The next two years were passed in the country. On returning to Boston he
again entered a book store, and, when eighteen years of age, he became a
clerk in the then prosperous publishing house of Phillips and Sampson,
located on Winter street. His connection with this house afforded him
increased advantages; he was no longer an apprentice filling a menial
position, but was conscious of occupying a responsible station in the
business, where his integrity and intelligence were appreciated at their
real value. He enjoyed the fullest confidence of his employers, and was
soon looked upon by them as their "best" clerk. Selling by auction,
especially in the evenings, was at that time a leading feature of the
trade, and William Lee soon became an expert in that way, as well as in
the general character of salesman to the country trade. There was
scarcely a detail in the book trade with which he did not make himself
personally familiar; he sought to post himself upon the character and
contents of every book that was kept in stock, in order that he might be
able to speak intelligently of them to his customers. This habit of
general familiarization is one which, in the lapse of subsequent years,
has proved of incalculable service to him; it is one which cannot be too
earnestly commended to the attention of all young men who are to-day
"working" up in the trade.

At the age of twenty-one William Lee was allowed a share in the
business, and three years later he accepted an equal partnership in the
house. When it is remembered that at this time the house of Phillips and
Sampson stood foremost as publishers in New England, the fact that, at
the age of twenty-four, William Lee became an equal partner in this
house is certainly striking. It bears but one explanation: William Lee
owed his remarkable success to the talent which was born and bred in
him, and to the consciousness of self-reliance, with which his
employers, first and last, had inspired him. There is nothing in this