THE MEETING IN THE BANK
"Am I right in assuming that you are looking for a position, Richard?"
was the first thing the banker said.
"Yes, sir. You probably know the trouble my mother is having with her
investment, for she has conducted all negotiations through your bank.
Until that company resumes the payment of dividends we shall have rather
a hard time to get on. And I have made up my mind to give up school, for
the present, at least, and get work of some kind," said the boy,
clearly.
"Good for you. Your object is surely commendable. I understand that you
have already been making a start in that line?" pursued Mr. Gibbs.
"Do you mean with Mr. Cartwright, sir?" asked Dick, wondering how the
other had managed to hear of this.
"Yes. He was in here doing some business yesterday, and spoke of you."
"That was mighty nice of him, sir. I would gladly have continued on with
him, but you see his son, who had been sick, got well enough to come
back, and that knocked me out of a job."
"Very inconsiderate of Toby, too. But Mr. Cartwright, who is one of our
directors, and a heavy stockholder in this bank, recommended you to me
as a trustworthy young fellow who could be depended on to do your best
always. That is the rule we follow here; no matter how menial the task,
do it as near perfect as lies in your power."
"It was Mr. Cartwright, then--I thought--" began Dick, and stopped
short.
"What did you think, Richard; tell me?" asked Mr. Gibbs, smiling.
"I thought that perhaps Charles might have said something. He promised
to recommend me if you ever needed an assistant to help him out, he was
so busy."
"Oh! yes, just so, you mean Charles Doty. Unfortunately he was not able
to save himself, much less use his powerful influence toward getting
another in here. In fact, my boy, it is to fill his place that I am now
engaging you," observed the gentleman, pointedly.
"Then Charlie has gone--I expected he would not last. He likes to sleep
too much in the morning. I used to have to go and pull him out of bed
whenever we went fishing last year," remarked Dick, nodding
significantly.
"That was just the trouble--it took Charles too long to get started. He
may find more congenial employment in some other line; but he would
never do for the financial business. But I spoke of a curious
coincidence. You are doubtless wondering what I mean by that. Someone
else recommended that I give you a trial. Can you guess who it was?"
The reddening face of the boy announced that he at least had a
suspicion.
"That was only such a small thing to do, Mr. Gibbs. Any fellow could
pull a poor little kitten out of the water. It wasn't really deep enough
to drown me, anyhow; and I guess it would take more than that to do the
business, for I'm a duck in the water, sir."
"All right, but I've known many boys who would take a fiendish delight
in seeing a kitten drown," retorted the gentleman.
"But--that was Bessie's kitten!" said Dick, hastily.
"Oh! yes, so I see. Well, at any rate you did a good thing all around,
Richard, pleased my wife and daughter, and opened the way to a situation
for yourself in the bank here. Mr. Cartwright tells me you have always
wanted to be connected with an establishment of this kind, and he says
that you are unusually quick and accurate with figures--in fact, he
calls you a wonder in that line; but all our employees would seem such
to him, doubtless. Can you go to work to-day, Richard? We let Charles
off yesterday, and while the porter is doing some of his usual work
there are many errands that should be attended to."
"I am ready to commence right now, sir," responded Dick, getting up with
his usual alacrity.
"Good. I like to hear a lad talk that way. But by the way, you have not
asked anything about wages."
"I'm willing to leave that entirely to you, sir. I am sure you will pay
me all I am worth to the bank," said Dick, simply.
He could not have made a more diplomatic reply had he been a schemer
instead of a frank single-minded lad.
"Good again. I begin to think that it was a fine thing for all of us
that Charles overslept so frightfully yesterday. We paid him eight
dollars a week to begin with, Richard."
"Yes, sir. I shall be very glad to receive that, if you consider that I
can fill the bill."
"But, for the last two months we have been paying Charles ten. Now, I am
of the opinion that you are going to be even more valuable in the start
than he was at the finish of his banking career, so I shall instruct the
bookkeeper to put you on the payroll at ten dollars. That will do for
the present, Richard. I am going to take a personal interest in your
progress. I knew your father, my boy, and respected him highly."
"Thank you, sir," said Dick, as he withdrew; and there were tears in his
eyes which he had to wink very hard to dry out; but it was not the fact
that he was to receive such splendid wages at the beginning of his
business career that affected him half so much as this constant allusion
to the honorable name his father had left behind as a heritage for his
son.
Thomas Morrison might not have been able to lay up a fortune before he
was called to another world; but he had at least won for himself the
regard and esteem of his neighbors during all the years he labored in
and around Riverview.
Presently Dick was being instructed in his duties by one of the friendly
tellers.
While this was going on the cashier came out of his little room.
"Who's this boy, Payson?" he asked, frowning at Dick.
"I think you know me, Mr. Goodwyn; I am Mrs. Morrison's son. I have been
in to see you several times on business," returned Dick, calmly.
"But what are you doing inside the railing now?" continued the cashier.
"Mr. Gibbs has given him the place of the messenger boy, Charles, Mr.
Goodwyn," remarked the teller, a little vindictively, Dick thought.
The cashier frowned.
"Why, I spoke only yesterday to Mr. Gibbs about a nephew of mine I
could recommend for that position; I don't understand how it comes he
has taken this thing out of my hands. He seldom interferes with the
hiring of help. I must see him about it at once," and he hurried away to
interview the president.
"Much good it will do him," remarked Payson to his fellow teller; "I've
seen the fellow he wants to put in here, and so has Mr. Gibbs; and I
must say I didn't like his looks. Goodwyn has to help support his
family, I understand, and it's more his wish to lighten his own load
than to get us a clever messenger, that impels him to recommend his
nephew. Make your mind easy, Dick; there will be nothing doing."
And apparently there was not much satisfaction in the brief interview
which the cashier had with Mr. Gibbs, for when he came back presently he
hastened into his little den, nor did he have a word to say to anyone.
Only Dick feared that he would find Mr. Goodwyn a hard taskmaster, on
account of this incident; and he regretted it very much, believing it
would handicap him more or less in his work.
But the others soon came to like the new messenger exceedingly, he was
so clever, so obliging, and withal so bright; both tellers declared at
the close of the day's business that they had never known so little
trouble in getting their errands executed in a lucid manner.
At noon Dick bought himself a little luncheon, for he was too far away
from home to spend half an hour walking to and fro each day; after this
he meant to bring something with him; no matter if it were only bread
and butter, it would be much better than this "sawdust," as he
contemptuously called the cake he had purchased at the town bakery.
It was just at two o'clock that a most peculiar incident occurred, and
one that gave Dick considerable amusement.
He was waiting in the outer room for a paper which the president
intended sending to the post office to go by registered mail, when who
should come in but Ferd Graylock, accompanied by his father; who, as one
of the officers of the bank, went straight back to the room of the
president without ceremony, leaving his son in the public waiting-room.
Of course Ferd immediately spied Dick there and sauntered over, with his
customary air of importance.
"Hello! Morrison, what are you doing here? I didn't you know you were a
depositor in our bank," he said, with a patronizing manner that at first
made Dick grit his teeth, and then caused him to smile as a sudden
suspicion flashed across into his mind.
"Oh! I drift in occasionally to drop a few hundred thousand for safe
keeping," he replied, in a spirit of irony.
"What _are_ you here for anyway?" demanded Ferd, eyeing the other with a
sneer.
"Just waiting for something at present."
"Oh! I see, your mother has probably been making arrangements to borrow
on her tied-up investments. It's hard lines, old fellow. Now, you ought
to do something in the way of business, instead of spending your time
fishing, as I hear you are doing. I expect to branch out that way
myself. My old man says my school days are over, because my report was
so very depressing this term. He believes I would make a splendid
banker; and he's just gone back to consult with Gibbs about starting me
in here."
"Oh!" was all Dick trusted himself to say.
Apparently that position formerly occupied by the departed Charles was
not going around begging for applicants; nor was the cashier the only
one who had his eye upon it.
"Of course I will have to begin low down so as to get a grasp upon the
details and technical points of the financial side of the business; but
I'm willing to learn. Here comes the governor now; I guess he has it
clinched."
If he did he certainly showed little signs of satisfaction as he came
up, for he simply glared at Dick.
"Come on, son, back to the store. I think you'll have to begin your
mercantile career behind a dry goods counter after all," he snarled.
"But the position that was open to me here, with a chance to rise?"
exclaimed Ferd, looking aghast at this unexpected explosion of his
hopes.
"It is open no longer, Mr. Gibbs himself filled it. And that young
interloper has stepped into your place," pointing his trembling finger
at Dick.
"What! _you?_" cried Ferd, hardly able to believe his ears,
"impossible!"
Just then the paying-teller called out.
"Richard, here is the letter to be sent registered; and on the way back
stop in at Underwoods and leave this notice of a note coming due
to-morrow."
"Yes, sir," said Dick, hurrying out; while Ferd followed more slowly, a
frown on his face and his teeth gritting with anger.