should be glad to serve them, etc., etc.

To our great surprise, business came in upon us so fast that we hardly
knew how to take care of it, and in the first year our sales amounted
to half a million dollars.

Then, and indeed for many years after, it seemed as though there was
no end to the money needed to carry on and develop the business. As
our successes began to come, I seldom put my head upon the pillow at
night without speaking a few words to myself in this wise:

"Now a little success, soon you will fall down, soon you will be
overthrown. Because you have got a start, you think you are quite a
merchant; look out, or you will lose your head--go steady." These
intimate conversations with myself, I am sure, had a great influence
on my life. I was afraid I could not stand my prosperity, and tried to
teach myself not to get puffed up with any foolish notions.

My loans from my father were many. Our relations on finances were a
source of some anxiety to me, and were not quite so humorous as they
seem now as I look back at them. Occasionally he would come to me and
say that if I needed money in the business he would be able to loan
some, and as I always needed capital I was glad indeed to get it, even
at 10 per cent. interest. Just at the moment when I required the
money most he was apt to say:

"My son, I find I have got to have that money."

"Of course, you shall have it at once," I would answer, but I knew
that he was testing me, and that when I paid him, he would hold the