Fate Knocks at the Door

Andrew Bedient, at the age of seventeen, in a single afternoon, —indeed, in one moment of a single afternoon, —performed an action which brought him financial abundance for his mature years. Although this narrative less concerns the boy Bedient than the man as he approaches twice seventeen, the action is worthy of account, beyond the riches that it brought, because it seems to draw him into somewhat clearer vision from the shadows of a very strange boyhood.