Year in and year out he had heard the talk right and left in the shop, on the street, and at the store of an evening.

"I'll give you a point," he had heard one say to another during a discussion as to prices and dividends.

He had heard it all described as a short cross-cut over the fields of hard labor to wealth and comfort, and he had kept his face straight ahead in his narrow track of caution and hereditary instincts until then.

"The savings bank is good enough for me," he used to say; "that's where my father kept his money.

I don't know anything about your stocks.