Do you know what a lottery is?
It is a way dishonest people have of making money.
Tickets are sold for prizes, and of course only one person can get
the prize, while all the rest must lose their money.
Soon after Peter Cooper reached New York he saw an advertisement of
a lottery.
He might draw a prize by buying a ticket.
Each ticket cost ten dollars.
Peter had just that much money.
He thought the matter over carefully.
He wished very much to have some money, for then he could help his
mother.
So he bought a ticket, and drew--nothing.
Poor boy! he was now penniless.
But he never touched games of chance again.
Years afterward he used to say, "It was the cheapest piece of
knowledge I ever bought."
Day after day the tall, slender boy walked the streets of New York
looking for work.
At last he found a place.
It was in a carriage shop.
Here he bound himself as apprentice for five years at two dollars a
month and board.
You see he could buy no good clothes.
He had no money for cigars or pleasures of any kind.
He helped to bring carriages for rich men's sons to ride in.
There is an old saying, that "everybody has to walk at one end of
life," and they are fortunate who walk at the beginning and ride at
the close.
When his day's work was over he liked to read.
His companions made fun of him because he would not join them.
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