“As far as the money goes,” he went on, “that’s easily remedied. I am hard up myself, as usual; but as soon as Dr. Goode comes in this evening I will borrow twenty-five dollars from him and turn it over to you, and you can pay it back whenever it’s convenient; no hurry about it at all.” Dick’s assignments that day were much better ones than he had had before, and he tried to work hard enough to forget his troubles. It was almost a certainty that Dr. Goode would have something to say in the evening about the Sing Sing story, for the doctor seldom read an unusually good article in the Transport without saying a few encouraging words to the writer. “And to think that if he speaks to me about it I shall have some of his own money in my pocket, borrowed to replace what I lost at gambling!” Dick reflected. “I half-wish I were back in the Record office, washing rollers for three dollars a week.” Dr. Goode took his time about commending Dick’s work that evening. He waited for an opportunity to have him as nearly alone as possible, and then spoke, Dick thought, more kindly than he had ever heard him speak before. “I like the construction of your Sing Sing story, Sumner,” the doctor said, taking off both pairs of glasses and wiping them with his handkerchief and then replacing them. “A good article must be built up, you know, like a ship; one part here, another there, and every part in the right place. I see that you understand that. You write good English, too, and that shows that your reading has been good, for no man can write good English who does not read good English. “Of course you understand,” the doctor went on, “that doing such a piece of work as you did yesterday gives a man a certain standing in the office. He is considered one of the good men and steps up above the humdrum fellows who have no stuff in them. Naturally you will have a better class of work in the future, and in a short time your salary will be raised, for we do not ask good men to work for fifteen dollars a week. In time I expect you to be one of the best reporters in the city, if you take care of yourself. “But only if you take care of yourself,” the doctor continued, laying his hand gently on Dick’s knee. “Many a man has started here with prospects as bright as yours, and has gone to pieces. Scribble clubs and rum and cards will soon darken the brightest prospects.” Dick started and blushed furiously and his lips trembled.