the office and help the boss."

I wondered what kind of a girl the "boss's" daughter could be, to
marry such an ass as this, and I would have been glad to see the
photograph of her that he passed to his friends, but I made up my mind
that the "boss" was getting a rare prize in a son-in-law.

Sitting in the smoking room of the hotel that evening I heard some men
mention names that were familiar to me, and I discovered the talker to
be a groceryman.

"If our goods are close," said he, "the sales are large and folks have
to buy. I heard H. K. Thurber say that the best year's business that
he ever did was on a net profit of 1-3/4 percent."

"Phew! How much did he sell?"

"Eighteen or twenty millions."

"I've been in Thurber's store," said another, "and I tell you they
have things down fine. I think H. K. Thurber had the best head on him
of any man I ever saw. He was quick as lightning; his judgment was
good; he had no soft spot for any one, and he didn't tell his plans to
any one. But Frank, his brother, seems to be just as successful, and
yet is very different."

"He's the politician, isn't he?"

"Yes; he was a Greenbacker, and anti-monopoly, and lots of other
things. Some of these days he'll be Mayor of New York, or go to