“Well, boys,” said Ranney, “you’ve heard the ideas of two observing men.  They give you the result of their experience on two or three very important practical points; what do you think of it?”

“Ransom,” said the ready Case, “is thinking who and what must be the one hundred, of whom he is to be the one.  They would be a sad sight.”

“And Case,” rejoined the ever irate Ransom, “that if John Doe and Richard Roe, with a declaration in ejectment, could only be turned into doggerel, he would be an eminent land lawyer.”

“What has happened to Ransom?” asked Kennedy.

“I don’t know,” replied Case; “he has sparkled up in this same way, two or three times.  Can it be that an idea has been committed to his skull, lately?  If one has, a habeas corpus must be sued out for its delivery.  Solitary confinement is forbidden by the statutes of Ohio.”

“Never you mind the idea,” said Ransom.  “I mean to find a lawyer in good practice, and go into partnership with him at once.”

“Now, Ransom,” said Case, still gravely, “you are a very clever fellow, and devilish near half witted; and you would allow such a man, whom you thus permitted to take himself in with you, one third or one fourth of the proceeds of the first year.”

“I would have no trouble about that,” said Ransom, not quite feeling the force of Case’s compliment.

“Well,” said Ranney, “I suspect that generally lawyers, desirable as partners, if they wish them, will be already supplied, and then, when one could secure an eligible connection of this kind, the danger is, that he would be overshadowed and dwarfed, and always relying on his senior, would never come to a robust maturity.  Well, Kennedy, what do you say?”

“Not much; I hope to be able to work when admitted.  I mean to find some good point further West, where there is an opening, and stop and wait.  I don’t mean to be a failure.”

“Ridgeley, what are your views?”

“Modest, as becomes me; I don’t think I am to be counted in any hundred, and so I avoid unpleasant comparisons.  I don’t mean to look long for an opening, or an opportunity; I would prefer to make both.  I would begin with the first thing, however small, and do my best with it, and so of every other thing that came, leaving the eminence and places to adjust themselves.  I intend to practice law, and, like Kennedy, I don’t mean to fail.”

“Mr. Ranney,” continued Bart, “what is the reason of this universal failure of law students?”

“I think the estimate of Giddings is large,” said Ranney. “but of all the young men who study law, about one half do it with no settled purpose of ever practising, and, of course, don’t.  Of those who do intend to practice, one half never really establish themselves in it.  That leaves one fourth of the whole number, who make a serious and determined effort at the bar, and one half of these—­one eighth of the whole—­succeed; and that brings out about as Giddings estimated.”