Achmed Abdullah

“ It seemed to be one of those helpless buildings which change owners, but which never change mortgages, which are sold for taxes once every seven years and which are a source of continuous income to the title guarantee companies; one of those pathetic old houses upon which even Fate wars in vain, and which will stand to all eternity, getting more rickety and more desolate as the years swing by, and smiling vaguely, through dusty, broken window-panes, at storms and tornadoes and fires and a dozen other calamities which would bring a right-minded house to the verge of despair. ”

“ You know I can work like the devil when I have to. I've held more than one job. ...."
"That's exactly it," the other replied, and his voice was cold. "You've held more than one job. You've held too many jobs. You've ranched and surveyed and railroaded and God knows what else. You've held too many jobs. That's the whole trouble." He wagged his finger in a didactic manner. "Friendship is friendship, and business is business, and I cannot—"
"You can't let friendship interfere with business. ”

“ He had never made good in anything. And he was a college graduate. All his father's fault, he decided. For that staunch old capitalist had given him three thousand dollars a year while he was in college, and as soon as he had got his degree he had expected him to make a living. He had tried, and he had failed. That three thousand dollars a year had spoiled him. ”