tion. While both boys had done everything of a routine nature that was required of them, it had been noticed that Smith was always more anxious to please customers in all the ways possible to a salesman.

But the matter rankled in Brown's mind. He was brooding over the thing one day when a woman customer approached the lace counter and inquired for a certain make of lace. "Sorry; haven't got it," said Brown, briefly.

In a second, Smith was at his side, whispering, -
"Jack, you'll find it on the third lower shelf down."

Turning, Brown went to the shelf indicated, found the goods, produced them, and made a sale. As soon as the customer departed, the manager, who had been looking on, stepped up and asked,

"Brown, why didn't you learn to know your goods?"

"I can't remember everything, sir."

"Smith seems to be able to do so," said the department manager, as he moved away.

That remark about knowing one's goods stuck deep in the mind of the listening Smith. He had already a very good knowledge of the laces that he had to sell, but he went to the department manager and said,

"I would like your permission to cut a small sample from every one of the laces in the department."

"What do you want of them?"

"I want to take the samples home and study them evenings. I want, if possible, to become so familiar with every make and pattern of lace that I could tell it by touch in the dark." "Take the samples," was the brief reply.

After a few weeks of patient study, aided by the use of a

microscope, Smith discovered that he knew three times as much about laces as he had ever expected to know. Out of his savings he bought a powerful hand magnifying glass which he carried with him daily to the store. By degrees he became able to demonstrate to customers the relative values of the different laces. The department manager looked on approvingly and added all the information in his power.

At the end of the second year Brown's salary remained six dollars. Smith's pay had been increased to ten.

"Favoritism!" snapped Brown. "I wonder, Fred, why the manager can't see anything in me. I work as hard as you do." "Not in the evenings," was the quiet answer. "I spend most of my evening time studying the laces. Why don't you do the same? You're a good fellow, and willing. Come up to the house with me to-night, and after supper I'll show you some of the things I've been studying."

"Can't do it," replied Brown; "got an engagement."

There was an evening high school course in chemistry. Deciding that he knew as much as he was able to learn about the fibers of every kind of lace sold in the store, Smith decided to take up chemistry in the hope that he could learn something more about laces. The course was elementary, but he applied himself with so much diligence that the professor soon began to take an especial interest in him. Then the young man explained what he wanted most to learn.

"Stop a few minutes every evening after the class is dismissed," advised the professor. "Bring samples of your laces with you, and I'll see what help I can give you."

All through the winter, Smith toiled away at chemistry. He learned how to make tests of the lace fibers that were im

possible with the microscope alone. One day a lot of samples of laces came in from abroad. Some of these the young man, after using his glass, considered spurious. He took them home that evening and applied the chemical tests. The next morning he reported to the department manager, a successor to the one under whom he had first been employed, that the samples were of spurious goods.

"Why don't you mind your own business?" was the irritable retort; "these samples are all right."

But Smith, saying nothing, went to the superintendent and made a statement of what he had discovered.

"How on earth do you know this?" demanded the young man's superior.

"Professor Moeckmann has been instructing me in chemical tests of thread fibers for several months."

"I'll think the matter over," said the superintendent, briefly. He did, even to the extent of communicating with the professor. The result was that the new department manager was dismissed, and Smith, after some urging, took his place, at a comparatively low beginning salary of thirty dollars a week. Brown, who was now receiving eight dollars a week, had begun to feel a positive dislike for his more successful friend.

Three more years went by. Smith drew forty-five dollars a week, while his erstwhile friend had gone up to ten. The buyer for the lace department, who had grown old and wished to retire, was about to make his last trip to Ireland and France for laces. He requested that Smith should go with him.

"You always have been lucky," growled Brown, when he heard the news. "You're off for a fine trip abroad, with all expenses paid, and I suppose you're going to have your salary raised?"

"Pitch in and study, Jack," whispered Smith. "I've three days yet before I sail. Come around, and I'll get you started." 'Sorry, but I can't, old fellow. I've got engagements for every night this week."

Two months later Smith returned to the store, strolled through it, and went up to the lace counter.

Brown stood there, looking most disconsolate. His face brightened up, however, as he saw his friend approaching.

"Fred," he whispered excitedly, "I guess you can do me a big favor. I've been discharged. The fellow they put in your place has told me I'm through Saturday. Said a man who had been here so long and who was only worth ten dollars a week wasn't worth keeping. I suppose, though," — enviously, — "you've had another raise of pay?"

"Yes, Mr. Stallman, the foreign buyer, has retired, and I've been put in his place. I'm to begin with four thousand a year and traveling expenses."

Brown threw up his hands in a gesture that expressed a variety of emotions.

"Favoritism!" he muttered, scowling at the ceiling.

-H. IRVING HANCOCK.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN JACK

I. "Jus' MY LUCK"

WE were generally a party of a half dozen the owners of the four wagons, a couple of friends trading with Delagoa, a man from Swaziland, and just then an old Yankee hunterprospector. It was our holiday time, before the hard work with

loads would commence, and we dawdled along feeding up the cattle and taking it easy ourselves.

It was too early for loads in the Bay, so we moved slowly and hunted on the way, sometimes camping for several days in places where grass and water were good; and that lion skin was the cause of many disappointments to me. Never a bush or ant-heap, never a donga or a patch of reeds, did I pass for many days after that without the conviction that something was lurking there. Game there was in plenty, no doubt, but it did not come my way. Days went by with, once or twice, the sight of some small buck just as it disappeared, and many times, the noise of something in the bush or the sound of galloping feet. Others brought their contributions to the pot daily, and there seemed to be no reason in the world why I alone should fail- no reason except sheer bad luck! It is difficult to believe you have made mistakes when you do not know enough to recognize them, and have no idea of the extent of your own ignorance; and then bad luck is such an easy and such a flattering explanation! If I did not go so far on the easy road of excuse-making as to put all the failures down to bad luck perhaps some one else deserves the credit.

One evening as we were lounging round the camp fire, Robbie, failing to find a soft spot for his head on a thorn log, got up reluctantly to fetch his blankets, exclaiming with a mock tragic air:

The time is out of joint; O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right.

We knew Robbie's way. There were times when he would spout heroics, suggested by some passing trifle, his own face a