During the next few months Mr. Lee surveyed the field about him, endeavoring to discern what could be accomplished with no other capital save brains. A decision was soon reached, and it resulted from one of those little incidents of life, which, although rare indeed, make life all the more worth living. I hope I betray no breach of trust in recalling it. While walking down Washington street one day Mr. Lee encountered his friend of many years. "What are you doing now, Charlie?" he asked. "Nothing; and I'm as poor as a church mouse," was the reply. "But, look here, Charlie, keep up your courage. I haven't got much myself; but I'll go halves with you. Come up to my room to-night, and we'll talk matters over." The friends parted, to meet again within a few hours in the glow of the gas-light. Affairs were candidly and earnestly discussed, plans were laid, and then and there began the firm, whose reputation has extended wherever the English language is spoken,--the house of LEE AND SHEPARD. It was February 1, 1862. The times were not propitious for a beginning at any trade, but the partners were veterans in experience, and no sooner had they shaped their plans than the public in many ways evinced its confidence in their undertaking. Better than a large capital was the encouragement they received from all with whom they had formerly had dealings; and they began under the most pleasing auspices. The firm first occupied a very old, two-storied wooden building, known as "the old dye-house" on Washington Street, opposite the Old South "Church."[A] [Footnote A: On the site now occupied by the "Old South Clothing House."] Of course the store soon began to show its incapacity for the growing business, just as the "old corner" had done in the case of Ticknor and Fields, and as almost every ancient book-shop has done in the last quarter of a century. The proprietors of the establishment were not only their own employers, but their own employees as well. They attended to their own book-keeping, did their own selling and buying, tied up their bundles and packed all the cases. Early and late they shouldered their task, and started ahead. After three years thus spent the firm moved into the new store at 149 Washington Street, which still remains, and which the firm continued to occupy until 1873. At this point it is convenient to go back a number of years and recount the principal events in the life of the junior partner of the house: Charles A.B. Shepard. If the boy could have had his own way, when he started in life, the chances are that to-day he would be an American admiral. As it happened, his early passion and proclivities were not fostered; he became a bookseller whom all the world now knows as "Charley Shepard."