“You can’t expect ’em to pay much--at first.” “I was thinking it’d be about right to ask ten dollars for the little places, and fifteen to thirty for the bigger ones.” “I’ll have to feel that out,” said Bill. “Leave something for the manager to do.” “Put the prices low, Bill,” said George. “It’s safer. Also, we want to reach _all_ the people. And I’m going to write some lectures that’ll educate ’em in what’s going on under their noses. About these lectures--they’re to be a mixture of humorous and serious. I’ve got a lot of good stories I can work in. The first lecture’s pretty nearly ready.” “What’s it about?” “The American Home--as it was--as it is--as it should be.” “Wit, wisdom and weeps?” Helm nodded. “That sounds good. I begin to feel that there’s something in it.... Look here, Helm--that tour’s going to be a frightful strain on your health.” George looked down at his long lean figure in the baggy blue suit. “There isn’t anything about me to get sick, Bill,” said he. “Back where I come from they dry ’em out like an oak board before they send ’em away from home. All the germs get when they tackle us folks is broken teeth.” * * * * * Why does the world insist on believing that luck is the deciding factor in human affairs? Why is the successful man forced to pretend that he is “fortune’s favorite,” under penalty of being despised as a plodding or scheming fellow, if he does not? Because most men either cannot or will not plan. They “trust to luck”--and lose, except in romances and equally fictitious biographies. Without exception, all success is the result of plan. If a man has success thrust into his hands, it is immediately snatched away unless he plans wisely to keep it. If a successful man is wholly or partly ruined by chance, his habit of successful planning soon restores all that has been lost. Luck is an element for which every wise man makes allowance in his planning--for the good luck that will enable him to shorten his journey along the road he would have traveled in any event, for the bad luck that may lengthen the journey. Good and bad luck affect rate, not direction--among the men who attain to and persist in the triumphant class, from the successful grocer to the successful poet or composer. That winter luck favored George Helm. He did not have to break with the machine.