"
"Anything wrong?"
"I find two errors."
"Ah, let me see."
The lad handed his employer a long bill that had been placed on his desk
for examination.
"Here is an error of ten dollars in the calculation which they have made
against themselves; and another of ten dollars in the footing."
"Also against themselves?"
"Yes, sir."
The merchant smiled in a way that struck the lad as peculiar.
"Twenty dollars against themselves," he remarked in a kind of pleased
surprise; "trusty clerks they must have!"
"Shall I correct the figures?" asked the lad.
"No; let them correct their own mistakes. We don't examine bill's for
other people's benefit," replied the merchant. "It will be time to
correct those errors when they find them out. All so much gain as it now
stands."
The boy's delicate moral sense was shocked at so unexpected a remark. He
was the son of a poor widow, who had taught him that to be just is the
duty of man, and that "honesty is the best policy" always.
Mr. Carman, the merchant, in whose employment the lad James had been for
only a few months, was an old friend of James's father, and a man in
whom he had the highest confidence. In fact, James had always looked
upon him as a kind of model man. When Mr. Carman agreed to take him into
his store, the lad felt that great good fortune was in his way.
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