Three days later, in the early evening, Loammi Little met Harold in the street.

"Hi, you boy!" he said, with malicious¹ pleasure; "you lost your place at my father's store, didn't you?"

"Yes," answered Harold, calmly.

"That will teach you to treat me with respect hereafter."

"I suppose I am indebted to you for getting me discharged."

"Yes," answered Loammi, with a smile.

"Then I want to thank you."

"To thank me!" exclaimed Loammi, in surprise.

"Yes, for I have now a better place."

"Where?"

"With Tower, Douglas & Co."

"Did Scott Walton get it for you?" asked Loammi, quickly.

"Yes."

[Pg 311]

"Then he had better mind his own business. My father may get him discharged from his place there."

"That is more than he can do. Mr. Tower puts great confidence in Scott."

"Do you know what he pays him?"

"Forty dollars a week."

"Nonsense!" said Loammi, angrily.

"It is true."

"Then Mr. Tower is a fool."

"Why don't you call and tell him so?"

A really mean person can receive no heavier blow than to find his malicious attempt to injure another of no avail. This was the case with Loammi.

When he was forced to believe that Scott really received the high salary he had contemptuously scoffed² at, he became more discontented than ever. He tried to get his father to increase his allowance, but without success. He was mortified³ to find that even Harold vied with him in dress.

"How these beggarly upstarts are coming up!" he said to himself, bitterly. "It makes me sick."

But a heavier blow was in store for him. Dull times came in business, retail⁴ trade fell off, and one[Pg 312] morning it was announced in the papers that the great house of Ezra Little had suspended.

Mr. Little made desperate efforts to secure financial assistance, but in vain. No one liked him, and it looked as if he was irretrievably ruined.

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