I Regret Having Turned Merchant

Hardly any one kept a level head, and even though my mind's eye could still discern that sign with the golden letters which proclaimed me a merchant and a man of standing among men, I often regretted that we had abandoned the claim at Fountain City where, although we might not have been able to gather in great wealth, we could have lived honestly and soberly. No one had urged us to move from Fountain City to Auraria; there was no reason, save our own will, why we should have done so; but having come, I felt pledged to stand by my decision like a man.

The looked-for day of Mr. Middleton's return at last arrived, and we hired a log building, putting up over the door no gaudy sign such as I had dreamed of, but a roughhewn plank with the names, "Middleton & Wagner," painted on it in the rudest of letters.

Yet I surveyed it with swelling pride, never entering the doorway without stopping for an instant to crane my neck and gaze up at that name which showed without doubt that I had at last attained to manhood.