the subject. He says he's going down on Thanksgiving, too. I don't know what to make of Scads. I think the city is going a little bit to his head. He isn't as nice as he used to be. You remember, I used to like him in college, but he certainly has changed since he came up here. I don't know just what it is, but whenever I'm with him I seem to notice that he seems a little coarser and more sporty than ever. When he came in last night I was working, and I actually believe he resented it. "Great Scott!" he said, "can't you get enough work in DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 57 office hours without lugging it home with you? You'll be an old man at forty, Dawson, if you keep this up." I didn't say anything, so he lighted a cigarette, and eyed my work with disapproval. "Do you know what I think?" said he. "I think you're seventeen kinds of a chump to sit in this stuffy hole working while there are so many pleasanter forms of exercise. I'll bet your boss isn't working to-night, or any other of the big men in your office. Not much !" I didn't want to get into an argument with him, but I just couldn't help remarking that the boss and the big men probably had to do a lot of night work in order to be where they are to-day. "Rats and again rats!" remarked Scads. "You're getting to be one of these goody-goody boys, and if you don't wake up and sow a wild oat or two you will be about as exciting as a last year's bird's nest. Come on, put on your coat, and let's get out among the bright lights. I'll show you what you're missing before it's too late." I told him he would have to count me out. "All right, all right. Far be it from me to tempt any nice young man from the paths of rectitude. Stick to your work, Dawson, and by forty you'll have a couple of thousand dollars saved up and be baldheaded, with the last remnant of your youth gone. Now is the time to play, when you have the capacity for enjoyment, and not when you are an old man who doesn't know how to do anything but work. Sure you 58 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER won't come? I know a couple of live girls who will make you sit up and take notice." "Go ahead, Scads. Have all the good time you want. Burn up the town if you feel that way, but just count me out. I have a certain hunch that when a young fellow is trying to get started in business, that that is not the time for him to be chasing around. Competition's too keen these days. So, if you'll just kindly excuse me, I'll stick to my knitting till I'm established. Then there will be time to relax occasionally." "Sounds like a baccalaureate address. Say, Dawson, do you ever get any pleasure out of life? Do you ever cut loose and act like a natural human being?" "Sure," said I, laughing. "I go to a good play once a week, I take in a moving picture show occasionally, and I'm getting to know a lot of very clean, decent young fellows. I also expect to get a lot of satisfaction out of the fact that I'll make good in my work, if I do, and there'll be some pleasure in that." Scads laughed in an unpleasant way. "Why, you're getting to be quite a preacher, aren't you? That ought to make you very popular, because people love to be preached to. Have you tried the Y. M. C. A. yet?" he asked. "You'd have a lovely time there reading the papers and discussing moral topics." "Scads, you're becoming quite a humourist. By the way, how are you getting on in your work?" I casually inquired. DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 59 "Oh, ho ! Sarcastic, eh? Well, you never mind about me. I'll get along all right, and I won't be a sissy, either." And with that he went out, carefully slamming the door. The joke of it is that Scads has had two jobs since he's been up here and was politely let out of each one in spite of his father's influence. Just now he is at leisure. If he didn't have his father to fall back on he would be up against it good and plenty, or else he'd have to try harder to hold his jobs. With these few remarks and with love to all Affectionately your son, CHARLEY. P. S. I think before I get through I shall have to lick Scads. He seems to be lacking in proper respect. 6o DAWSON 'n FORTUNE HUNTER DEAR MOTHER: I had a curious experience yesterday, which has left me feeling quite depressed ever since. I was walking down to my work, as I usually do in the morning, ambling gayly along, enjoying the sunshine, and think- ing favorably of my coming Thanksgiving pilgrimage down home, when suddenly a little dog dashed out of a side street and hustled down the sidewalk ahead of me. You should have seen him. He was the most woebegone specimen I've ever seen all matted and frowsy and, I suppose, without a friend in the DAWSON f 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER 61 world, although willing to make friends with anybody. He was very thin, and his eyes had the hurt and frightened look of one who has been kicked and chased throughout the whole length of his short and wretched life. He had the look of one who has learned by bitter experience that he is not welcome any- where. Well, I felt so sorry my heart went right out to him. He didn't see me until I was quite near, and then he gave a startled look and scurried out of the way. I guess he thought I was going to kick at him, as mostly everybody else had done, so I resolved that if I never did anything else in my life I'd give that dog one good time that he would always re- member. So I stopped and whistled to him. He was very much surprised. Here was a new game and he didn't know what to make of it. His head was cocked inquiringly to one side. So I whistled some more and spoke to him so kindly that a wistful look came into his eyes, his tail began to wag apologetically, and he slowly wriggled his way toward me. I made more friendly overtures, but he was afraid to trust him- self within patting distance, and so, after trying so long that I was afraid of being late at the office, I sadly resumed my way. After some time I turned and what do you think? There he was, trotting along behind me. When I stopped he stopped, still out of reach. I again addressed him in friendly terms, and after that he seemed to think that the miracle had hap- pened and that at last he had found a friend. His eyes seemed to brim over with trustfulness and gratitude. So he joined me 62 DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER in my walk, sometimes trotting at my side, sometimes ahead, and sometimes he would make little detours to investigate al- leys and garbage boxes, but all the time looking around, so as not to lose me. Once I had to go back to find him, and he seemed overjoyed at this evidence of my concern. He wagged so violently that I was afraid he would put his tail out of joint, and I'll bet his little ribs rattled in the slack of his corrugated sides. I resolved to give him a feast that would take every wrinkle of hunger out of those sides, and as I walked along I was busy making plans for his future. There is a little restaurant near where I work and the man who runs it used to live in the country, so that even city life has not entirely smoth- ered his sympathetic interest in the homely little things of life. I decided to take my new friend to this man, purchase a lavish banquet for him, and then try to devise a future home for him. The thought made me quite happy, and I got my reward every time I looked down at the bedraggled but friendly creature that trotted so airily beside me. Two minutes before I reached the restaurant he was at my side, then there was a crush of traffic at a street crossing and when I got across the dog was nowhere to be seen. I went back and looked for him, but he was gone probably had seen some other dog over in the park, or, becoming frightened by the roar of the downtown district, had turned to go back to the quieter districts from which he had come. Well, I was terribly sorry, and all day long at my work I DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 63 couldn't help thinking of him. And somehow the more I thought of the incident the more significant it became. It reminded me of some people I have known the ones who always get discouraged and quit trying just at the crucial mo- ment, when success is almost in their grasp. They may be honest and well meaning, but they give up just a moment too soon. Now, if that dog Alexander the Great, Jr., I called him had stuck two minutes longer he would have had wealth and friends and a comfortable home. But, like lots of people, he quit, or got discouraged, or allowed himself to be distracted by something else, and now, I suppose, is shivering and hungry and friendless again. After hopefully waiting all his life for Opportunity to knock on his door he quit waiting just a moment before the summons came. I think I've learned a good deal from that little dog, but I'm terribly sorry for him. We've been having a lot of scrambled weather here. Yes- terday a man was overcome by the heat and to-day it is bitterly cold. Have you started polishing up my napkin-ring? Lots of love to all and an extra helping to you. CHARLEY. P. S. Yours with relation to the evils of fighting duly re- ceived, and in answer will say that all peaceful measures short of the loss of my self-respect will be observed in my dealings with Scads. i FORTUNE HUNTER TAEAR MOTHER: I have just marked off another day on -J-^the calendar, so that there are now only ten days to be hurdled before I land in your midst on Thanksgiving Day. It doesn't seem so long except when I count it in seconds, and then the result almost gives me heart failure 864,000 seconds ! It sounds like a lifetime, so I figure in weeks instead of seconds. You see, it's only one week and a little over, and I think by superhuman patience I can last that long. I'm al- ready beginning to feel a pleasant glow that makes me very happy, and also, when I allow myself to think of what I shall do to the food supply, I confess that I am strangely interested. If you'll be one hundredth part as glad to see me as I'll be to see you, you'll certainly be considerably tickled. DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 65 I've been practising for the Thanksgiving dinner for some time. Every Saturday night Merritt and I go to a new restau- rant and practise up, so that by the time I go home I shall be no amateur with the knife and fork. Merrill's a nice fellow and I am trying to persuade him to go home with me for Thanksgiving his own home being too far away and I know you'll like him, because he's a very clean and clever citizen who is sure to amount to a good deal one of these days. The prospects are that I'll arrive in good condition. You'll be glad to hear that Scads and I buried the hatchet last night not very deep, I'm afraid, but deep enough so that only the handle sticks out and I imagine we won't have to go to The Hague or the mat just yet. Even as I write I can still hear the echoes of the white-winged dove of peace as it flapped gayly around us last night. In fact, it flapped almost too loud to be comfortable, for the peace conference was held in a restaurant and attracted a great deal of concentrated atten- tion from the rest of the people at the tables. This is the way it happened : Merritt and I had been to our weekly show, and as it was Saturday night we stopped in at a restaurant to get a bite before wending our way home- ward. Well, while we were sitting there discussing affairs of state and giving expert advice on how to run the government, who should come in but Scads. He had some girl with him, and they took a table over in the corner not far from us. Scads was trying to convince the girl that Yale would eat up Harvard next 66 DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER week and the girl was urging him not to talk so loud. You would have thought Scads was at least the president of Yale, to hear him talk, though, of course, he's never been there in his life and only knows the yells from hearsay. Finally Merritt and I started out and Scads saw us and called to us as if shouting across a football field. Everybody looked around to see what the trouble was, while Scads in his efforts to reach us knocked over a chair and spilled a lot of overcoats and hats on the floor. It was very embarrassing, because Scads was determined that we shouldn't go until we had met his friend. "Come over, Dawson, and meet my little playmate. You, too, Merritt; the more the merrier." Well, to avoid a long and painful argument out in the middle of the floor we went over, Scads whispering to us to remember that his name was Livingston Herbert Livingston and that he lived in New York. He introduced us and began hammering the table for a waiter. It was awfully embarrassing, because everybody was looking at him and some of the people were getting sore. I felt sorry for the girl, though she didn't seem to mind it very much, but kept telling him to keep quiet. Well, we got away at last and I breathed a sigh of relief when we got outside. I'm afraid Scads will have a quick finish if he keeps up this pace very long, and I can't help feeling sorry that he is losing his head so fearfully up here. Well, it's getting late now, so I must close. Don't forget the day and date November 3<Dth ! and with love to all. CHARLEY. DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER DEAR NELL: Scads has just told me the news of your engagement, and I want to express my sincerest good wishes. I hope the future will be full of happiness, and that all the good things in the world will be yours, as you so richly deserve. Of course, I have expected the announcement for weeks ever since the middle of the summer when Scads showed so plainly that he was carrying about a big secret that he was almost bursting to tell me so that now the news does not come altogether as a complete surprise. I am only sur- prised that I was so dull as not to suspect it even before I left 68 DAWSON 'n FORTUNE HUNTER home in June, but I suppose I was so excited by the prospect of my job-hunting crusade in Chicago that I failed to observe the indications. It seems years since June, Nell, and what a lot of things have happened since then ! I'm sure you will never realise how very much your good wishes and encouragement did for me during the first few weeks up here. There were times when I almost lost heart. Those were certainly days of failure and disappointment, though fortunately they didn't last but for a time. I hadn't the heart to write to my friends that I had failed to catch on. You have no idea how ashamed I was, and how it hurt my pride to have the friends back home think that I wasn't making good. Possibly it might please you a little to know that your good wishes and encouragement did worlds of good for me, and made me determined to justify my- self in your opinion. I don't suppose you thought anything about it, but it made a big difference to me, and I shall never in the world forget your kindness, or be able to repay it, ex- cept in the good wishes that I now send you from the bottom of my heart. I hope you'll be very happy and that some time I may see you to thank you as much as I can for being my good angel in the dark days when I was hovering on the brink of total discouragement. I had hoped to come down for Thanks- giving, but it is possible I may not be able to arrange it on account of a matter that has recently come up. Please remember, Nell, that if there is ever anything in the world that I can do for you, you will let me know. CHARLEY. DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 69 D AWSON 'n settled back for the five hours' ride and gazed sombrely out of the car window. He was going home for Thanksgiving, the first trip back since he had come to Chicago six months before, and the joy that he had expected to feel was not in him. His chin was buried in his hand and his eyes gloomily followed the changing scene as it shifted from tall grain elevators to ragged outskirts and then to the brown November landscape of the open country. At last he was actually making the trip that his fancy had pictured to 70 DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER him so glowingly for weeks past, yet here he was wrapped in melancholy meditations. The one person besides his mother whom he had most eagerly looked forward to seeing had been torn from his dreams and he must not think of her any more; which, of course, made him think of her a good deal more. Each thought was painful, but there was a grim pleasure in martyring himself to this self-inflicted pain. "Why in the world did I come?" he asked himself over and over, and then felt ashamed of himself for asking it. He knew perfectly well what the answer was, and it was always the same. It was because his mother had looked forward to his coming for weeks, and he hadn't the heart to send the telegram that was to say that he couldn't come, when he knew that by so doing he was following his own wishes at the ex- pense of the bitter disappointment he knew she would feel. "Oh, well, it's all in a lifetime," he thought, bitterly, "and I might as well look on the bright side of things. I've got no business thinking of getting married for a year or two, anyway, and besides, maybe I'm not as sad as I think I am. Perhaps it's just my vanity that is hurt. Anyway, it's all over and I'll just proceed to dismiss her from all future calculations." So saying, he made an elaborate motion as though plucking something from him and dropping it in the aisle. "There she goes. She is no more, so far as I'm concerned. I've got along without her for twenty-one years and I guess I can worry along for a little while longer. Henceforth we are merely old friends, DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER 71 or acquaintances. She'll never know how I've felt. If I meet her, I'll greet her as though I'd never dreamed of being any- thing but an old friend. I'll congratulate her on her engage- ment to 'Scads' as though I took a fatherly interest in them." He thought for a moment. "I wonder whether I'd better call and congratulate her. It will be awfully hard to do, but if I don't call, she'll think I'm fearfully disappointed and sore." In this way his thoughts rambled on, and he was beginning to have quite a pleasant time in making himself so miserable. The daylight was waning, and the car was becoming dark with the late afternoon shadows. "I wonder why 'Scads' isn't on board? He said he was coming down on this train." This lead furnished material for profound meditation. Perhaps "Scads" had failed to come. There was a pleasing flavour in that reflection, but, perhaps, im- patient to see Xell Courtright, he had come down on an earlier train. That thought was not so pleasing. "Great guns," he muttered, "one would think I'd never been in love before, the way I keep on thinking of this tiresome subject. I must brace up and stop thinking about her. I didn't think of her half as much before I heard she was engaged to 'Scads,' which shows that it's only my vanity that is hurt. Little Charley got his all right, and he's peeved." Finally in the midst of these joyous meditations, he be- came conscious that the train was rushing along amidst familiar landmarks. There was a mill that he had known from boyhood, 72 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER here a deep cut and heavy grade that told him home was only a few minutes away. Home! A warmth suffused him like a wave. His heart was beating faster at the thought that only a few minutes away was the mother he so longed to see, and the dear old home and all the ones he loved and the places that were so enshrined in his memory. Only a few minutes more 1 Long before the train had stopped he was out on the lowest step, and when it slowed down to a full stop he was in the arms of the happiest-looking middle-aged woman one would see in a year's journey. Bud and Sis and Dad were each struggling to seize the returned magnate, and the chorus of questions and exclamations were too chaotic to be analysed. It was not until they were half way home that the conversation began to get straightened out into anything like coherency. And it was not until the train had pulled out and the platform lay bare in the loneliness of its darkness, that a girl drove away from the station alone. "Scads" had failed to come. DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER 73 DAWSON'S visit home was a great success. His troubles faded away in the genial atmosphere of affection that pervaded the old home. At first he was vaguely de- pressed by the feeling that he was regarded as "company," for he was conscious that his brother Bud was subdued and quiet, as though awed by the presence of a visitor from far away in the great city. The thousand and one questions that the boy had saved up to ask were restrained beneath a respectful silence, and it was not until the talk touched the subject of football that Bud was thawed out of his reserve, and the great flood of 74 DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER questions burst forth in such a torrent that his father was obliged "unreasonably" to restrain him from monopolising the con- versation. Dawson's little sister, with her hair combed so tight that it stretched the corners of her eyes, also was shy and oppres- sively awed by the presence of a visitor. When she played her newly learned "pieces," painfully picking out the notes, she made so many mistakes that she was deeply humiliated, and was only partly consoled by hearing such words of praise as not even a Bloomfield-Zeisler had ever received. Old Shep remembered him and wagged his shaggy tail in such an excess of joy that he threatened to demolish all the bric-a-brac within reach. It was an evening to be remembered, an evening when the atmosphere fairly purred with happiness and contentment, and Dawson made new resolves in his heart that he would try harder than ever to deserve the trust and faith of those whose love had followed him so steadfastly throughout his trying days in a strange and friendless city. As he looked at his mother, rocking and sewing and beaming, he felt himself strengthened in his determination never consciously or wilfully to do anything that would bring pain or disappointment to her. Some men, he reflected, remember their mothers only when they are in trouble; others remember them only when they wish to use them in in- fluencing a jury to clemency; he would try to remember her DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER 75 before he got into trouble, and, because of her, try his best to keep out of it. When Dawson was curled up in his old bed that night his last waking remembrance was that some one was tucking the covers about him. 76 DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER WHEN Dawson ' 1 1 awakened, the sunshine of Thanks- giving morning was streaming into his room. All about him, like faithful friends, stood the familiar pieces of old-fashioned furniture that he had known since he was a child, and as he looked affectionately at each well-remembered article something of the spirit of the day found joyous expression in his heart. My, but it was good to be home again ! Suppressed sounds from below told him that the house- hold was stirring and that they were moving about quietly DAWSON J i i FORTUNE HUNTER 77 to avoid wakening him. "I'll bet mother told them to let me sleep as long as I wanted to. However, here goes ! The hot biscuits and honey are waiting, and I don't want to dis- appoint them." After breakfast, he announced his intention of taking a long walk to inspect the changes that Time had wrought in the scenery during the last five months. "I must go into training for dinner," he said, "and I think a five-mile stroll will put me in condition for certain gastronomical triumphs I have in mind." "I thought 'Scads' Allcott was coming down with you," said his mother. "I thought so, too, but I guess he came down on an earlier train. I'll probably run across him somewhere this forenoon." "Well, remember to be back before dinner. It's at one, remember !" "I'll be here all right, mother, waiting right in the front row when the dinner-bell rings." As Dawson prepared to go, his mother asked him to be sure to drop in and see Uncle Fred and Aunt Emma, also eight or ten other friends and relatives who would be offended if the returned "fortune hunter" failed to pay his respects. "And you ought to go round and see Nell Courtright," she added as an afterthought. Dawson paused at the door. "That's a good idea," he said. "I think I will drop in for a moment, and, besides, I'd like to say howdy to the judge." 78 DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER "She was here yesterday." "Who Nell?" His tone was one of intense interest. "Yes; she came in to see me about some work in con- nection with the church bazaar and " "I didn't know you knew her very well she's been away so much. Does she come to see you very often?" "She's been to see me twice once just after you went away and then yesterday about the bazaar." Dawson nerved himself to make a casual inquiry. "Did she have anything to say about loving son?" he asked. "Oh, no; she just came about the bazaar; but, of course, I told her you were coming down to-day." As Dawson walked down the street he was the storm centre of a great many conflicting emotions. At one moment he would allow himself the pleasure of an optimistic hope, and at the next he would plunge himself into a sea of gloom. "Mr. Dawson," he said, "you are seventeen kinds of a chump. You are entitled to a medal of the Amalgamated Order of Jays. What you want is to discharge a large cargo of excess hope and face the cold, unrelenting facts of the case. She is engaged, and you are in the discard. She doesn't care a whoop whether you are here or are spending the week end in Kamchatka. Now, just remember that !" Fortified by this stern admonition he walked twice past DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER 79 the gate of Judge Courtright's old-fashioned home the first time without looking in and the second time with a sweeping glance that might reveal the presence of one "Scads" Allcott if such a person were there. "This is childish!" he exclaimed in disgust. "What's the harm of going boldly in, saying howdy to the judge, wish- ing Nell prosperity and happiness, and then a graceful exit in my best city style?" When he had rung the bell he waited in dread lest the family were out, and more dread lest they were in. But he did not have to wait long. The door was suddenly flung open. "Why, Charley Dawson! When did you come down? Why, it's so nice to see you even if you will neglect your old friends since you've gone away to the city." It was Nell. All his urbane manner faded away and the old shyness returned, together with the peculiar spell that he always felt when with her. In hanging up his hat he dropped it and inwardly reviled himself as a jay of purest ray serene. He could be perfectly natural with anybody but her; all his awkwardness seemed to leap forth and clamour for recognition whenever he was with her. "My, it's good to see you again, Nell!" he exclaimed, his face glowing with a tumult of assorted emotions. He noticed with regret that she was prettier and nicer than she had ever been before. He had half hoped she would not be as attractive as his dreams had made her. 8o DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER "I couldn't go back without calling around to see you and your father," he said. "My, but it's good to see you, Nell; you're looking perfectly fine." "I'm afraid you're trying to flatter me, Charley. I know I must look a fright, for I haven't been feeling very well lately nothing serious, just nerves, I guess. But never mind about me. Tell me about yourself. What have you been doing? Tell me all about Chicago and the things you've been doing and the people you know. I suppose you've met lots of nice girls by this time?" She paused. "Not engaged yet, are you, Charley?" He assured her in a strange, unnatural voice that he was not. "It won't be long," she continued, "you'll soon find some nice girl up there, I'm sure." "Where is 'Scads'?" said Dawson suddenly. "I expected to find him here." Her face lost the look of bantering merriment and her lip trembled a little. "Did you want to see him especially?" she asked. "No, of course not " stammered Dawson. "Only " "Well, suppose we don't speak of him, then." DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER Si DAWSON ~'i i was mystified. As he sat with Nell Court- right in the old library of her father's house his mind was grappling with the problem that her words created. Why had she asked him not to speak of "Scads," to whom she was engaged? Was the subject one that she considered too sacred? Or had she discovered, by some discerning instinct peculiar to the feminine mind, that he cared for her and for this reason she wished to spare him the pain of discussing a subject that could afford him only wretchedness? One by one he marshalled up the evidence in the case, hopefully nursing the favourable signs and gloomily facing the ones that were not. 82 DAWSON 'n FORTUNE HUNTER Was "Scads" in town? If so, why was he not here? This question haunted him. It flashed through his thoughts over and over again, and yet he would not allow himself to ask aloud the simple question that would settle it. She had asked him to refrain from mentioning "Scads"; therefore he would re- frain. If it was a subject too sacred for him, very well. "Scads" could remain as sacred as he blame pleased, so far as he was concerned. In the contemplation of these distracting thoughts, so fraught with grave importance, Dawson's conversation was no- ticeably vague, so vague, in fact, that at last Nell turned to him suddenly. They had been looking at an old kodak album. "Charley," she said gravely, "I'm afraid these old kodaks are boring you. You haven't been listening to a word I've been saying. Now, have you ?" He began to remonstrate, but she shook her head. "No, you haven't. Your thoughts are some place else. I know. You've grown away from the things that used to interest you here. Your life in Chicago, where everything is so big and life is so vivid, has changed you, though you may not realise it. I'm perfectly sure, this very minute, that you're wishing you were back there with your new friends who " "No, honestly, Nell, I'd rather be here than any place in the " " your new friends," she continued, "who are so much -FORTUNE HUNTER 83 more attractive than we old-fashioned country girls can ever hope to be." Dawson turned to her suddenly. In his honest eyes there was a hungry look that warned her. It was a look in the depths of which she saw his soul shining clearly, and it told her more than a thousand burning words could ever tell. She became panicky, and began nervously twisting and untwisting her hand- kerchief. He was so fearfully in earnest. "Nell, will you let me tell you something?" She hastily arose. "I simply must before I go away. Please. Nell, just this once. Then I'll go away and not bother you again." He followed her to the window, where she had gone with her handkerchief pressed to her lips. She was trembling. "Listen, Nell. Do you remember when I left in June " The gate clicked. Some one was coming. "Is it 'Scads'?" he asked quickly. "No, it's father." She dabbed at her eyes with the little crumpled handkerchief, and then slowly turned to face him. Her eyes were misty with a look that he had never seen there before. Then a queer little smile quivered on her lips, like a ray of sunshine that shines through the clouds, and she made a brave attempt at levity. "Didn't you say you had come to see father, Charley?" Dawson assented, Imt his words were contradicted by the disappointment in his looks. The judge was cordial and friendly after the dignified 84 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER manner of the old-school gentleman. For an instant Dawson construed this as a favourable sign, but his second thought told him that the judge would be cordial to any guest, no matter whom, and that it didn't really mean anything of a com- forting nature. The judge asked about Chicago, and was politely interested in his young friend's welfare. The clock struck. It was either half past 12 or i. Dawson hastily prepared to go. He had no idea it was so late. "Are you down for long?" the judge was asking. "I must go back on the four o'clock train this afternoon, sir," said Dawson, and then waited eagerly for a word that might give him hope of coming in again before the train left. He waited in vain. There was an awkward pause in which Dawson was conscious of hearing the measured ticking of the clock. "Well, I guess this is 'good-bye,' Nell," he said, hardly daring to trust his voice. "Good-bye, Charley. Try to think of your country friends once in awhile if you can." He looked at her in an injured way, but the presence of the judge prevented any violent re- monstrance to what he considered an unjust insinuation. As Dawson descended the steps, his ears burning with hu- miliation and wounded pride, the light had gone out of the day for him. A hopeless feeling, like homesickness magnified a thousand times, made him faint and weak. He v/as profoundly depressed. She had not asked him to come again. That meant DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 85 only one thing, he mournfully reasoned. "Scads" was to be with her that afternoon, and there would be no room for outsiders to cumber up the place. He was fifteen minutes late to the Thanksgiving dinner, and, without the ghost of an appetite, he silently plodded through the gorgeous feast, his mother's masterpiece. Many times she looked at him and sighed, but, though her heart was aching for him, she said nothing. "Poor boy," she thought; "I'm afraid there's nothing that I can do to help him." At four o'clock Dawson started back to Chicago. 86 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER IN the late evening of Thanksgiving Day, Dawson alighted from the train that had brought him from his old home back to his new one. He was in Chicago once more. The noises of the station, the glare of lights, and the absence of a friendly face among all the hurrying people about him made him feel lonesomer than he had ever felt before in his life. Not a soul in all these self-absorbed crowds knew him or cared what became of him. The brilliant electric lights were cold and impersonal and seemed to symbolise the heartless indifference DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER 87 of the great city. They made Dawson feel so small and incon- sequential. "I'll never get used to this place if I live here a hundred years," he thought. "I wonder if anybody ever gets to feel at home here." He ate his supper in a restaurant in the station and then proceeded to his boarding-house. How different it seemed to him now, and what a contrast it was to the home he had just left! The place was so quiet! Everybody was out, and when he reached his room he sank wearily in a chair and aban- doned himself to tender melancholy. The trip to his home and back had left him subdued in spirit, and, try as he would, he could not throw off the dull ache that seemed to pervade him like a physical illness. He tried to analyse his emotions. Why was he feeling so blue? His mother and father and Bud and Sis had been everything that his hungry heart had craved. The old friends who had greeted him in the streets of his home town had been cordial and friendly and interested in his welfare. The weather had been perfect. Why, then, should he feel so depressed and friendless ? Was it Nell ? No, for she had been just as nice to him as he could expect from a girl who was engaged to some one else ; in fact, she had been far nicer than he had any reason to expect. . . . Perhaps that was it! If she had been less cordial in the warmth of her friendliness, he could have consoled himself by the thought that she was not really as 88 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER nice as he had always believed her to be. Yes, that was the trouble. She had been too nice. She had made him realise how much he was losing, how much he cared for her, and how dark his future would be without the thought of her to brighten it. Yes, that was it. That was what made him so wretched and miserable. For an hour he sat thinking. What was there now for him to live for and to work for? Why not plunge into the gay seductions of the city and seek forgetfulness in the pleasures that it held and offered so freely? In the vivid excitement of city gayety he would soon forget. And then, if he became a wreck, she would always feel sorry and would blame herself. He would be on her conscience, rendering her unhappy forever- more. Her's would be the hand that had pushed him on his downward course. "Poor Charley Dawson!" she would sigh; "he might have been a successful man if it hadn't been for me. It's all my fault that he threw himself away and went to the dogs." She would be remorseful and unhappy. That pleased Daw- son in his present frame of mind. In his mind's eye he could see her sitting out by the fire talking sadly to her father But no I She wouldn't be with her father. She would be with "Scads" ! She and "Scads" would be pitying him! The thought electrified him! The mere thought of Nell and "Scads" pitying him aroused him like a call to battle! Would he allow "Scads" to pity him? Not much! He would DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER 89 sail in and make a name for himself that would make them sit up and take notice. Now was the time for him to show that he wasn't a quitter, that he had the real stuff in him, and that he was strong enough to overcome disappointment and ad- versity. That was the test. He would make good if he had to work his blamed head off. Adversity should be the spur that would urge him on to future prosperity. He would show that he wasn't weak and that he wasn't a quitter. Henceforth the slogan should be "Excelsior," with Victory as his Goal. He would forget Nell, and put her out of his mind forever. In this militant mood he retired, and tossed himself to sleep. That night he dreamed of her nearly the whole night long. DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER DAWSON 'n faced the future with a resolute heart. Al- though disappointed in love and with a hurt that seemed beyond all hope of healing, he resolved not to parade his misery in the face of an unsympathetic world. People should not whisper, when they saw him stalking sombrely through life, that he was nursing a great sorrow, due to an unrequited love affair early in life. He knew enough to realise that the world loves cheerfulness and shrinks from gloom, and although it often has to face the latter, it prefers the former for steady company. Therefore would he mask his dyspepsia of the soul under a DAWSON 'i iFORTUXE HUNTER 91 smiling face and greet the world in a sunny-hearted manner. He would be brave! Dawson, the Brave Heart! He rather liked the sound of it, and the more he thought of it the more determined he was not to become a martyr to melancholy. "To forget" that was now his battle cry. With work and achievement would he woo forget fulness ; in them would he find surcease of sorrow and tranquillity of mind. Henceforth there should be no sentimental moonings to distract him, hence- forth he would plunge into his work with a whole heart and a singleness of purpose. Nothing should arise to divert him from the course that he had laid out for himself to follow; no morbid fancies should fog the long road that lay ahead, the road to Honourable Success. Upon that road would he travel, swerving neither to right nor left, ignoring the siren lure of quick suc- cess, yet always pressing forward toward a certain definite goal, conscious that success that is built slowly and carefully is more lasting than that which comes in a single bound. The reason some men fail, he thought, is because they work without a def- inite ambition to guide them, and when a man doesn't aim at something he very seldom hits it. Work with a definite pur- pose! Therein lay his salvation. Work, the master which sometimes may seem a cruelly exacting one, but which in the long run confers the most satisfying rewards. Work ! The solvent of all sorrows and the bestower of the most lasting happiness. Dawson was fired with a great ambition. He felt a soaring elation of spirit. 92 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER Like a general who marshals up his columns and ponders well the forces pitted against him, he formulated his plan of battle. First of all, he reviewed his .own resources with cold and unsparing precision. He knew that there were thousands of young men in exactly his own position, and he knew that nine hundred out of every thousand would never arrive. It was up to him to decide whether he should be in the nine hundred that fail or the one hundred that succeed. They all had an even start. Therefore, why were some to fail and why were some to succeed. He considered the subject critically. First of all, he took an inventory of those qualities which a man must have who succeeds. Health, honesty, industry, and intelligence these were the cardinal virtues which successful men of all ages had proclaimed as the fundamentals of success. Of course, some men had succeeded without health, but this was because they were by natural endowments exceptionally great or exceptionally strong. Some had succeeded by dishonesty, but that was only material success, and not the real kind. Some had succeeded without industry, but that was accident, and some had succeeded without much intelligence, but that was dogged de- termination and aggressiveness. Dawson felt that he had as fair a measure of the cardinal elements of success as most young men. He had health, which was the corner stone, and which must be preserved by all means in his power. Without health he could not be industrious; without a healthy body he could not retain a healthy mifid, and DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 93 without a healthy mind he could not hope to be honest or to use to the greatest advantage what natural intelligence he had. He also felt that he was of a naturally buoyant nature, due perhaps to a healthy body therefore he should allow no excess or indulgence to jaundice the one or weaken the other. He re- solved not to drink at least not during the first ten years dur- ing which he was to lay the foundations of his life and character. He reflected that while many successful men drink, they had succeeded in spite of it rather than because of it. No man that he had ever heard of had succeeded because he drank. There- fore as a cold-blooded business proposition he would not assume a habit which is never a help and is very often a serious handi- cap. While it might not hurt him, it certainly would not help him, and he was now determining the things that would defi- nitely help him. Let the other young men drink if they wished. He would not presume to preach to them, for that was their own lookout; yet he felt that by not drinking he stood a greater chance of being in the one hundred who succeed rather than the nine hundred who fail. As a hygienic and business measure he resolved not to burden himself with a habit that he could get along without, and if he couldn't get along without it he might as well drop out of the race at once. It would be a confession of lack of character and strength of purpose. Also, from the economic standpoint, it was a habit that cost money that he thought could be spent to much greater advantage for things more essential to his advancement. 94 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER As to the other two elements considered essential to suc- cess honesty and industry Dawson felt that he was pretty well equipped. He was certain that he would work his head off in order to succeed. As to honesty, he was certain that he was honest. Dawson, however, had never yet encountered a really strong temptation, DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 95 DEAR MOTHER: The Weather Man has certainly been behaving something scandalous up here for a week or two. I'm afraid his New Year's resolutions haven't agreed with him. It's been as cold as the sheets in Aunt Em- ma's spare bedroom, and if there's anything colder than that I'd like to have Robert E. Peary try to prove it. That room was the headquarters of Winter. There was more fresh air 96 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER to the square foot in there than any place this side of latitude 86, and I shiver even now every time I accidentally think of it. Whenever I slept there I used to sit up so late in the warm sitting-room that they finally had to drive me up to bed, and when I struck the icy sheets I would utter one agonised yell, and then try to catch my breath for ten minutes while I warmed up a little patch in the shape of a letter Z. Probably that room is one of the reasons why I always think that the old-fashioned winters used to be so much colder than the mod- ern steam-heated ones. There's one compliment I can sincerely pay to cold weather, though. It certainly makes you feel like working, and consequently I have been doing some tall hustling at the scene of my daily toil. So it's an ill Winter that works no good. I wish you knew some of the boys up here; I'm sure you would like them very much. They are a lot of mighty clean young fellows, and they have certainly been awfully good to son Charley. A big firm like this is like a little world all in itself, and the amount of office news and gossip that flies around is amazing. If the manager has an attack of indiges- tion, the whole office knows it and comments on it before 10 A. M. Most of the gossip is good-natured, but, of course, in a big place like this, there is naturally more or less knocking and intriguing, some from the chronic grouches, and some from those who are constitutional trouble makers. I'm keeping out of all this office politics, and am sticking to my knitting DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER 97 as closely as I can. The work is tremendously interesting if you want to make it so, and I'm trying to learn as much about the business as I possibly can. I've read all the books in the office library, and several that relate to our business and the markets covered by our business which I got from the public library. Even if it doesn't help very much, I figure that it can't hurt any to be up on this end of the work. Some day some one may want to know how many tons a year the Argentine Repub- lic uses, or why German shippers are cutting into American markets in China, and I'll be there with the information. This last week there has been quite a little excitement in the office. One of the young fellows, an awfully keen young chap named Weller, was discharged on account of some irregu- larities in his work. He was the requisition clerk, and had to get bids from various firms for all the materials and supplies used in the Chicago end of our concern. I don't know exactly what the trouble was, because there are all sorts of stories float- ing around. At any rate he was let out, and there are a lot of the boys feverishly manoeuvring to get the job. Everybody with a pull is sitting up nights burning the lamp of hope. I was sorry to see young Weller go, because he was a popular fellow, and a great mixer with the people around the office as well as with the salesmen and solicitors that sell goods to our firm. I now hear the dulcet notes of friend Morpheus calling, and I have serious intentions of adjourning to the land of dreams for a welcome sojourn of about eight hours. 98 DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER I hope this weather hasn't affected you, and that you are feeling as well as Your affectionate son, CHARLEY. DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 99 DEAR MOTHER: Things certainly are stirred up in the office these days, and all on account of the vacancy in the job of requisition clerk. Every fellow with a pull is exerting his influence to beat the band, and the gossip and dis- cussion that you hear in my stratum at the office is something coslosterous, to say the least. The Presidential nominations can't hold a candle to the excitement that rages about the va- cant job in the great house of Morrill & Co. I'm expecting to see torch-light processions marching through the office, with ioo DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER stump speakers standing on every desk. The favourite in the race seems to be a young fellow named Ellwood. He's been in the office for three years and is considered the brightest one of the bunch of aspirants. The only thing against him is the fact that about once every three months he gets slightly "lit up," and sometimes shows up at the office looking rather frazzled about the nerves. In spite of this he is clever and capable and is considered a valuable man in the force. I'd like to see him land the job, for probably the increased responsibility would steady him down, and he'd cut out his occasional leaps from the water wagon. He's really a very nice fellow. Some of the boys think the place will go to a young chap named Vosburg, a perfect wonder of efficiency in matters of detail. He is not particularly popular because he is inclined to be grouchy, and somewhat ill-tempered once in a while, but we all have to admit his ability and thoroughness. He's straight as a string, and a great student, but I can't help wishing he didn't have these grouchy spells. Perhaps if he gets a boost he will be more cheerful. Then there are two or three others that seem to be considered in the running more or less, but Ellwood and Vosburg undoubtedly have the inside track, ac- cording to office gossip. The job pays thirty a week, and, of course, it's a grand prize. The weather up here has been causing much talk of a de- rogatory nature and I am pleased to chronicle that I have added a few words towards swelling the volume of talk. A lot of men DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER 101 are out of work, and I shudder to think what their families must be suffering these cold days. Last pay day I selected three large able-bodied dollars from my salary, and ordered them out to the relief of the suffering. Some place in this great city those three valiant heroes are working hard, and while they may not look so big as viewed from above, they certainly look big as viewed from below. I know from experience. Last summer when I was trying to woo a smile from Dame Fortune, I met face to face certain unforgettable mo- ments when a dollar looked as big as the Ferris wheel, but that was summer, and nature at least was kind, even if fortune was not. I certainly can sympathise with anybody who is up against it, especially during weather when you can't sleep in the park. Even in our boarding-house we have had one pretty sad case in the last two weeks. One of the boarders, a young lady who works downtown, got sick after the Christmas rush, and some of the rest of us are contributing a little each week to help her while she is laid up. She got only six a week, and I guess it wasn't enough for carfare and food, and as she had to have carfare, I fear she had to go light on her lunches. She's picking up slowly and we're having a hard job trying to keep her from starting back to work before she gets strong. She's very nice, and they say she comes from down in the country some place. I feel awfully sorry for her. 102 DAWSON 'n FORTUNE HUNTER Well, now yours truly must repair to the feathers. If I catch cold I'll take care of it as you request. In the mean- time, scatter my love lavishly around the old homestead, and with loads of it to you, I am, Yours affectionately, CHARLEY. The next day when Dawson ' 1 1 returned from luncheon he found a telegram and a note on his desk. The note was on Mr. Merrill's private stationery, but Dawson opened the telegram first. "Can you meet me 4:30 train, Polk Street, this afternoon? N. C." Great Scott! It was from Nell ! Half bewildered, he mechanically opened the note. "Mr. Morrill wishes to see you at 4 130 this afternoon." DAVVSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 103 ~T\ AWSON ' 1 1 was face to face with a real crisis. When he -^ read Nell Courtright's telegram asking him to meet her on the 4.30 train, he was first amazed and then per- plexed. What in the world could it mean? Why should she telegraph him to meet her while "Scads" was in town? Was it merely the friendly act of a girl acting upon the impulse of the moment; or did the telegram indicate a serious situa- tion in which she wished his advice or help? Well, he soon should know, for the train would arrive at 4 130, and he would be there to meet it. Then he opened the formal note in which he was asked to report to the head of the firm, Mr. Morrill, in the latter's office at 4:30. For a moment the fact that the hours were io 4 DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER the same did not strike him, but when it did, it struck him with staggering force. He sank limply into his chair. "Great guns!" he thought. "Here's a lovely complica- tion. Both at 4 130, and I've simply got to report to the boss. There are no two ways about that! If I sent word that I couldn't see him because I had to meet a girl, it would be all up with me. He'd probably think I was meeting girls during office hours every day, and I'd never get a chance to explain the exceptional nature of this particular case. No, I've simply got to see him. It's his time, and he's paying me for it, and he has the first call on it. But how about Nell ? What will she think if I fail her in the first thing she has ever asked me to do? She'll be sure to feel hurt and humiliated for having exposed herself to my indifference and will certainly never give me another chance to see her while she's in town. If I don't meet her I won't even know where she's stopping." His brow wrinkled in perplexity as he solemnly contemplated the note and the telegram. "What's the matter, Dawson? No bad news, I hope?" It was Ellwood, the young fellow who was considered likely to get the appointment as the new requisition clerk. Dawson gloomily pointed to the two communications. As Ellwood read the note from Mr. Morrill his lips tightened almost im- perceptibly, as though an unwelcome thought had struck him. Then he laughed pleasantly and slapped Dawson on the back. "Don't let a little thing like that worry you. Tell the man- DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER 105 ager you've got a splitting toothache and have to see the dentist. The manager will square it with the boss, you can meet your young kdy and see the hoss to-morrow morning." Dawson looked up sharply at these words, and there was something in his look that made Ellwood flush and hastily continue in a different strain. "Or, better still," he said, "don't beat about the bush, but go straight to the boss, and tell him exactly the situation. He'll advise you to meet the train because it may be an urgent matter." "No," said Dawson, "I'm afraid I can't do that. If I were in the habit of seeing the boss frequently I shouldn't hesitate to put it up to him squarely, but as this is only the second time he's ever asked me to come in, I don't believe he'd like it if I tried to beg off." "Well," resumed Ellwood thoughtfully, "how about this? Get a time-table and telegraph her on the train and explain why you can't meet her. Ask her to wait at the station for a half hour, and you can go there after your conference." "I might telegraph her, but I couldn't be sure that the telegram would reach her. And, of course, this would be the one time of all times that it would slip up. Besides, I don't like to ask her to wait at the station, for there may be others who will also meet her. She has another friend up here, and if he meets her she wouldn't be likely to keep him sitting around the station waiting for some other man. Of io6 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER course, if I were sure no one else was to meet her, that plan would be good, but then there would always be the uncertainty of the telegram reaching her." He brightened up as a new thought struck him. "How would it do to have some one else meet her when she arrives? I could explain everything in a note and ask her to let me know where I can see her this evening. That's what I'll do. I'll send the telegram, and also send some one to meet her. It will be perfectly easy to identify her, for she'll be the prettiest girl on the train, fair hair, blue eyes, black furs, medium height, with N. C. on her suitcase. A messenger couldn't miss her." "Well, good luck, Dawson. I hope it works out all right, and that all ends happily. You can get one of the boys in the mailing room to go to the train. Their work is prac- tically over by four o'clock. Dawson thanked him warmly, and at once set in motion the machinery that was supposed to meet the crisis. He found that the train was likely to arrive on time, as it usually did, ex- cepting during heavy snow falls. So he sent a telegram, which he hoped would catch the train at a certain station. Then he got one of the mail clerks, and arranged for him to meet the train and give a note to a certain young lady, fully de- scribed in minute detail, and received an emphatic assurance that it was as good as already done. "You can depend upon me," said the mail clerk, holding a prophetic finger in the air. Dawson noticed with some mis- DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER 107 giving that the finger was yellow with cigarette smoke, and that it shook nervously. Lastly, Dawson overcame his pride sufficiently to call up "Scads" Allcott at the latter's home. A cold, impersonal voice told him that Mr. Allcott had not been there for two nights, and that he probably was out of town. "Probably with Nell," thought Dawson gloomily. "But if so, why the telegram ? It's too much for me. I can't figure it out." At 4:29 Dawson presented himself to Mr. Merrill's secre- tary, and his name was sent in to the august master of the great house of Merrill & Co. A moment later a buzzer sounded, and Dawson was directed into the holy of holies. io8 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER TX 7"HEN Dawson 'i i entered the private office of Mr.Mor- ' * rill he was conscious of a sudden sense of depression. Why did Mr. Morrill want to see him? For the first time the thought struck him that perhaps the interview was not to be a pleasant one; that perhaps his work had been unsatisfac- tory, and that the great house of Morrill & Co. had decided to worry along without him. The sense of depression became a panic within him, and in the brief moment that he stood waiting to be recognised he felt his hopes tottering, and saw his bright air castles dissolving in sombre clouds. Mr. Mer- rill's note had given no indication of the purpose of the inter- view, and his back, as he bent over his desk, struck Dawson as being ominously rigid. Without looking up he motioned Dawson to a seat and DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER 109 continued writing. Letter after letter was signed, deliberately blotted, and very deliberately laid to one side. The silence be- came oppressive, and the formal richness of the room grew more formal and unfriendly. Each tick of the little clock on Mr. Mor- rill's desk smote Dawson with uncomfortable misgivings. It was now 4:40, and Nell had probably arrived, and was reading the note which the clerk from the mailing room had taken to the station. He tried to picture her face as she read it, and hoped that it would reflect sympathetic understanding, rather than wounded pride and disappointment. For a moment the grim irony of the situation struck him. What a tragedy it would be if he had missed meeting her merely to keep an appointment with a boss who was going to discharge him! "Well, young man." Mr. Morrill had leaned far back in his chair, and was teetering back and forth as he wiped his glasses. An unmistakable twinkle was in his eye, and at the sight of it Dawson's spirits shot up from the depths like a rocket that leaps to the freedom of the heights above. His face became radiant with sudden relief, and the change in expression was so spectacularly abrupt that even Mr. Morrill noted it with mild amazement and wondered at it. "You seem to be in very good humour, young man better than when you were last in here." "Yes, sir." "Let's see. Upon that last occasion, if I remember cor- no DAWSON 'n FORTUNE HUNTER rectly, you told me that I and my firm could go to thunder, didn't you ?" Dawson smiled a faint admission to the charge, noting in the meantime that the "old man" was beaming amiably at the recollection of the last interview. There was sunshine in Dawson's heart. "Now, Mr. Dawson, I suppose you are a busy man, so I won't take much of your time. You naturally want to know why I've called you in to see me. Very briefly, it's this: There is a vacancy in the place of requisition clerk, and I've decided to give you a chance at it." Dawson was amazed. He hadn't dreamed that he was even being considered. Ell- wood had seemed so sure of it, or, rather, the office was so sure that Ellwood would get it. In spite of his exaltation of spirits, he was conscious of sympathy for Ellwood, and regretted that his own triumph must cost some one else unhappiness and dis- appointment. "Our last man," continued Mr. Morrill, "turned out badly. He couldn't stand prosperity. We shall soon see how you will stand it. The position you will have, like that of purchasing agent, is one that offers certain temptations, and you will have many opportunities to show whether you can resist these attractive temptations. Salesmen and agents who wish to sell supplies to the firm will try to make it worth while to you to favour their own goods; you will be offered courtesies in the form of theatre tickets and presents, all DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER in of which are forms of bribery, and are meant as such. Every cent a salesman spends on you will ultimately be paid by our firm, either in higher prices paid for supplies or in the in- feriority of supplies bought. If you accept these favours you will have to reciprocate by giving orders for goods. This is a form of bribery that is very common, but it is just as much bribery as though you were given actual cash. The only dif- ference is that it is slightly disguised in the form of Christmas presents, or loans, or other convenient mediums. Now, it's up to you, young man. You have the two courses to follow. Either you will yield to these temptations, as our last man did, or you will resist them. Your salary will be $30 a week, and I hope you will make good. I merely wanted to let you know what you will be up against, and let you work out your own salvation." Dawson was very serious during this speech. In a gen- eral way he knew of the insidious methods which are used to influence men in such positions as he was to occupy, and he further knew that the difference between bribery of this sort and friendly courtesy was very narrowly defined. Yet he felt that he could differentiate between them, and he longed for the test that should prove his ability to rise above all these forms of bribery in disguise. He believed that he would be strong enough to make his business success conform to his ideals, and not suffer his ideals to conform to his business success. "I'll do my best, Mr. Morrill, and I thank you ever so 1 12 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER much for giving me the opportunity. I may fall down, but it won't be because I haven't tried. You never know what you can do till you try." Unconsciously Dawson had expressed in words a phrase which he was destined to repeat often in after life, and to which in a large measure he was to owe his success. He never conceded that he couldn't do a thing before he tried to do it. When Dawson left the private office of Mr. Morrill it was after five o'clock. His face was sobered by the serious respon- sibilities ahead of him, and to Ellwood, who glanced sharply at him as he passed, it revealed nothing conclusive. Dawson might have been coming from a funeral, so serious was his demeanor, and it was not until he approached his desk that his face suddenly flamed with radiance. There sat the mailing clerk, grinning and waving aloft a letter. "It must be from Nell!" thought Dawson as he fairly rushed forward to seize it. But the mailing clerk hastily with- drew it behind his back, and was shaking an unsteady finger at him. "Promise me you'll not get sore," he said. "Certainly not," answered Dawson. "Hurry up; give me the note." The mailing clerk handed forth the note, and then burst into a loud laugh. It was the note that Dawson had written. It had not been delivered. "What does this mean?" exclaimed Dawson impatiently. "What does it mean?" answered the clerk, controlling DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER 113 his mirth. "Why it means that Willie fell down on his job. That's all it means. I was at the station five minutes before train time, and they said the train was five minutes late. So I thought I would have time to go across the street for a minute, and when I came back the darned old train had come in and the platform was empty. Not a girl in sight. Awful sorry, old man ; but mistakes will happen, you know." Dawson thanked him, and the clerk, grinning broadly about him, weaved his way slowly toward the door. "That's the type of man," thought Dawson bitterly, "who never will amount to anything. If he falls down on a little thing like that, he will fall down in everything else he tackles." In the meantime, where in the world was Nell ? n 4 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER BEFORE Dawson 'n went to his room that night he ' had exhausted every means in his power to find where Nell Courtright had gone after her arrival in Chicago. He telephoned "Scads" Allcott, but the same impersonal voice informed him that Mr. Allcott had not yet returned, that he was probably out of town, as he had taken a suitcase with him. Dawson got a grain of comfort from this information, for it was evident that "Scads" was not expecting Nell, or he would be in town. Unless Dawson turned cold at the thought unless he was with Nell, and had come to Chicago with her. But if so, why should Nell have telegraphed Dawson to meet her? Surely not to act as No, the idea was pre- posterous that would be a crowning piece of cruelty which neither Nell would tolerate nor "Scads" dare to ask. No, she DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 115 must have come alone, and furthermore, she did not expect to see "Scads," or she wouldn't have telegraphed to him Dawson. He telephoned to the hotels where, in an emergency, Nell might have gone, but no guest of that name had been regis- tered. He also considered telegraphing, or even telephoning, to Judge Courtright, but decided not to do so. It would be hard to explain over the telephone how urgent were the reasons why he had failed to meet Nell after she had telegraphed him to meet her. The old judge was proud, and he would bitterly resent what he might consider a slight to his daughter: or. if he didn't resent it, he would probably say that if Miss Courtright wished very much to see Mr. Dawson, she would probably telephone him herself. No, he couldn't ask Judge Courtright for her address. It was not that he was afraid of exposing himself to humiliation he would gladly have exposed himself to anything for her but he reflected that such a course was unlikely to produce the result he wanted. When he went to bed that night he tossed about for an hour, racking his brain for some means of locating Nell at once, and at last, unable to sleep and unwilling to try without having done everything possible, he got up and wrote a letter to her, addressed to her home with the request on the en- velope that it be forwarded to her. He mailed it so that it would catch the last collection, and then, feeling that he at least had done something, he went to bed again. n6 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER When Dawson arrived at the office of Morrill & Co: the following morning he was surprised to find that the news of his promotion already had spread among the office force. "We had it all 'doped' out that Ellwood or Vosburg would get the job," said one of the boys, "but Vosburg's chronic grouch was against him, and the fact that Ellwood once in a while gets 'lit up' was just enough to turn the scales against him." By nine o'clock Dawson had been transferred to his new quarters in a little fenced-off enclosure near the office of the purchasing agent. By ten o'clock two salesmen had called, and at eleven a pleasant, middle-aged man, well dressed, and with good nature brimming over in his twinkling eyes, dropped in a chair near Dawson's desk and presented his card. "Well, my boy, I see you've got Weller's job, and I wish you good luck in it. I think I can see that you're going to make good." His manner was most friendly and cordial. "From this little piece of literature," he said, pointing to his card, "you will see that my name is James Garvin of the Titanic Stationery Company. If you ever want to stock up on some of the best stationery in the world, just remember I am the party to order it from." "Well, Mr. Garvin, I'm pretty new on the job," answered Dawson, "but when we need any stationery, I'm sure yours will get proper consideration." "That's all I want, my boy. My goods will take care DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 117 of themselves in any competition. Only please remember the name and address. Your house has not bought any paper from us at least not for some time and I want to get our line in here again." Mr. Garvin arose and shook hands, and was just on the point of going when a note was laid on Dawson's desk. Dawson stared at it electrified. His head swam! It was in Nell's writing! He forgot Garvin, and the office, and stationery in the tumult of excitement that overwhelmed him. With trembling hands he opened the note, dreading the possibility that it might be full of reproaches or else couched in the formal terms that meant an end to all his hopes. "Dear Charley: I was sorry you could not have met me yesterday afternoon, but your telegram reached me on the train, so I was not expecting you. I came up to see about some costumes for the play that the Dramatic Club is giving for charity in May somebody had to come, and so I volunteered, thinking that I could arrange it all yesterday, and take the evening train home. That is why I telegraphed you. I thought perhaps you, being such a confirmed city man by this time, could tell me where to go, and might perhaps help me a little in seeing about the costumes. I know you must be very busy, but if you have time, won't you please telephone me Edge- water 9709 and give me the address of some good costumer? I shall appreciate it so much. "Sincerely your friend, "NELL." n8 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER Not a word of reproach! Not a syllable of wounded pride ! Dawson loved her more that minute than he ever had before. A tremendous load was raised from him and his face was radiant with relief and happiness. Mr. Garvin had resumed his seat when the note arrived, and narrowly watched Dawson's face as the latter read it. He shrewdly surmised that it was a note from a girl, and fur- thermore that it was from a girl in whom the new requisition clerk had more than a passing interest. So he waited, and when Dawson suddenly turned to him he was innocently in- specting an art calendar hanging on the wall. "Mr. Garvin, do you know of a good costumer here in Chicago? A friend of mine wants to get some costumes for an amateur play and wants the address of a good concern." Mr. Garvin pondered a moment, then he slapped his knee as a great thought struck him. "I know the best one in town," he exclaimed, "and when you get ready to go over, just telephone me and I'll go over with you. My number's on the card there. And if I can't get you a discount of 30 per cent, my name isn't Garvin. I'll save you some money, my boy." Dawson grasped his hand with impulsive gratitude, thanked him warmly, and promised to telephone him just as soon as he could arrange a suitable time for going. He then turned to telephone Nell. DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER 119 AT noon on the day after Dawson telephoned to Nell Courtright, the shoppers in the waiting-room of a certain large department store were aroused to sudden interest by the arrival of a young man who rushed eagerly forward to greet a young girl who evidently was expecting him. A broad smile of amusement blossomed on every face, for the frank joyousness of the young man's greeting, as well as the embarrassed but happy light in the young girl's eyes, told a story which every woman instinctively and sympathetically un- derstood. For a moment the tide of commerce paused in its mad rush, and then flowed on, carrying with it faces that were brighter, and hearts that were softer because of the amusing 120 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER little drama it had witnessed. Old ladies beamed amiably, young ladies smiled knowingly and a little wistfully, while hardened old business men grinned broadly and thus for a brief moment the world was made more cheerful than it had been before. At last Dawson 'n had met Nell, and if his words were only the conventional words of friendly greeting, his beaming features spoke volumes which all who ran could read. When Dawson and Nell left the waiting-room of the department store it was half past twelve, and Dawson was happier than he had ever been before. A sense of joyous elation in being able to serve the one girl he liked more than all the other seven hundred and fifty million girls in the world put together was almost more happiness than he could stand. The noonday throngs that crowded the sidewalks observed him with interest, and knew that he was not the young lady's brother. "We've got to hurry," Dawson explained, "because Mr. Garvin is to meet us at the costumer's at half past twelve. He says he'll be able to get you a big discount from the regular price. You'll like him, Nell. It was a great piece of luck, getting him interested." "I think it's perfectly fine, Charley, saving us all that money, and I know I'll like your friend very much." "He's not exactly a friend, Nell, for I just met him yester- DAWSON 'i ^FORTUNE HUNTER 121 day; in fact, I met him for the first time only a few moments before your note came. He was sitting by my desk at the time, and after I read your note I asked him if he knew of any good costuming concern where you could get your things for the Dramatic Club. He volunteered to help us out." "Well, anyway, I think it is awfully nice of him to go to all this trouble for somebody he hardly knows. I'm begin- ning to like Chicago better already. I thought everybody up here was too busy with his own affairs to bother with anybody else, and now I find that I've been doing them all an injustice. I*m sure he must like you, Charley, or else why should he be so nice to you ?" Dawson was silent. For the time he began to ask him- self questions which in his innocence had not before occurred to him : Why was Mr. Garvin going to this trouble for him ? Why was he doing favours for a man he hardly knew? Dawson was struck by sudden illuminating misgivings. Was this part of that great system of grand and petit graft that was said to honeycomb the commercial world? Was it the first move of a man who wished to put him under obligations in the hope that the favours would be returned, not by Dawson in his private capacity, but by Dawson, requisition clerk, who had it in his power to order big supplies of stationery which Mr. Garvin had to sell? Was this that bribery in disguise which he, Dawson, had so firmly resolved to resist and which now appeared in such an innocent and friendly guise? Was it 122 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER the entering wedge by which Mr. Garvin was to test Dawson's integrity, to see whether he could be "reached" ? The more Dawson thought of it, the more convinced he became that Mr. Garvin's motives were not entirely unselfish, and as this conviction grew he resolved with more deter- mination than ever not to lower his fixed standards of business ethics. No, he would not accept favours in private which might obligate him to return them in his official capacity. Dawson was so absorbed in this new and unexpected line of thought that Nell looked anxiously at him and asked him why he was so silent. "I've just thought of something, Nell, that hadn't struck me before. I've decided that we mustn't accept any favours from Mr. Garvin. I'll tell you all about it afterwards; there isn't time now, for here we are." A couple of minutes later they entered the costumer's, and were met by Mr. Garvin, the soul of good humour and friend- liness, and by him were introduced to the proprietor of the shop. DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER 123 DAWSON 'i i found himself in a most uncomfortable posi- tion. He didn't wish to offend Mr. Garvin, salesman of the Titanic Stationery Company, and at the same time he was determined not to accept special favours in his private capacity which he might be expected to return in his official position as requisition clerk of Morrill & Co. Of that he was certain, but he was far from certain whether Mr. Garvin, in wishing to serve him, was actuated by simple kindness, rather i2 4 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER than a calculating design to place him under embarrassing obligations. If the former were true, it seemed unfair to repel Mr. Garvin's courtesy with suspicion and distrust. By doing so he would be placing himself in a "holier than thou" attitude, which would be absurdly narrow and prudish, as well as unjust to a man who was acting only in a genuinely unselfish spirit. The line between a friendly service and a calculating service at all times is hard to define, but the more Dawson analysed the present circumstances the more convinced he was that he could not reasonably expect Mr. Garvin to be wholly unselfish, in view of their very short acquaintance. So, when the first opportunity offered, Dawson told him not to ask the costumer for a special rate on the costumes that Nell Courtright was getting for her dramatic club entertainment Garvin looked at him in surprise. "Why, what's the matter?" he asked. "Well, to put it plainly, Mr. Garvin, there are certain reasons why I'd prefer not to be under obligations which I might never be able to repay." Garvin shrugged his shoulders. "Well, of course, if you feel that way about it, all right," he said slowly. "I was only trying to do you a simple kind- ness. You asked me if I knew a good costumer, and I saw a chance of doing you a little service, that's all. If I've butted in, I'm sorry; but I meant all right." Dawson flushed with humiliation. He felt mean and small, DAWSON f 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER 125 and his attitude in having repulsed the generous courtesy of a well-meaning acquaintance seemed petty and prudish be- yond words. He saw himself in the light of a self-assumed sanctity that made him look ridiculous and hateful, for of all types he detested most, the sanctimonious was the one. Yet something far within him told him that he was right, and that, no matter how hard it would be for him to live up to his principles, he stubbornly would stick to them, regardless of consequences. If he appeared quixotic or prudish, all right. They were his principles, and he was resolved to stand by them. Garvin was watching him, as though expecting a reaction, but it failed to come, and he was surprised. Usually the re- action came quickly, for it is hard for abstract moral prin- ciples to withstand such an appealing human quality as friend- liness. He decided that Dawson was a moral crank, well mean- ing but narrow, who was trying to apply antiquated Sunday School ethics to the cut-throat world of business. "Mr. Garvin, I mink I know what you are thinking about me, and perhaps, from your point of view, you are right; and I suppose you know perfectly well why I don't want to be under obligations to you." "Perfectly well," assented Garvin, smiling grimly. "You think I am trying to get 'next' to you, now that you are in a position to be of use to me over at Merrill's. Well, I'll ad- mit that that angle had occurred to me. It's part of the game, my boy, and some day you'll have to recognise and accept it. 126 DAWSON 'n FORTUNE HUNTER In tfie meantime," he continued, starting to go, "if I can ever do you a favour that you're willing to accept, just let me know." "Wait a minute, Mr. Garvin. You can do me a favour now. I wish you would take lunch with Miss Courtright and me." Garvin laughed good naturedly. "All right, my boy. My feelings are not hurt in the least. We will study each other as business curiosities." A few minutes later the three were seated in a restaurant and Dawson and Garvin were launched in a discussion of busi- ness ethics, each defending views that were widely variant. DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER 127 AS they sat at the luncheon table Dawson and Garvin dis- cussed the subject of business morals, each from his own point of view, while Nell sat by, an interested listener. Dawson argued from the standpoint of one who is strong in the idealism of youth, when honour and self-respect are more important than material success; Garvin argued from the standpoint of one who has been in the game so long and has suffered the hard knocks of life so much that material success is all important. With him the end "justified the means." The 128 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER important thing was to "make good," and he felt certain that the world wasn't very particular about the small details of how he made good. "Now, you're just getting in the game, Mr. Dawson," he said, "and I've been in it for twenty-five years. You come up here with certain ideals which you are trying to apply to modern business life. Isn't that so?" "Well, so far as I am concerned, it's so. I'm trying to apply certain standards to my own business life. I'm not trying to reform anybody else." "Well, I want to tell you right now that you'll find it mighty hard to live up to those ideals if you expect to get any- where. If everybody was honest it would be easy, but everybody isn't." Garvin was very much in earnest. "You have to fight fire with fire. You have to do business with men who are willing to do anything providing they get what they are after. They will use any method to 'do' you, and it's impossible to compete with them unless you adopt those methods yourself. Take rebating, for instance. What chance would you have against a competitor who was willing to take secret rebates? Not a chance in the world. How many of the rich men of to-day have made their fortunes by adhering to ideals? Mighty few, let me tell you, yet now they are honoured and respected, while the men who tried to fight them with high ideals are gone and forgotten." Dawson couldn't help smiling. This argument was such DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 129 an old one, and the one that every dishonest man in the country was using to justify and extenuate his own moral obliquity. "Times are changing," said Dawson. "The country is waking up to the necessity of raising business standards. The old style methods of doing business are going out, and people won't stand for crookedness the way they used to. You can feel it in the air, in business as well as politics." Mr. Garvin evidently had not felt it ; at any rate, he didn't seem convinced. Twenty-five years of easy tolerance in business methods had made him conservative in adapting himself to a new and more rigid standard of business ethics. Any demand for a change from the old order of things was, in his mind, an effort to unsettle business and destroy confidence. If Mr. Garvin felt anything it was that he must defend his point of view. "Take myself, for instance," he argued. "Now, I'm a salesman for a stationery company. How long do you think I'd hold my job if I didn't bring in business, and how long would I bring in business if I didn't go after it just as hard as any of my competitors? My firm doesn't ask how I get the business. The main thing with them is that I get it." "But you can get it on the square, can't you?" asked Dawson. "If your goods are all right, what more is neces- sary?" "The quality of your goods isn't always the thing that sells them. A salesman has to establish friendly relations with buyers. He's got to spend money. Now, my firm allows me i 3 o DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER a certain amount of spending money, and I am supposed to use it where it will do the most good. If I give a little present or a little commission to a purchasing agent, no questions are asked providing I get the order. People don't like to do business with a tightwad, and it's a universal element in human nature that people like to get something for nothing." "But they don't get it for nothing," exclaimed Dawson. "All this money is paid by the customer in the long run, isn't it? He may not know it, but sooner or later he has to put up for it." Mr. Garvin grinned amiably. "Sure," he said, "but what if he does? He takes it out of the next man and so evens up in the end." "And the next man is always some poor fellow who can't afford it, isn't he?" "Well, that's his fault. If he was in position he would probably soak us just as hard." Mr. Garvin laughed quite audibly. "Look out, then, Mr. Garvin, for he's waking up, and I think he's getting ready to soak you." "All right, my boy." He looked at his watch. "I must be going now, but in the meantime, my young friend, I wouldn't try to reform the. business methods of the day. Take the good things as they come along, and when you make your pile you can begin your reforming." "Thanks, Mr. Garvin," said Dawson. "I'll stick to my DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 131 code and you stick to yours, if you want to, and we'll see how it works out." As they left the restaurant Dawson felt the soft pressure of a hand on his arm, and looked down to see Nell's face shining with pride and approval. A moment later they were on the street, and in the crowd he saw "Scads" Allcott hurrying along with a young woman. They looked as though they were quar- relling. Dawson did not speak of it, but he wondered if Nell had seen. 132 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER X TELL COURTRIGHT'S little visit to Chicago came to an * ^ end and Dawson saw her safely on board her train. As the tram pulled out he stood on the platform until it had dis- appeared from view, and then slowly turned to face the vast lone- liness of life without her. All the sunshine and music in his soul were gone, and he realised as he never had before how much she meant to him. When he thought of her he was conscious of a feeling like that of being swiftly dropped in an elevator, a faint, gone sensation, which he recognised as love in its most unmis- takable form. He had felt it before In incipient stages, but DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 133 never like this. It was now like a severe and prolonged attack of stomach ache without the pain. "I guess I've got it bad," he thought. "There's no dis- guising that fact. There's nobody in the world like her." That night he wrote her a long letter about nothing in particular, but which was meant to express the hope that she had arrived home safely. After it was mailed he became panic stricken. Why had he written ? What possible excuse was there for such a long and idiotic letter? But when, two days later, a very cordial answer came he blessed the impulse that had led him to write. He read her letter over and over again, searching for something that might give him an excuse for writing again, and he finally found one which seemed sufficient. "The trip was uneventful, but oh, why must they keep the cars so close and hot?" she had written, and he answered it at length, telling her why. This was the beginning of a correspondence that furnished him two very bright spots each week, one that came with the joy of writing to her and the other that came with the arrival of a letter from her. The name of "Scads" Allcott had never been mentioned by either of them, and Dawson was sure that "Scads" had ceased to be an element of active concern in her life. Consequently Dawson was happy. Winter melted into spring, and the trees and shrubs were dappled with tender green. Everywhere nature was stirring. Street pianos were throbbing, birds were singing, and the shrill i 3 4 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER cries of children resounded from every vacant lot. "It's grand to be alive," thought I5awson, "but oh, how I'd like to be down home these days!" In his mind's eye he could see the radiant transformation of his little home town from the grey winter shabbiness to its fresh spring loveliness. The blossoms and leaves were so much farther along down there, he knew. He could hear the sound of hammering and sawing and carpet beating that always signalises the coming of spring in a small town, and he knew that every barnyard was simmering to the sunny music of clucking hens and peeping little chicks. Calves, and colts, and puppies, and kittens would soon be contributing to the joyousness of life in the country, and Dawson was filled with the vague yearnings and restlessness of spring fever. "I'll go down for commencement," he vowed, "if I have to walk, wade, and swim. And if she'll have me I'll take the fatal leap." It was a pleasing thought, and he fairly trod the air as he made his way along the familiar walks in the park. How well he remembered these benches and trees! He shuddered to think of those days of discouragement when he was trying so vainly to get a position. How unhappy and wretched he had been ! Unconsciously his steps led him to a bench where upon more than one occasion he had slept through the choking hot nights of last summer. As he approached it he saw a young man sitting where so often he himself had sat. The young man was well dressed, but he was leaning over, staring at the ground, DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 135 a picture of dejection, strangely out of keeping with all die fresh spring beauty of his surroundings. Dawson sat down beside him and put his hand on his shoulder. "Hello, 'Scads, 1 " he said. "What's the trouble? 1 136 DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER " QCADS" ALLCOTT was the picture of despair as he sat O with Dawson on the bench in the park. "Charley," said he wearily, "I'm up against it good and plenty. Little 'Scads' has had his whirl, and it's come up a double o. Luck is against me, and I'm all in. Me for the discard." Dawson started to speak, but "Scads" impatiently waved his hand. "Don't start on the advice, Charley. I know what you're going to say. I know it's all my own fault. I don't need any- DAWSON ' 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER 137 body to tefl me that. I got; a running start in the wrong direc- tion, and the harder I tried to catch even the worse off I was. That's afl there is to it." "I wasn't going to give you any advice, "Scads,* "* said Dawson. "I only wanted to know exactly how you stand, and what the trouble is, If I can help you, 111 do it." "Thanks. That's mighty decent of TOOL,, especially as we haven t been vtfii chummy lately, for one reason or another. Bat that hasn't been your fault. The long and the short of the matter is that I've been a fooL I'm only getting what's iMMig to me, and I don't suppose I ought to holler. Bat, believe me, little "Scads* has learned a lesson or two. and that's --, :::." "Fire away, "Scads.' Tefl me what the trouble is."" "Scads" lighted a cigarette, inhaled deeply once or twice, and then nervously iecked the ashes off. Then he began speak- ing dispassionately, but with an apparent effort. "You know how I was fixed when I came up here last summer to get a job. WeD, we both started even, with the exception that my old man kept me well supplied with coin, and I didn't have to get a job to keep from starving. I guess that was the main trouble. If he'd given me less it would have been better for me. However, that's neither here nor there. I had it, and I wanted to get action on it. The bright lights beckoned, and I was right there with the exact change in my I thought Fd have my fun while I was young, while I 138 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER could enjoy it. Well, I've had it," he added bitterly, "and take it from me, that's no way to get a start in business." "Scads" relapsed into gloomy reflection. "It seems as though Fate just sat back and let me have all the rope I wanted, knowing that there would be a grim reckoning one of these days. There's something funny about money, Charley especially easy money. It's mighty hard to get along with. You've got to treat it just right or you'll get the worst of it. I suppose it's what they call the law of com- pensation, as the 'prof.' used to say. Fortune gives some of us money, and the money gets us into trouble; other people, who have none, have their troubles getting money. So it's an even break." "You're not broke now, are you, 'Scads' ?" asked Dawson quickly. "Because, if you are " "Charley, believe me or not, but it's a fact. I'm busted flatter than the traditional pancake." "Scads" smiled grimly. "The 'paternal purse' is closed at last. I went to it just once too often. The governor came up last week, not having heard from loving son for a month or so, and we had a regular third act finale. It was thrilling. Hard-hearted father, spendthrift son. He finally relented, but he warned me that it was the last time. No more money from him." "Well, haven't you got any of that left?" asked Dawson. "Scads" smiled again. "I tried to break Wall Street and failed. J. Pierpont never DAWSON 'n FORTUNE HUNTER 139 will know what a close call he had. If I'd won, I'd been called a clever young man ; having lost, I am a sucker. You always lose at that game if you can't afford to lose. Anyway, here I am, busted flat, snarled up with a fairy, and I've simply got to get out of town. Cheerful prospect, eh?" "Of course, I'll help you, 'Scads' at least as far as I can go. Let's go over and have a bite to eat some place and tackle the problem from all angles." So together they left the park and presently were seated in a neighbouring restaurant. 140 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER "T\EAR MOTHER: I had dinner with Scads Allcott the **^ other evening, and I'm afraid that Scads is away down on his luck. He was very blue, and very bitter against the luck he's been having. He says his father has refused to give him any more money, so I guess it's a pretty serious case. He was nervous and unstrung and was anxious to get out of town to go some place where he could get a fresh start. "I'm going to cut out all the fooKsh busi- DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 141 ness," he said, "and try to make something of myself. I've got to get away from the bunch IVe been training with and make a fresh start. I want to rest up some place for a little while, for Fm all shot to pieces then a dean slate and a new deaL" I felt sorry for him. We had a long talk, and when I suggested that he go down home, he said he'd never go home until he had made good. He'd be ashamed to show his face down there under the present circumstances. I let him have some money enough to get him out West, where he swore he'd make good on his own resources or starve. And I'm inclined to think that he will make good if he gets down to brass tacks. The trouble with Scads is that things came too easy for him and he never had to exert himself. He felt that when- ever he wanted money his father would thaw out, so what was the use of working. I wished him good luck and he said he would drop me a line in a few days from out West. I haven't heard from him yet, so I guess he must have gone clear to the coast. Please don't breathe a word of this to any one, especially about his condition, or that I let him have any money. There's no use in making it any worse for him. I'm planning to come down to commencement, so please invite one of your nicest fried chickens to assist on die reception committee. Things are fine up here and I'm getting along scrumptiously in my new work. At least nobody has kicked, 142 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER so I hope all is well. Love to everything and everybody, with an extra helping for you. Your affectionate son, CHARLEY. After Dawson had mailed this letter, he settled down in the comfortable clasp of the arms of a rocking chair and idly looked over the weekly paper from home. In this way he kept in touch with all the doings of his old neighbours. Among the personal items was one that galvanised him into rigid at- tention. "Mr. Scadsworth Allcott of Chicago is visiting his par- ents, Mr. and Mrs. Abner Allcott. 'Scads,' as his friends call him, is now a prosperous business man of the big city. He will remain here for some time to convalesce from a severe attack of the grip. The wiseacres attach a more sentimental significance to his visit" When Dawson read this, he saw in his mind's eye the streets of his old town, the arches of green trees, the lilacs in bloom, and all the fresh loveliness of spring in the air. He was stricken with an indefinable attack of the "blues." DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER DAWSON had been looking forward with more eagerness and concern than he dared admit even to himself, to the day when his weekly letter from Nell was to arrive. The day came and passed with no letter, but the day following brought a postcard from her. "Nearly distracted with amateur entertainment. I now know what it means to be busy, and can sympathise with you poor hard-working men in Chicago. "N. C" That was all. Dawson read and reread it in the hope that he might construe the words to mean more than they expressed on the surface, but even by a most liberal interpreta- tion he could not distort them into anything sufficiently personal i 4 4 DAWSON 'n FORTUNE HUNTER to give him the slightest grain of comfort. He was worried and apprehensive. He wondered if the presence of "Scads" Allcott was responsible for this new note of chilling brevity in her correspondence. It was the first postcard she had written him, and it was the first week that had failed to bring him a cheerful letter of generous proportions. All the energy of an alert imagination was busy conjuring up gloomy pictures, and the pictures persisted in coming no matter how hard he struggled to overcome them with reassuring reflections. "Perhaps she is so terribly busy that she couldn't write a real letter," he ar- gued hopefully, but hot upon the heels of this thought came the grim fact that the first week she had failed to write him a letter was the week that "Scads" was there. "I must be fair," he reasoned. "It isn't right to dis- trust a girl who has been as nice to me as she has been." And hot on the heels of this argument came the grim fact that he had never proposed to her and that "Scads" had ac- tually been engaged to her. She was under no obligations to be true to one who had never asked her to marry him, or who had never even told her he loved her. The man who wins a girl is the one who proposes, not the one who doesn't propose. The intentions of the latter may be most excellent, but something more is required to effect an engagement. Dawson's frame of mind, which was fast becoming less and less cheerful, was further depressed when he read in the home paper that "Mr. 'Scads' Allcott, who is here for a. visit, DAWSON 'i i FORTUNE HUNTER 145 has consented to take part in the forthcoming dramatic enter- tainment to be given for the Samaritan hospital." This brief notice was the straw that reduced Dawson to black despair. "What license have I to think of winning a girl like Nell Courtright? What chance have I against the son of old Abner Allcott? 'Scads' some day will be worth a half a million, while if I keep on saving ten dollars a week I'll have a hundred thousand dollars in just two hundred years, if my health doesn't break down in the meantime. It means a good deal to a girl to be Mrs. Scadsworth Allcott at least it sounds a lot better in the newspaper down home than to be Mrs. Charles Dawson, wife of a $3<>a-week slave in Chicago. As. Mrs. Allcott, she will have her costume described and ride up in a limousine car; as Mrs. Dawson, she will arrive in a street car. No, it's money that counts nowadays. It doesn't make any difference what the man is, provided his name is a big one and the account of the wedding sounds brilliant. A man's got to have money." In this rebellious and gloomy mood he started for a furious walk through the park. It was Sunday, and a genial May sun had brought thou- sands of people out to enjoy the fresh spring loveliness of the trees and the flowers. The day was fairly singing with happi- ness. Upon all sides there were cheerful and smiling faces. Nature was purring, and all the world seemed to have put on its most joyous air in honour of the day. 146 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER As Dawson sat on the stone coping of the esplanade, he noted with a dull sense of resentment that humanity had paired off in happy couples. Every young man was side by side with a girl. It was the spirit of spring in its happiest manifestation. To Dawson it seemed that he alone was out of harmony with the picture. A pleasant voice brought him out of his somber thoughts, and he looked up to see Sewell, the man who had tried to bribe him to reveal the bids of Morrill & Co. on a big contract. "Hello, Dawson," said Sewell. "What's the matter? Aren't your high ideals agreeing with you?" Sewell had arrived at the moment when those ideals of honesty were sorely beset as they never had been before. If there ever was a time when the possession of money seemed of vast importance, this was the moment. DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 147 TT7HEN Sewell spoke to Dawson he waited a moment to * see whether his friendly advances would be repelled, and when they were not he sat down on the stone coping beside the disconsolate young man. "What's the matter, Dawson? Business, girl, or health? Or just spring fever?" "Mostly spring fever, I guess," answered Dawson, smiling dryly. "Spring fever with sentimental complications." "So? An affair of the heart, eh? Well, this is the season for such attacks. 'In the spring a young man's fancy/ you know." Dawson said nothing, but in his heart he felt vaguely resentful of things in general. Here was Sewell, well dressed, 148 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER prosperous looking, apparently at peace with the world, and yet with a low code of business morals. The memory of their last interview was fresh in his mind, and he recalled how Sewell had attempted to establish a working alliance with him in order to profit at the expense of their respective employers, the rival firms of Dodge & Co. and Morrill & Co. And here was he, Dawson, who had clung to his high ideals, and who now was in the slough of despond because a rival, with no advantages, save the possession of a rich father and a prominent name, supposedly had supplanted him in the affections of a girl. He felt a compunction against discussing an affair of this kind with Sewell, but the desire to talk of it was strong. Sewell's attitude was one of friendly concern and sympathy. "How does it happen, Sewell, that you, who make no bones about doing underhanded work for Dodge & Co., are cheerful and good-humored, while I, who won't stand for any- thing that isn't on the square, am just at present somewhat down on my luck? It doesn't seem quite appropriate, does it?" Sewell smiled indulgently. He seemed to take no offense at the frank words of the younger man. "Well, Dawson, there are a lot of things that you've got to learn before you get along much farther. High ideals are all right I won't quarrel with you on that score but high ideals and business don't always go together. You've got to strike a working average between them. Now, I suppose, you DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 149 know that I wouldn't steal a cent under any circumstances. I'd rather have my hand cut off. But when it comes to using my brain and my opportunities in other directions I don't allow any grand and lofty scruples to interfere. You can't adjust high ideals with cut-throat business methods, such as exist to-day. For instance, take the successful business men of to-day the big millionaires ; how many of them would be willing to make a clean breast of the methods they used to get their fortunes? Not many, believe me, yours truly. I know." Dawson said nothing, and Seweil continued : "There are two kinds of honesty business and private. I think I am square in a personal and private way, but when it comes to business I merely do what successful men in the past have done. I use my opportunities, and, in a way, I be- lieve that the end justifies the means. After a man makes a great fortune, people don't concern themselves about the way he made it. The mere fact that he has it is as far as they look. He becomes a philanthropist and a prominent citizen. His name is on all the reception committees when some eminent visitor is to be entertained. Isn't that a fact?" Dawson nodded. "I suppose there is a good deal of truth in what you say, Seweil, but I've also observed that in the last few years the public is not quite so much dazzled by big names. A lot of prominent millionaires have been getting into trouble. Their unscrupulous but financially successful methods are bobbing up 150 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER to plague them. People don't ask, 'Has he got it?' but 'How did he get it?' They won't stand for crookedness the way they used to. You ,can feel it in the air." Sewell smiled in a tolerant way. "A few get into hot water, perhaps, but think of the ones that don't. You have to take a gambler's chance on that proposition. It's part of the game. That's where the spice of danger comes in. Now, take our own cases, for example. I am on Easy Street. I make a good salary and three times as much on the side. You are making a fair salary, and, at the usual rate of advancement, you will be a white-haired old octogenarian before you have a fortune if you depend on your salary. Just figure it up yourself." Dawson smiled grimly. Here was the old argument, the one that every dishonest young straggler was using to extenuate his moral delinquencies. Sewell misconstrued his silence and continued his argument. "Now one of these days you probably will be getting married. And, believe me, your voyage on the matrimonial sea won't be any joy ride at the salary you're getting. Now's the time to get busy on the side. I can put you in the way of making a lot of money if you'll get rid of some of those small town scruples. Get in the game, Dawson, while you're young. You always can reform after you've made your pile, you know. And, in the meantime, you'll stand a lot better show of getting the girl you're after if you've got a. little DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 151 bunch of money ahead. How about it? With ordinary care, no one will ever 4 tumble to' the game we can work together." "No, Sewell, you don't get my point of view at all. It isn't the fear of getting caught that makes me want to keep straight. It's the dread of having to confess to myself that I'm not straight. It isn't what other people may think of me; it's what I would have to think of myself. When I shake hands with a decent person I want to feel that I'm straight and clean. That's the reason I'm trying to be on the square, and why I intend to be, no matter if I don't make a financial suc- cess. I want to keep my own self-respect. As for getting married some day, I don't suppose I shall ever get married, but if I ever should, I think my chances of being happy will be better if I am straight instead of crooked." When Dawson returned to his room that day he felt better for having "stuck to his guns." His talk with Sewell had strengthened his determination to be on the square, "no matter what." It would be nice, of course, if he could have included Nell Courtright in his plans for the future, but even if he could not he would have the satisfaction of being straight for his own sake. A special delivery letter awaited him. "Dear Charley," it read, "No letter from you this week. I do hope you are not ill. Please don't be, because I want you to be sure to come down for commencement next week. Write soon and tell me you will surely come. "NELL." 152 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER DAWSON obtained a two days' leave of absence from the office, and long before train time he boarded the car that was to carry him home. It seemed too good to be true. In a few short hours he should again be among the people he loved so much and whom he had not seen since Thanks- giving time. His eagerness grew as the train sped on, and when at last he saw familiar landmarks by the track, he moved himself and his suitcase up to a seat near the door. He was determined to get every minute out of his visit home. As a final preparation for his triumphant return he carefully brushed DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 153 his new spring suit, and determined to do all he could to im- press his old neighbours with visible signs of his prosperity. The family reunion at the depot was up to all his ex- pectations. Bud even had brought old Shep down to greet the returned traveler, and Dawson's measure of happiness was filled when the venerable dog wagged a demonstrative recog- nition. How beautiful everything was! Streets that he last had seen cold and bleak in November were now bowers of deli- cate green; trees that then were gaunt were now triumphal arches of foliage. The air fairly purred with happiness, and Dawson could hardly restrain himself from such exhibitions of joy as would be unbecoming in a dignified man of affairs such as he now was. Dinner! All that the wildest dreams had pictured. A feast to make Lucullus stir enviously in his somber mausoleum. It was an epicurean symphony played on the harps of angels ! From time to time Dawson murmured "Gee !" in complete ac- knowledgment of his utter inability to do justice to the dinner in other words. After the dinner was over and had taken its honoured place among the notable historic epochs of his life, Dawson discoursed at length on life and politics and business, and at half past eight his mother, with instinctive understanding, asked him if he didn't want to call on some of his friends before it became too late. 154 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER "You'll have plenty of time to visit with us," she said. "Now run along and don't stay too late." "Mother's something of a mind-reader," thought Dawson as he left the yard and, by a curious chance, directed his steps unerringly in the direction of Judge Courtright's house. The streets were dark, but from all sides came the sounds of voices and music and distant singing. In the dense shadows, cast by heavy foliage under the street lights, there were glimpses of white dresses as young people strolled along under the arch- ing trees. The air was heavy with the fragrance of flowers, and the spirit of spring was weaving a wondrous spell in Daw- son's heart. From each shadowy yard came the murmur of low voices and youthful laughter; at many of the gates he came upon couples suddenly silenced as he passed. Dawson quick- ened his steps until ahead of him rose the old-fashioned home of Nell Courtright. Ever since he could remember, this dig- nified old house had impressed him as no other house in town had ever done. There was a simple dignity about it that ex- pressed the character of Judge Courtright, and Dawson had never passed it without feeling a certain awe of its modest grandeur. This feeling swept over him anew as he opened the gate and walked into the yard. He suddenly felt very in- consequential. DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER '55 DAWSON pulled the old-fashioned bell knob and a faint tinkle sounded far off in the back of the house. There was a nervous wait, then a hall light was turned up, and a moment later the door was opened by a venerable coloured woman. This was old Aunt Hester, "aunt" by affectionate brevet to every one in town, as well as one of the town's most respected and best known characters. She had been with the Courtrights thirty years and had been with Nell Courtright's mother when the latter was a little girl in the South. Ever since he could remember, Dawson had known her just as she was now with white hair, gold-rimmed glasses, spotless white necker- 156 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER chief and crinkly black silk dress, none of which seemed to change with the passing years. As she walked through the noisy streets of the town sHe always suggested to him an old- time minuet in a ragtime atmosphere. Yes, Miss El'nah was in and would Mistah Dawson "rest" himself in the drawin' room for just a moment ? Miss El'nah would be right down. As Dawson waited, there presently came to his ears the sound of some one moving quickly about in the room above. There seemed to be a great deal of hurrying back and forth, with mysterious intervals of silence. Dawson's nervousness in- creased. He seemed singularly out of place in the midst of the old-fashioned stateliness of the room in which he sat. The walnut woodwork, darkened with age, and the heavy atmos- phere of surroundings that seemed part of a long-gone and time-honoured past, made him seem very small and inconse- quential. The idea of asking Nell Courtright to give up this old home, where she was in her proper setting, for anything that he could offer ! It was preposterous. He thought of the little flat that would be the most that he could give to replace the venerable and faded glory of the Courtright home. No, it was out of the question. He mustn't expect such a miracle to happen. It wasn't fair. She, the daughter of a distinguished man who was rich only in honours and position, deserved more than he could ever hope to give her. And then she came. He found himself shaking her hand DAWSON f 1 1 FORTUNE HUNTER 157 and uttering, in a strange far-away voice, a lot of confused words that seemed fearfully commonplace. He had never seen her looking so pretty, her eyes brimming with friendliness and her cheeks flushed with a glow that he thought must have come from her hurry while dressing. He didn't know what he was saying, and it was not until he felt a gentle tug at the hand he held that he realised how long he had been holding it. "I couldn't help it, Nell. I'm so glad to see you." Both were blushing furiously, but she was the first to recover her composure. "Charley, isn't it dreadfully hot in this stuffy old room? Why in the world did Aunt Hester bring you in here? We always sit on the porch these warm summer nights it's so much cooler out there." And without waiting for a response she fled to the vine-screened porch, where the friendly darkness could hide the betraying confusion in her cheeks. Both were overwhelmed by self-consciousness. The air was charged with disturbing electric currents that made their efforts to talk in commonplace terms seem forced and hollow. Their conversation was lame and halting, and each was inten- sely aware of the reason why it was so. From the darkness came the thousand sounds of a soft summer night. Insects were chirping and humming, and from all sides came the melody of distant singing and music and laughter. Away off some place in the night some boys were singing college songs; from another direction came the sounds 158 DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER of guitars and mandolins; a man was practising on a clarinet down near the river, and yet nowhere in the heavy shadows of the elms and the maples was a human being to be seen. The air was filled with the fragrance of flowers and the poetry of rustling leaves and soft breezes. It was one of the purple nights that live in memory forever. "Isn't it beautiful, Nell?" There was no answer. She didn't dare trust her voice. "I'd rather be here than any place in the world, Nell." There was a long silence and then, in a voice stifled and faint, she managed to frame a reply. "We simply adore it, Charley. Father and I love this old yard." "You know what I mean, Nell. It isn't the yard and the trees and the music; it's being with you, Nell. I've dreamed of it so often" his voice was trembling in its earnestness "O, you'd never believe how much I've thought of it and how much I've longed to be here with you." He paused. "Or any place with you, Nell. You do believe me, Nell, don't you?" He leaned forward and took her hand, half fearing that the wrath of the heavens would descend and smite him. But it did not. He felt her hand tremble a little and was dimly con- scious that her other hand was pressing a little handkerchief to her burning cheeks. There was a suffocating silence that seemed to last an eternity, and then, suddenly, like a sun that bursts from behind the clouds and floods the world with glory, DAWSON 'ii FORTUNE HUNTER 159 came die consciousness that die hand had not been withdrawn. He kissed her, and a moment later was engaged to be married. ******* Dawson '11, Fortune Hunter, had found his Fortune. minium mil A 000 021 370 2