“From the time I began working in the store until to-day, I have always
supported myself, and during all the years of my boyhood I never
received a penny that I did not earn myself. At the end of my first
year, I went to a larger store in the same town, where I was to receive
sixty dollars a year and my board. My salary was doubled; I was getting
on swimmingly.
“I kept this place for two years, and then I gave it up, against the
wishes of my employer, because I had made up my mind that I wanted to
get a better education. I determined to go to college.
“I did not know how I was going to do this, except that it must be of
my own efforts. I had saved about eighty dollars from my storekeeping,
and that was all the money I had in the world.
“When I told my employer of my plan, he tried to dissuade me from it.
He pointed out the difficulties in the way of my going to college, and
offered to double my pay if I would stay in the store.”