We now return to Anton, who had been placed under the joint command of Messrs.

Jordan and Pix, and who found himself the small vassal of a great body corporate, containing a variety of grades and functions little dreamed of by the uninitiated.

First in the counting-house was the book-keeper Liebold, who, as minister of the home department, reigned supreme and solitary in a window of his own, forever recording figures in a colossal book, and seldom looking off their columns.
In the opposite part of the room ruled the second dignitary in the state, the cashier Purzel, surrounded by iron safes, heavy bags, and with a large stone table before him, on which dollars rung, or gray paper money fell noiselessly the whole day through.
Jordan was the principal person in the office.

He was the head clerk, and his opinion was sometimes asked by the principal himself.

In him Anton found, from the day of his arrival, a good adviser, and an example of activity and healthy common sense.
Of all the clerks under Jordan's superintendence, the most interesting to Anton was Baumann, the future missionary.