the prospect of never rising a step higher as long as I live. I
don't know how it is that some people get along so well in the
world. I'm sure I am as industrious, and can do business as well as
any man; but here I am still at the point from which I started
twenty years ago. I can't understand it. I'm afraid there's more in
luck than I'm willing to believe."

From this time Jacob set himself to work to obtain a situation in
some store or counting-room, and finally, after looking about for
nearly a year, was fortunate enough to obtain a good place, as
bookkeeper and salesman, with a wholesale grocer and commission
merchant. Seven hundred dollars was to be his salary. His friends
called him a fool for giving up an easy place at one thousand
dollars a year, for a hard one at seven hundred. But the act was a
much wiser one than many others of his life.

Instead of saving money during the third year of his receipt of one
thousand dollars, he spent the whole of his salary, without paying
off a single old debt. His private account-keeping had continued
through a year and a half. After that it was abandoned. Had it been
continued, it might have saved him three or four hundred dollars,
which were now all gone, and nothing to show for them. Poor Jacob!
Experience did not make him much wiser.

Two years passed, and at least half a dozen young men, here and
there around our friend Jacob, went into business, either as
partners in some old houses or under the auspices of relatives or
interested friends. But there appeared no opening for him.

He did not know, that, many times during that period, he had been