They
began life with no fortune but willing hands and active brains;--fortune
enough for any young man in this free country.
[Illustration: "_Let's break the back of another token_."]
"Sometimes after we had done a good day's work, James Harper would say,
'Thurlow, let's break the back of another _token_ (a quarter of a ream
of paper),--just break its back.' I would generally reluctantly consent
just to _break the back_ of the _token_; but James would beguile me, or
laugh at my complaints, and never let me off until the _token_ was
_completed_, fair and square!
"It was our custom in summer to do a fair half-day's work before the
other boys and men got their breakfast. We would meet by appointment in
the gray of the morning, and go down to John Street. We got the key of
the office by tapping on the window, and Mr. Seymour would take it from
under his pillow, and hand it to one of us through the blind.
"It kept us out of mischief, and put money into our pockets."
The key handed through the window tells the secret of the _luck_ that
enabled these two men to rise to eminence, while so many boys that lay
soundly sleeping in those busy morning hours are unknown.
No wonder that James Harper became mayor of the city, and head of one of
the largest publishing houses in the world.
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