had gone from bad to worse at home and most of my earnings had to
contribute to keep the pot boiling, it seemed to me as if I were
rich the first Saturday night I carried home the ten-dollar bill.

From this time my position in the office became more dignified. A
woman was employed to do the cleaning, and Mr. Derham delegated to
me the placing of many of the smaller orders and occasionally sent
me on business trips to near-by cities.

I worked hard and faithfully to make my services valuable.
I kept the books, made collections, attended to a portion of the
correspondence, and it was not long before I had acquired a thorough
knowledge of the methods of doing the business and was able to carry
out transactions to a finish without having to consult my employer.

In October, 1870, Mr. Derham told me he had decided to give up the
business and accept an offer which had been made him by one of the
large importing firms, to go to England as its foreign representative.

He proposed that I take his business, paying him for the good-will
twenty-five per cent of the profits for three years.

As I was not yet twenty years of age, he thought me too young to
assume the business alone, and advised a partnership on equal terms
with a Mr. Bulkley, then doing a brokerage business in a line that
would work in well with ours, it being his idea to combine the two.

Adam Bulkley, a tall, handsome fellow of thirty-five, was a personal
friend of Mr. Derham. He was a captain in the Seventh Regiment
and had seen service. A man of attractive personality, he had many