"Here is my bank-book; you can look at it," and Joe pointed to a deposit of twenty-five hundred dollars. "I don't think, Oscar, it will pay me to accept your father's offer and take my old place."

"I don't understand it. How did you do it?" asked the bewildered Oscar.

"I suppose it was my luck," said Joe.

"Not wholly that," said Annie Raymond. "It was luck and labor."

"I accept the amendment, Miss Annie."

Oscar's manner changed at once. Joe, the successful Californian, was very different from Joe, the hired boy. He became very attentive to our hero, and before he left town condescended to borrow twenty dollars of him, which he never remembered to repay. He wanted to go back to California with Joe, but his father would not consent.

When Joe returned to San Francisco, by advice of Mr. Morgan he sold out his restaurant to Watson and took charge of Mr. Morgan's real estate business. He rose with the rising city, became a very rich man, and now lives in a handsome residence on one of the hills that overlook the bay. He has an excellent wife--our old friend, Annie Raymond--and a fine family of children. His domestic happiness is by no means the smallest part of Joe's luck.

THE END