“You are an honest boy. I am sure you have a good mother and that she is very proud of you. This money you have returned to me is the savings of our entire life. I don’t like to think what the result might have been if it had been lost for good and all. As testimony of our gratitude I want you to accept these two bills,” and she offered Jack the two hundred-dollar notes. “No, ma’am,” said the boy. “I couldn’t think of taking so much money from you.” “But you must, or you will take away half the pleasure I feel at the recovery of my money. Really, it is a great deal less than you really deserve. I insist that you accept them,” said Mrs. Breeze firmly, forcing the bills into his hand. Jack saw she was intensely earnest in her demand, and with some reluctance he put them in his pocket. “I am very happy indeed that you have got your money back,” he said as he rose to go. “I feel like another woman to what I did before you came here. Be sure I shall not soon forget the honest lad to whom I am indebted for its recovery,” were her last words as Jack ran down the steps after bidding her good-bye. CHAPTER VIII. A DERELICT OF WALL STREET. On his way back to the office Jack stopped at the Seaman’s Bank, on the corner of Wall and Pearl Streets, and opened a personal account for $150. The balance of the $200 he had received from Mrs. Breeze he handed over to his mother when he got home that night. You may be sure there was great joy in that little household over this unexpected windfall, and now the future looked very bright for them indeed. On Saturday afternoon Frank Simpson severed his connection with Mr. Atherton’s office, and the two boys parted in an especially cordial way. Nothing of any moment occurred during the next three or four months to interrupt the regular routine of Jack’s duties. He and his chum, Ed Potter, both had the Saturday half-holiday during the summer, and they put it in mostly playing ball up at the Olympic Field. One day Jack learned that Hartz’s messenger was about to leave him, so he called on the broker and asked him if he would give his friend Potter a trial. Hartz, who had a good opinion of Hazard, readily agreed to oblige him, so next day Ed came down to Wall Street and Jack introduced him to Hartz. In a day or so, Potter was taken into Hartz’s office on trial, and, proving satisfactory, was told that he would be advanced, if he deserved it, when the opportunity presented itself. Everybody who ran across Jack Hazard liked him. This was especially true in respect to those in the office with whom the boy came into daily contact. From Mr. Atherton himself down to the least important clerk it was all the same. It is possible, if there was any choice in that matter, Jack liked Millie Price, the stenographer and typewriter better than anyone else. Most everyone said she was a pretty girl, and what everybody generally says goes.