CURLED up in a chair in his room Bert spent what was left of that rainy day trying to extract wisdom from The Secrets of Business Success. The book was the work of an energetic, noisy man who shouted, and banged, and tromboned his message. There were no quiet pages of contemplation. Every word was a bullet, every sentence a volley, and every paragraph a crash of artillery.
When the boy closed the book at last he stared at the covers doubtfully. He had a vague feeling that very little of it had left a clear impression. The clamor and the tumult had deafened him and bewildered him as well. But of this much he was certain: if business was as many-sided a puzzle as the book said it was, and if Sam Sickles understood all the thunderous advice that was within these pages, then Sam Sickles was a person worthy of all respect and admiration.
At six o'clock Mr. Quinby came home in jovial good humor. He had stopped at the store on his way from the train to the house.
"So Sam lent you the book." He was plainly
