my books, spare me all work, and get all my share of the education, at

a thousand dollars a month, college paper (ten dollars, United States

currency) was no other than the prominent Billson whom I could do no

better than follow. The poor lad was very unhappy. It's the only good

thing I have to say for Muskegon Commercial College, that we were all,

even the small fry, deeply mortified to be posted as defaulters; and the

collapse of a merchant prince like Billson, who had ridden pretty high

in his days of prosperity, was, of course, particularly hard to bear.

But the spirit of make-believe conquered even the bitterness of recent

shame; and my clerk took his orders, and fell to his new duties, with

decorum and civility.

Such were my first impressions in this absurd place of education; and,

to be frank, they were far from disagreeable. As long as I was rich, my

evenings and afternoons would be my own; the clerk must keep my books,

the clerk could do the jostling and bawling in the exchange; and I could

turn my mind to landscape-painting and Balzac's novels, which were then

my two preoccupations. To remain rich, then, became my problem; or, in

other words, to do a safe, conservative line of business. I am looking

for that line still; and I believe the nearest thing to it in this

imperfect world is the sort of speculation sometimes insidiously

proposed to childhood, in the formula, "Heads, I win; tails, you lose."

Mindful of my father's parting words, I turned my attention timidly to

railroads; and for a month or so maintained a position of inglorious

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