The Argosy, August 1914 — page 128: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

118 clasping his hand, David Grelthorpe swore to be a father to the fifteen- year-old boy. “He will be a very rich man some day, David,’ whispered Philip Grel- thorpe, “but that isn’t the most im- portant thing in life. You and I be- gan barefooted and penniless. Teach him to work, Dave; teach him to be a man like yourself.” “T promise,’ said David Grelthorpe huskily, squeezing his brother’s hand. Then the breath of the man in whose life good luck and a good heart had played equally prominent parts went out of his body and he stiffened in death. His will left the bulk of his fortune in trust for Roland. David was ap- pointed trustee and one million dollars was willed to him outright. Emerging from the death-chamber, the rough-visaged uncle tried in his clumsy way to console the boy sobbing in utter misery. Putting his arm about ~Roland, David Grelthorpe reiterated the promises he had made to his dead ~brother. A week later, after the funeral, Roland was informed by his uncle, who had returned in the mean time to New York, that by the end of the month he would be ready to receive him in New. York and give him his first taste of a business training. “You will go back to school, of course, in the autumn,’ David Grel- thorpe wrote; “but there’s no such thing as beginning too soon for one who is going to be a fine young busi- ness man. I'll put you to work in the office of a business friend of mine, because I don’t believe in giving you a job myself. No uncle can be a real boss to his nephew.” Friends of Philip Grelthorpe pre- sented objections to David's course with Roland. Why not let the boy finish school and go to college, they asked, before putting him to work? But David overcame them all. “Phil and I went to work when we were twelve,’ he would say, “ and THE ARGOSY. never dreamed for an instant of going to college. We got our high-school diplomas and college degrees in the University of Hard Knocks. “Just because Roland will be a mil- lionaire and able to loaf to the end of his days, if he wants to, is no reason why he shouldn’t have a chance of learning that work is the best thing in the world... So long as I have the say, there will be no loafing in his lige! So one summer day, a month after his adopted father’s death, a slender boy with pleasant, brown eyes and a captivating smile alighted from a Pittsburgh express-train in Jersey City and looked up and down the arrival platform in search of somebody, Finally his eyes found David Grel- thorpe, standing as if in a reverie, jaws clenched tight together, a cruel frown on his face. At sight of the boy the frown was chased away by a broad smile. They clasped hands. “Well, Roland, ready for work?” The boy nodded. “Yes, uncle,” he said, “‘ and I think I’m going to like it, even if you won't be my boss.” Looking up with a merry smile, he added: “Do you think [ll like it?” “Of course, of course,” said David Grelthorpe hastily. The frown had returned to his face. Seizing the boy’s hand suddenly and almost crushing it in an iron grasp, he pulled him toward the ferry for New York. CHAPTER VII. ROLAND’S BOSS. “ RoLAND,” said David Grelthorpe, “this is Mr.’ Hetheridge:: He ssa coffee merchant—like me. From to- morrow he will be your boss.” They were in a room at a big New York hotel. Roland held out his hand politely and tried his best to conceal the surprise within him. Hetheridge, to his mind; did not look Gomichbooks (C@