“You were friendly with Gould then?”
“Oh, yes; ‘chummy,’ they call it now. His father’s farm was only a
little way from ours, and we were fast friends, going home together
every night.”
“His view of life must have been considerably different from yours.”
“It was. I always looked upon success as being a matter of mind, not
money; but Jay wanted the material appearances. I remember that once
we had a wrestling match, and as we were about even in strength, we
agreed to abide by certain rules,—taking what we called ‘holts’ in the
beginning and not breaking them until one or the other was thrown. I
kept to this in the struggle, but when Jay realized that he was in
danger of losing the contest, he broke the ‘holt’ and threw me. When I
remarked that he had broken his agreement, he only laughed and said, ‘I
threw you, didn’t I?’ And to every objection I made, he made the same
answer. The fact of having won (it did not matter how), was pleasing to
him. It satisfied him, although it wouldn’t have contented me.”
“Did you ever talk over success in life with him?”
“Yes; quite often. He was bent on making money and did considerable
trading among us schoolboys,—sold me some of his books. I felt then
that my view of life was more satisfactory to me than his would have
been. I wanted to obtain a competence, and then devote myself to high
thinking instead of to money-making.”
“How did you plan to attain this end?”