cheerful philosophy and a grim humor
for which many a successful man might well have given all his
possessions.

"Rich and poor, there's a sight of human nater about us all, though
there ain't no use denyin' that some has more than others," remarked
Cap'n 'Kiah sententiously. "And whether riches or poverty brings it out
the strongest it's hard tellin'."

"I've always thought I might never have found out that I had medicle
tarlunt if I'd been rich," said Dr. Pingree meditatively. The little man
had "taken up doctorin' out of his own head," as he expressed it, after
finding that shoemaking and tin-peddling did not satisfy his ambition,
and was the inventor and sole proprietor of an infallible medicine,
known as the "Universal Pain-Exterminator." The jokers dubbed it
"Health-Exterminator," but almost all Welby took it,--they must take
something in the spring,--and the little doctor, who had a soul far
above thoughts of sordid gain, never expected to be paid for it, which
made it very popular. It couldn't kill one, being made of simplest roots
and herbs; and if one should be cured, how very pleasant it would be to
think that it was without cost!

"Sure enough, doctor, mebbe you never would," said the captain. "And I
suppose the innercent satisfaction you've got a-makin' them medicines is
as great as you could 'a' got out of riches, and without the worry and
care of riches, too."

"Not to mention the good done to my fellow-creturs," said the little
doctor.

"Jest as you say, the good done to your fellow-creturs not bein' worth
mentionin'" said Cap'n 'Kiah, with a grave simplicity that disarmed
suspicion. "There ain't no denyin' that poverty is strength'nin' to the
faculties."

"Don't give me nothin' more strength'nin than riches in mine," said
Uncle Peter Henchman, who boasted great wisdom and experience, based
mysteriously on the possession of a wooden leg. "I've been in this world
up'ards of seventy years, forty-five of it a-walkin' on a wooden leg,
and I hain't never seen that poverty was anything but a curse."

"You've got a terrible mistaken p'int of view, Peter, well-meanin' as
you be," said Cap'n 'Kiah, "There's nothin' in nater, and, I was a-goin'
to say, in grace, but what you clap your eyes fust onto the contr'y
side, and then you're sure there ain't nothin' _but_ a contr'y side."

"I wish I could see something besides the contr'y side of riches; but I
hain't yet," said Miranda, with a heavy sigh.

Litt