I The First Round of the Ladder II I Meet My Affinity III A Co-Partnership Dissolved IV And the Answer Was "Yes" V Wedding Bells VI A First Reverse of Fortune VII The Coming of the Stork VIII The New Partner IX Suburban Life X My Partner Retires XI A Year of Sunshine XII An Ideal Life XIII Prosperous Days XIV Near the Dark Valley XV A Successful Maneuver XVI "Redstone" XVII Our Neighbors XVIII An Uneventful Year XIX The Stream Broadens XX Retrogression XXI The Dam Gives Way XXII The Calm Before the Storm XXIII "A Few Weak French Speculators" XXIV Exciting Times XXV "Come and Dance in the Barn" XXVI An Importer and Dealer XXVII Sad Hearts at Knollwood XXVIII New Faces XXIX A Short Year and a Merry One XXX A Voucher XXXI Two Sides to the Question XXXII The Panic of Ninety-Three XXXIII Farewell to "Redstone" XXXIV A Summer on the Sound XXXV Monmouth Beach XXXVI The Ship Founders XXXVII The Family and Friends XXXVIII "W. E. Stowe & Co., Incorporated" XXXIX The Struggle Commenced XL The Struggle Continued XLI Darkness Before the Dawn XLII Brighter Days XLIII Smooth Sailing Into Rough Waters XLIV The Tyranny of the Jury Law XLV Bitter Trials XLVI At the Brink of the Grave XLVII Again at the Helm XLVIII A Nightmare XLIX Retrospection L A Dream LI "From God and the King" LII A Foundation Principle ILLUSTRATIONS The Woman Portrait "Sunnyside" "Redstone" "Redstone"--Library Off for a drive Eighty-sixth Street and West End Avenue "Redstone"--The Hall "Chestnut Ridge" "Chestnut Ridge"--Library [ILLUSTRATION: The Author] [His Signature] August, 1913 CHAPTER I THE FIRST ROUND OF THE LADDER NEW YORK, February 23, 1866. "Master Walter E. Stowe: "If you have not yet procured a situation, please call at my office, 45 Duane Street, and oblige. "Yours truly, "JNO. DERHAM, "Per T. E. D." This letter came to me in response to my application for a situation as an office-boy. I had replied to the advertisement in the _Herald_, without consulting my parents, knowing they would raise objections to my leaving school. My father, one of New York's old-time shipping merchants, running a line of packets to Cuban ports, had failed in business as a result of losses during the war, the crowding out of sailing vessels by steamers, and unfortunate outside investments.