How was it, my friend?"
"As to that," was unhesitatingly replied, "I had more true enjoyment
in life when I was simply a clerk with a salary of four hundred
dollars a year, than I have known at any time since."
"A remarkable confession," said the friend.
"Yet true, nevertheless."
"In all these years of strife with fortune--in all these years of
unremitted gain--has there been any great and worthy end in your
mind? Any purpose beyond the acquirement of wealth?"
Mr. Steel's brows contracted. He looked at his friend for a moment
like one half surprised, and then glanced thoughtfully down at the
floor.
"Gain, and only gain," said Mr. Erwin. "Not your history alone, nor
mine alone. It is the history of millions. Gathering, gathering, but
never of free choice, dispensing. Still, under Providence, the
dispensation goes on; and what we hoard, in due time another
distributes. Men accumulate gold like water in great reservoirs;
accumulate it for themselves, and refuse to lay conduits. Often they
pour in their gold until the banks fail under excessive pressure,
and the rich treasure escapes to flow back among the people. Often
secret conduits are laid, and refreshing and fertilizing currents,
unknown to the selfish owner, flow steadily out, while he toils with
renewed and anxious labors to keep the repository full. Oftener, the
great magazine of accumulated gold and silver, which he never found
time to enjoy, is rifled by others at his death.
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