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ossibly spend. However, I can understand the lure of achievement--it's about all the real fun there is in living, without which a man is old at any stage, and would be better off dead and buried."
"That's it! You understand perfectly--make the so-called impossibility yield," he interrupted, his aggressive nose twitching, his eyes dilating with eagerness.
"Howard, there are three crises in the average life. The first one we all know as 'getting started.' This usually happens in the early twenties. You passed yours just after leaving me on the wharf at Savannah. You say you cried and wished you were dead. Another one comes about ten years later. Its form and length varies with the individual. But for a time it's usually a pretty bad experience. Men not only wish they were dead, but would try suicide were they out-and-out cowards. They believe they will be consumed by the heat and enormity of things over which they have no control. This period is not unlike the refining process of iron ore into good steel, and its formation into a perfect-cutting, useful instrument. It is a process that is melting hot, two thousand degrees and a blast behind it. Then come the blows to make the shape; then the grindstone, and the whet-stone to put on the final polish. There is another period in the late forties that you need not be concerned about now. However, Cleveland is going to be elected--the first Democratic President since the war--and that event may disturb things for a time."
Byng glanced up searchingly. "Go on," said he, abruptly.
"I know you didn't expect a sermon but you may profit by it now; at least you will recall it afterward, and with some relief, if you follow the trend of affairs logically. When I go after a man I want to know his age the very first thing. You are about thirty now?"
"Yes, just about," there was in his eye a suspicion that I was raving, but that didn't keep me from finishing.
"And your wife is some over twenty--your partner a little older than you."
"Yes."
"You might do well to put up the sign, 'safety first,' though it's a lying thing where generally used. I advise that you trim sail and keep in deep water for a while. No use getting excited at your age. Let the situation be entirely clear when undertaking big financial stunts. Wait until the new President is well seated in his chair. I look for squalls."
"It may be you are right--I will give your advice serious consideration," said he, soberly, but I felt that he was not convinced.
"I don't like to send you home with a wet blanket around you, but you are too big, and have too much courage to shrink from the truth. Be governed by foresight as well as hindsight. Wait and see how the times are going to be before you touch anything requiring big borrowing. So long, boy, I must be going."
"I knew you'd tell me what you thought," he exclaimed, wringing my hand good-bye.
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