——­“for I wouldn’t have it get out for a fortune.  They want me to go in with them on the sly—­agent was here two weeks ago about it—­go in on the sly” [voice down to an impressive whisper, now,] “and buy up a hundred and thirteen wild cat banks in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri—­notes of these banks are at all sorts of discount now—­average discount of the hundred and thirteen is forty-four per cent—­buy them all up, you see, and then all of a sudden let the cat out of the bag!  Whiz! the stock of every one of those wildcats would spin up to a tremendous premium before you could turn a handspring—­profit on the speculation not a dollar less than forty millions!” [An eloquent pause, while the marvelous vision settled into W.’s focus.] “Where’s your hogs now?  Why my dear innocent boy, we would just sit down on the front door-steps and peddle banks like lucifer matches!”

Washington finally got his breath and said: 

“Oh, it is perfectly wonderful!  Why couldn’t these things have happened in father’s day?  And I—­it’s of no use—­they simply lie before my face and mock me.  There is nothing for me but to stand helpless and see other people reap the astonishing harvest.”

“Never mind, Washington, don’t you worry.  I’ll fix you.  There’s plenty of chances.  How much money have you got?”

In the presence of so many millions, Washington could not keep from blushing when he had to confess that he had but eighteen dollars in the world.

“Well, all right—­don’t despair.  Other people have been obliged to begin with less.  I have a small idea that may develop into something for us both, all in good time.  Keep your money close and add to it.  I’ll make it breed.  I’ve been experimenting (to pass away the time), on a little preparation for curing sore eyes—­a kind of decoction nine-tenths water and the other tenth drugs that don’t cost more than a dollar a barrel; I’m still experimenting; there’s one ingredient wanted yet to perfect the thing, and somehow I can’t just manage to hit upon the thing that’s necessary, and I don’t dare talk with a chemist, of course.  But I’m progressing, and before many weeks I wager the country will ring with the fame of Beriah Sellers’ Infallible Imperial Oriental Optic Liniment and Salvation for Sore Eyes—­the Medical Wonder of the Age!  Small bottles fifty cents, large ones a dollar.  Average cost, five and seven cents for the two sizes.

“The first year sell, say, ten thousand bottles in Missouri, seven thousand in Iowa, three thousand in Arkansas, four thousand in Kentucky, six thousand in Illinois, and say twenty-five thousand in the rest of the country.  Total, fifty five thousand bottles; profit clear of all expenses, twenty thousand dollars at the very lowest calculation.  All the capital needed is to manufacture the first two thousand bottles —­say a hundred and fifty dollars—­then the money would begin to flow in.  The second year, sales would reach 200,000 bottles—­clear profit, say, $75,000—­and in the meantime the great factory would be building in St. Louis, to cost, say, $100,000.  The third year we could, easily sell 1,000,000 bottles in the United States and——­”