His first impulse was to return the half dollar to his employer, and it was on his lips to say, “You have given me a half dollar too much, sir,” when the unforgotten words, “Let people look after their own mistakes,” flashing into his mind, made him hesitate.  To parley with evil is to be overcome.

“I must think about this,” said James, as he put the money into his pocket.  “If it is right in one case, it is right in another.  Mr. Carman doesn’t correct mistakes that people make in his favor, and he can’t complain when the rule works against himself.”

But the boy was very far from being comfortable.  He felt that to keep a half dollar would be a dishonest act.  Still he could not make up his mind to return it, at least not then.

James did not return the half-dollar, but spent it for his gratification.  After he had done this, it came suddenly into his head that Mr. Carman had only been trying him, and he was filled with anxiety and alarm.

Not long after this Mr. Carman repeated the same mistake.  Again James kept the half-dollar, and with less hesitation.

“Let him correct his own mistakes,” said he resolutely; “that’s the doctrine he acts upon with other people, and he can’t complain if he gets paid in the same coin he puts in circulation.  I just wanted a half dollar.”

From this time, the fine moral sense of James Lewis was blunted and his conscience troubled him but little.  He began to cherish a spirit of covetousness, which is in the heart of all, until subdued by the grace of Christ.  He soon began to desire the possession of things for which he was not able to pay.

James had good business qualifications.  This pleased Mr. Carman.  He saw that the young man was intelligent, industrious, and tactful with customers.  For this reason, he advanced him rapidly, and, before he was eighteen years of age, he held the most responsible position in the store.

But James had learned something more from his employer than the secret of doing business well.  He had learned to be dishonest.  He had never forgotten the first lesson he had received in the downward course.  And this wicked instruction he had acted upon, not only in two instances, but in a hundred, and almost always to the injury of Mr. Carman.

The young man had long since given up waiting for mistakes to be made in his favor.  He originated them in the varied and complicated transactions of a large business in which he was trusted implicity.

Of course, he grew to be sharp and cunning; always on the alert; always bright, and ready skillfully to meet any approaches towards a discovery of his wrong-doing by his employer, who held him in high regard.

In this way it went on until James Lewis was in his twentieth year.  Then the merchant received a letter which aroused his suspicions.  This letter spoke of the young man as not keeping the most respectable company, and as spending money too freely for a clerk on a moderate salary.