thousand dollars."

"I might borrow it, perhaps, if the chance is a very good one."

"Well, if you could do that, it would be as well, I suppose,"
returned the young man. "But you must see about it immediately. If
you cannot join me at once, I must find one who will, for the chance
is too good to be lost."

Jacob got a full statement of the business proposed, its nature and
prospects, and then laid the matter before the three merchants with
whom he had at different times lived in the capacity of clerk, and
begged them to advance him the required capital. The subject was
taken up by them and seriously considered. They all liked Jacob, and
felt willing to promote his interests, but had little or no
confidence in his ultimate success, on account of his want of
economy in personal matters. It was very justly remarked by one of
them, that this want of economy, and judicious use of money in
personal matters, would go with him in business, and mar all his
prospects. Still, as they had great confidence in the other man,
they agreed to advance, jointly, the sum needed.

In the mean time, the young man who had made the proposition to
Jacob, when he learned that he had once failed in business, was
still in debt, and liable to have claims pushed against him, (this
he inferred from Jacob's having stretched the truth, by saying that
his old debts drained away from him every dollar, when the fact was
he was freed from them by the provisions of the insolvent law of the
State,) came to the conclusion that a business connection with him
was a thing to be avoided rather than sought after. He accordingly