and because as a clerk his duties necessitated his calling at other
banking-houses, he had come to be familiar with and favorably known in
the Bank of the United States, the Drexels, the Edwards, and others. The
brokers knew him as representing a very sound organization, and while he
was not considered brilliant mentally, he was known as a most reliable
and trustworthy individual.

In this progress of his father young Cowperwood definitely shared. He
was quite often allowed to come to the bank on Saturdays, when he would
watch with great interest the deft exchange of bills at the brokerage
end of the business. He wanted to know where all the types of money came
from, why discounts were demanded and received, what the men did with
all the money they received. His father, pleased at his interest, was
glad to explain so that even at this early age--from ten to
fifteen--the boy gained a wide knowledge of the condition of the country
financially--what a State bank was and what a national one; what brokers
did; what stocks were, and why they fluctuated in value. He began to
see clearly what was meant by money as a medium of exchange, and how all
values were calculated according to one primary value, that of gold.
He was a financier by instinct, and all the knowledge that pertained to
that great art was as natural to him as the emotions and subtleties
of life are to a poet. This medium of exchange, gold, interested him
intensely. When his father explained to him how it was mined, he dreamed
that he owned a gold mine and waked to wish that he did. He was likewise
curious about stocks and bonds and he learned that some stocks and bonds
were not worth the paper they were written on, and that others were
worth much more than their face value indicated.

"There, my son," said his father to him one day, "you won't often see
a bundle of those around this neighborhood." He referred to a series