In due time Ralph Gilpin and Jacob Peters entered the world as men, but not at equal advantage.  They had learned the same business, and were both well acquainted with its details; but Ralph stood fairer in the eyes of business men, with whom he had come in contact, because he had been more careful about his reputation.

While Jacob was twenty-three years of age, he was getting a salary of one thousand dollars a year; but this was too small a sum to meet the demands that had come upon him.  His father, to whom he was tenderly attached, had lost his health and failed in business.  In consequence of this, the burden of maintaining the family fell almost entirely on Jacob.  It would not have been felt as a burden if his income had been sufficient for their support.  But it was not, unless their comfortable style of living was changed, and all shrunk together in a smaller house.  He had sisters just advancing towards womanhood, and for their sakes, particularly, did he regret the stern necessity that required a change.

About this time, the death of a responsible clerk in the house of A. & L. left a vacancy to be filled, and as Jacob was in every way competent to take the position, which commanded a salary of eighteen hundred dollars he made application; Ralph Gilpin, who was a salesman in the house, said all that he could in Jacob’s favor; but the latter had not been careful to preserve a good name, and this was against him.  The place was one of trust, and the members of the firm, after considering the matter, decided adversely.  Nothing as to fact was alleged or known.  Not a word as to his conduct in life was said against him.  But he had often been seen in company with young men who did not bear a solid reputation, and where doubt existed, it was not considered safe to employ him.  So that good opportunity was lost—­lost through his own fault.

Poor Jacob felt gloomy and disappointed for a time; talked of “fate,” “bad luck,” and all that kind of nonsense, when the cause of his ill-success was to be attributed solely to an unwise disregard of appearances.

“We shall have to remove,” he said to his mother in a troubled way, after this disappointment.  “If I had secured the situation at A. & L.’s all would have been well with us.  But now nothing remains but to seek a humbler place to remain here will only involve us in debt; and that, above all things, we must avoid.  I am sorry for Jane and Alice; but it can’t be helped.”

His mother tried to answer cheerfully and hopefully:  but her words did not dispel a single shadow from his mind.  A few days after this, a gentleman said to Jacob Peters,—­

“I’ll give you a hint of something that is coming in the way of good fortune.  A gentleman, whose name I do not feel at liberty to mention, contemplates going into your business.  He has plenty of capital, and wishes to unite himself with a young, active, and experienced man.  Two or three have been thought of—­you among the rest; find I believe it has been finally settled that Jacob Peters is to be the man.  So let me congratulate you, my young friend, on this good fortune.”