He replied:
"Call on me to-morrow morning, Mr. Coates, and if you find me on a right
footing, I will do something."
Mr. Coates called as requested, and found Girard at breakfast.
"Draw up and eat," said Girard.
Coates did so quite readily. The repast ended, he said, "Now we will
proceed to business, Stephen."
"Well, what have you come for, Samuel?"
"Any thing thee pleases, Stephen," rejoined the Quaker.
Girard filled out and signed a check for two hundred dollars. Coates
took it, and, without noting how much was the amount, put it in his
pocket-book.
"What, you no look at the check I gave you!" exclaimed the merchant.
"No, beggars must not be choosers."
"Hand me back the check I gave you," demanded Girard.
"No, no, Stephen; a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,"
responded Coates.
"By George," exclaimed Girard, "you have caught me on the _right
footing_."
He then drew a check for five hundred dollars, which he laid before the
Quaker, saying: "Will you now look at it, Samuel!"
"Well, to please thee, Stephen, I will."
He did so, and then, at Girard's request, returned the first and went
away triumphantly with the second check.
Skeptic though he was, Girard sometimes gave money to build churches,
not because they were _churches_, but because, as buildings, they
contributed to the improvement of the city. To a brother merchant, who
solicited aid toward building a Methodist church, he once presented a
check for five hundred dollars, saying:
"I approve of your motives, and, as the erection of such a building will
tend to improve that quarter of the city, I am willing to assist in the
furtherance of your object.
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