Holworthy Hall

“ Sometimes it gives me the shivers to remember I've got to earn a living!"
"There's only one way to succeed," said Pepper sagely. "Keep your shirt on, and don't do too much work yourself. As a brilliant illustration—the men digging the subway get a dollar a day, and any one of 'em could lick both of us with one hand. But the lad who sat back and smoked his cigar and figured out how to build the subway—he's the one with the big roll!"
"Straight goods," insisted Sewall, as they came to the Square and headed for McHenry's room, "how much money do you honestly think you want to make?" ”

“ Or look at these real-estate sharks—all they do is to get options on some dump on a good street and sell it to widows and orphans. Or—or brokers. Say, that's a great business! They get you going and coming! It costs you money to buy stock, and it costs some more to sell it! But any scheme is a good scheme—only it's hard to get started. I tell you, Ted, making money isn't anywhere nearly as hard as keeping it!"
"Speaking of that—decided what you'll do when you get through? Not much longer to wait, is there?"
"Murder, no!" said McHenry. ”

“ I've got the lunch all stowed away, and I deposited a check in the First National this morning."
"This man McHenry," said Spinden to Ward, "is going to be either the President of the United States or a jail-bird before our triennial—and I don't know which."
"Whichever I am," said Pepper generously, "I'll always count on you when I need help. The easiest way to make money I know of is to take it away from simple souls like you fellows on a bet. By the way, I've got only a week or two more to run. Want to double the stakes?" ”

“ McHenry himself didn't remain in Cambridge for Class Day. He had never been a ladies' man, and he knew that if he prowled about the yard in search of amusement, he was sure to come upon some of the men who had borrowed money to entertain their "sisters," and that the meetings would be embarrassing for all concerned.
Even so, he managed to keep his covenant to three or four of his immediate circle, and left them fully convinced that James Pepper McHenry could make a fortune in toothpicks or birdseed if he gave his mind to the problem for a sufficient length of time. ”

“ Sewall opened his mouth and closed it again in the irritated fashion of the majority of people who tried to pin McHenry down to facts.
"Money doesn't bother me much," continued Pepper. "I'm rather impartial, too, because I never have any."
"That's your fault. Your dad certainly sends you enough."
"No one man could ever send me enough, my dear young friend! He sends me about twice as much as he says he will, and that's about half what I want. As I said, money doesn't bother me. It's so blamed easy to get, if you know how. ”

“ Accordingly they looked; and they found two receipted bills, one from the haberdashery where Pepper bought the most outrageous novelties in Cambridge; the other from the garage. The total amount involved was considerably over two hundred dollars.
"You don't mean to say," breathed Ward, in an awed voice, "that you've made that much peddling!"
"Oh, I don't do the peddling myself," said McHenry airily. "I can't waste time with the little fellows. The only people I see are the magnates—the guys I can meet on an equal footing, you know."
"Magnates!" snorted Spinden. ”

“ It wasn't his conception of sanity, he said, for men speedily to undertake the running of elevators, the cleaning of inkwells, the treading of State Street with wallets chained to their wrists, to waste money buying flowers and extra Pudding tickets, and spread tickets for girls they couldn't afford to marry, anyway. ”

“ Dad says he doesn't expect to send me another sou! Regular dad stuff. Get out and make good, pay my bills, and feel like a prince! Shucks! Prince is a dog's name! How the mischief can I raise six hundred dollars two months from Commencement? Everybody who isn't broke is tightwadding it for Class Day!"
"You could sell your runabout?"
"No, I couldn't. My family'd never forget it."
"Don't you suppose if you wrote home and explained things, your father might shoot along a little check?"
"You don't know him. On the contrary, he'd say it served me right."
"Pepper!" said Sewall abruptly. ”

“ Men in arrears to the amount of three hundred dollars or more must furnish satisfactory evidence of payment before the sheepskins would be handed out.
McHenry wrote a wonderfully diplomatic letter home, hinting at all sorts of dire mishaps which had befallen him; and received by return mail a second epistle from his father to the effect that if Pepper owed money, he had better make arrangements to pay it as soon as possible. ”

“ McHenry removed tie and collar and began to unfasten his shirt.
"Here," said Spinden. "Don't change your clothes. We're going right out to eat."
"I'm with you, old top," promised McHenry. "I won't keep you three minutes—I just want to see how they go to work to make these collar buttons."
II
As a matter of fact, he couldn't have borrowed money if he had tried. Parents are notably suspicious near the end of senior year; and, as Pepper had remarked, those men who weren't in financial straits were already hoarding against Class Day. ”

“ You might as well talk up to people, you know—it doesn't cost anything. I asked him what it would be worth if I could sell a couple of thousand dollars' worth of his junk. He nearly had epilepsy, and said he'd give me fifty per cent for all I'd sell. Then I went to the biggest laundry in Boston. I asked 'em how many new customers they get a year, and how many they keep—how many quit to go somewhere else. ”

“ Then I asked 'em what they'd pay for a little advertising dodge to please a new customer so much that he'd never think of changing. They got interested about that time. Well—I told them that whenever they got a new man customer, to send all his shirts back to him with gold collar buttons in the holes instead of these little cheap black or white ones they do put in. Of course I had a pretty long argument—well, they bought a lot of 'em. Then I said what a great scheme it would be to use those buttons on the delivery just before Christmas for all their customers. ”