resent to say, that
he waxed towards the stature of manhood much as other boys do--save
that he was never engaged in a quarrel--from the circumstance,
probably, that he had neither sufficient energy, nor decision of
character, to commence or to end one. To do him justice, if honesty be
a fault, it was surely his; and I can truly say that in all the passing
vicissitudes of his life, it has never been taken out of him to this
day. His father was industrious and economical, never losing an hour in
which he could make any thing, or parting with a dollar so long as he
could keep it. In his domestic arrangements he was exceedingly careful
that nothing should be lost. If he had eels for breakfast, he would
always contrive, by preserving and drying the skins, to save more than
the original cost of these somewhat questionable members of the
piscatory family. He early instructed his son in the elementary
principles of his trade; and it is believed that before he was
seventeen he not only knew the number of spokes in a wheel, but had
actually adjusted them to the felloes, and driven them up to the hub.
He was also taught in some branches of household carpentry work, which
proved of no disadvantage to him in the end. Full of good nature, he
was always popular with the boys; was never so industrious as when
manufacturing to their order little writing desks, fancy boxes, and
other trifling articles not beyond the scope of his mechanical
ingenuity--for which he exacted such compensation as he could obtain.
In sober truth, like his parent, he was fond of money. The world, he
was wont to say, owed him a living, and he prided himself not a little
on his skill in procuring the wherewithal. And yet he was rarely known
to realize one shilling that did not cost him two; or in other words,
in all his multifarious transactions of barter and otherwise, he was
almost uniformly overreached. There was one way, moreover, in which his
little earnings could always be taken from him. He was fond of good
living, albeit not his father's fault, since his family board was
seldom spread with other than the plainest and least expensive fare.
Certain was it, therefore, that the palate had never received any
epicurean lessons at home; but it was equally certain that he had
acquired a _taste_ for the good things of this world. Hence those of
his associates who had a design upon whatever of small change they
supposed him from time to time to have accumulated, ha