very industrious and prudent man, with a small and frugal family, he
merely obtained a comfortable subsistence, but he never seemed to
accumulate property. Whether it was that he was not of the race of
money-makers, whose instinctive desire of accumulation forces them
to earn and hoard without a thought beyond the mere means of
acquisition--or whether the time occupied by the prosecution of new
inquiries into still undiscovered regions of his favourite pursuit,
and in conversation with those who came to inspect and admire the
fruits of his ingenuity, were the cause of his poverty, we cannot
undertake to determine--but perhaps various causes combined to keep
his finances low; and it was quite as notorious in the city that Amos
Sparks was a poor man, as that he was an ingenious mechanic. But his
business was sufficient for the supply of his wants and those of his
family, and so he studied and worked on, and was content.

It happened that, in the autumn of 18--, a merchant in the city,
whose business was extensive, and who had been bustling about the
quay and on board his vessels all the morning, returned to his
counting-house to lodge several thousand dollars in the Philadelphia
bank, to renew some paper falling due that day; when, to his
surprise, he had either lost or mislaid the key of his iron chest.
After diligent search, with no success, he was led to conclude that,
in drawing out his handkerchief, he had dropped the key in the
street, or perhaps into the dock What was to be done? It was one
o'clock--the bank closed at three, and there was no time to advertise
the key, or to muster so large a sum of money as that required. In
his perplexity the merchant thought of the poor locksmith. He had
often heard of Amos Sparks; the case seemed one particularly adapted
to a trial of his powers, and being a desperate one, if he could not
furnish a remedy, where else were there reasonable expectations of
succour? A clerk was hurried off for Amos, and having explained the
difficulty, speedily reappeared, followed by the locksmith with his
implements in his hand.

The job proved more difficult than had been anticipated, and, fearful
of losing credit by the delay, the merchant offered five dollars'
reward to Amos if he would open the chest in as many minutes. Amos
succeeded. The lock was picked, and the chest flew open. There the
merchant's treasures lay, but they were not yet in his possession. As
he enjoyed but a poor reputati