will have to let six hundred go for the annual interest on the
original debt. Four years would have to elapse before, under this
system, he would get his debt down to where it was when he was
broken up in business. Thus, at the end of eight years' hard
struggling, he would not, really, have advanced a step out of his
difficulties. A debt of ten thousand dollars would still be hanging
over him. And if, persevering to the end, he should go on paying the
interest regularly and reducing the principal, some twenty-five
years of his life would be spent in getting free from debt, when
little over half that time would have been required, if his
creditors had, acting from the commonest dictates of humanity,
voluntarily released the interest."

"That is a new view of the case, I must confess--at least new to
me," said Mr. Petron.

"It is the humane view of the case. But, looking to interest alone,
it is the best view for every creditor to take. Many a man who, with
a little effort, might have cancelled, in time, the principal of a
debt unfortunately standing against him, becomes disheartened at
seeing it daily growing larger through the accumulation of interest,
and gives up in despair. The desire to be free from debt spurs many
a man into effort. But make the difficulties in his way so large as
to appear insurmountable, and he will fold his hands in helpless
inactivity. Thousands of dollars are lost every year in consequence
of creditors grasping after too much, and breaking down the hope and
energy of the debtors."

"Perhaps you are right," said Mr. Petron;--"that view of the case
never presented itself to my mind. I don't suppose, however, the