THE MEETING IN THE BANK
"Am I right in assuming that you are looking for a position, Richard?" was the first thing the banker said.
"Yes, sir. You probably know the trouble my mother is having with her investment, for she has conducted all negotiations through your bank. Until that company resumes the payment of dividends we shall have rather a hard time to get on. And I have made up my mind to give up school, for the present, at least, and get work of some kind," said the boy, clearly.
"Good for you. Your object is surely commendable. I understand that you have already been making a start in that line?" pursued Mr. Gibbs.
"Do you mean with Mr. Cartwright, sir?" asked Dick, wondering how the other had managed to hear of this.
"Yes. He was in here doing some business yesterday, and spoke of you."
"That was mighty nice of him, sir. I would gladly have continued on with him, but you see his son, who had been sick, got well enough to come back, and that knocked me out of a job."
"Very inconsiderate of Toby, too. But Mr. Cartwright, who is one of our directors, and a heavy stockholder in this bank, recommended you to me as a trustworthy young fellow who could be depended on to do your best always. That is the rule we follow here; no matter how menial the task, do it as near perfect as lies in your power."
"It was Mr. Cartwright, then—I thought—" began Dick, and stopped short.
"What did you think, Richard; tell me?" asked Mr. Gibbs, smiling.
"I thought that perhaps Charles might have said something. He promised to recommend me if you ever needed an assistant to help him out, he was so busy."
"Oh! yes, just so, you mean Charles Doty. Unfortunately he was not able to save himself, much less use his powerful influence toward getting another in here. In fact, my boy, it is to fill his place that I am now engaging you," observed the gentleman, pointedly.
"Then Charlie has gone—I expected he would not last. He likes to sleep too much in the morning. I used to have to go and pull him out of bed whenever we went fishing last year," remarked Dick, nodding significantly.
"That was just the trouble—it took Charles too long to get started. He may find more congenial employment in some other line; but he would never do for the financial business. But I spoke of a curious coincidence. You are doubtless wondering what I mean by that. Someone else recommended that I give you a trial. Can you guess who it was?"
The reddening face of the boy announced that he at least had a suspicion.
"That was only such a small thing to do, Mr. Gibbs. Any fellow could pull a poor little kitten out of the water. It wasn't really deep enough to drown me, anyhow; and I guess it would take more than that to do the business, for I'm a duck in the water, sir."
"All right, but I've known many boys who would take a fiendish delight in seeing a kitten drown," retorted the gentleman.
"But—that was Bessie's kitten!" said Dick, hastily.
"Oh! yes, so I see. Well, at any rate you did a good thing all around, Richard, pleased my wife and daughter, and opened the way to a situation for yourself in the bank here. Mr. Cartwright tells me you have always wanted to be connected with an establishment of this kind, and he says that you are unusually quick and accurate with figures—in fact, he calls you a wonder in that line; but all our employees would seem such to him, doubtless. Can you go to work to-day, Richard? We let Charles off yesterday, and while the porter is doing some of his usual work there are many errands that should be attended to."
"I am ready to commence right now, sir," responded Dick, getting up with his usual alacrity.
"Good. I like to hear a lad talk that way. But by the way, you have not asked anything about wages."
"I'm willing to leave that entirely to you, sir. I am sure you will pay me all I am worth to the bank," said Dick, simply.
He could not have made a more diplomatic reply had he been a schemer instead of a frank single-minded lad.
"Good again. I begin to think that it was a fine thing for all of us that Charles overslept so frightfully yesterday. We paid him eight dollars a week to begin with, Richard."
"Yes, sir. I shall be very glad to receive that, if you consider that I can fill the bill."
"But, for the last two months we have been paying Charles ten. Now, I am of the opinion that you are going to be even more valuable in the start than he was at the finish of his banking career, so I shall instruct the bookkeeper to put you on the payroll at ten dollars. That will do for the present, Richard. I am going to take a personal interest in your progress. I knew your father, my boy, and respected him highly."
"Thank you, sir," said Dick, as he withdrew; and there were tears in his eyes which he had to wink very hard to dry out; but it was not the fact that he was to receive such splendid wages at the beginning of his business career that affected him half so much as this constant allusion to the honorable name his father had left behind as a heritage for his son.
Thomas Morrison might not have been able to lay up a fortune before he was called to another world; but he had at least won for himself the regard and esteem of his neighbors during all the years he labored in and around Riverview.
Presently Dick was being instructed in his duties by one of the friendly tellers.
While this was going on the cashier came out of his little room.
"Who's this boy, Payson?" he asked, frowning at Dick.
"I think you know me, Mr. Goodwyn; I am Mrs. Morrison's son. I have been in to see you several times on business," returned Dick, calmly.
"But what are you doing inside the railing now?" continued the cashier.
"Mr. Gibbs has given him the place of the messenger boy, Charles, Mr. Goodwyn," remarked the teller, a little vindictively, Dick thought.
The cashier frowned.
"Why, I spoke only yesterday to Mr. Gibbs about a nephew of mine I could recommend for that position; I don't understand how it comes he has taken this thing out of my hands. He seldom interferes with the hiring of help. I must see him about it at once," and he hurried away to interview the president.
"Much good it will do him," remarked Payson to his fellow teller; "I've seen the fellow he wants to put in here, and so has Mr. Gibbs; and I must say I didn't like his looks. Goodwyn has to help support his family, I understand, and it's more his wish to lighten his own load than to get us a clever messenger, that impels him to recommend his nephew. Make your mind easy, Dick; there will be nothing doing."
And apparently there was not much satisfaction in the brief interview which the cashier had with Mr. Gibbs, for when he came back presently he hastened into his little den, nor did he have a word to say to anyone.
Only Dick feared that he would find Mr. Goodwyn a hard taskmaster, on account of this incident; and he regretted it very much, believing it would handicap him more or less in his work.
But the others soon came to like the new messenger exceedingly, he was so clever, so obliging, and withal so bright; both tellers declared at the close of the day's business that they had never known so little trouble in getting their errands executed in a lucid manner.
At noon Dick bought himself a little luncheon, for he was too far away from home to spend half an hour walking to and fro each day; after this he meant to bring something with him; no matter if it were only bread and butter, it would be much better than this "sawdust," as he contemptuously called the cake he had purchased at the town bakery.
It was just at two o'clock that a most peculiar incident occurred, and one that gave Dick considerable amusement.
He was waiting in the outer room for a paper which the president intended sending to the post office to go by registered mail, when who should come in but Ferd Graylock, accompanied by his father; who, as one of the officers of the bank, went straight back to the room of the president without ceremony, leaving his son in the public waiting-room.
Of course Ferd immediately spied Dick there and sauntered over, with his customary air of importance.
"Hello! Morrison, what are you doing here? I didn't you know you were a depositor in our bank," he said, with a patronizing manner that at first made Dick grit his teeth, and then caused him to smile as a sudden suspicion flashed across into his mind.
"Oh! I drift in occasionally to drop a few hundred thousand for safe keeping," he replied, in a spirit of irony.
"What are you here for anyway?" demanded Ferd, eyeing the other with a sneer.
"Just waiting for something at present."
"Oh! I see, your mother has probably been making arrangements to borrow on her tied-up investments. It's hard lines, old fellow. Now, you ought to do something in the way of business, instead of spending your time fishing, as I hear you are doing. I expect to branch out that way myself. My old man says my school days are over, because my report was so very depressing this term. He believes I would make a splendid banker; and he's just gone back to consult with Gibbs about starting me in here."
"Oh!" was all Dick trusted himself to say.
Apparently that position formerly occupied by the departed Charles was not going around begging for applicants; nor was the cashier the only one who had his eye upon it.
"Of course I will have to begin low down so as to get a grasp upon the details and technical points of the financial side of the business; but I'm willing to learn. Here comes the governor now; I guess he has it clinched."
If he did he certainly showed little signs of satisfaction as he came up, for he simply glared at Dick.
"Come on, son, back to the store. I think you'll have to begin your mercantile career behind a dry goods counter after all," he snarled.
"But the position that was open to me here, with a chance to rise?" exclaimed Ferd, looking aghast at this unexpected explosion of his hopes.
"It is open no longer, Mr. Gibbs himself filled it. And that young interloper has stepped into your place," pointing his trembling finger at Dick.
"What! you?" cried Ferd, hardly able to believe his ears, "impossible!"
Just then the paying-teller called out.
"Richard, here is the letter to be sent registered; and on the way back stop in at Underwoods and leave this notice of a note coming due to-morrow."
"Yes, sir," said Dick, hurrying out; while Ferd followed more slowly, a frown on his face and his teeth gritting with anger.