ing that or any other
good work. If you are not in influential positions, if you have not
wealth at command, you at least have tongues to speak with, pens to
write with; so talk about it in private, speak in public, write on the
subject, and, depend on it, you will ultimately gain your object.

It was very late in the day when I returned to the office. Mr Cruden
was about to go away. He told me, that as I had chosen to be absent at
the dinner hour, I must be content with what I could get; and he pointed
to some musty bread and cheese, and a glass of sour, turbid-looking ale
which stood on the desk. I was, however, too hungry to refuse it; so I
ate it as soon as he was gone. An old porter had charge of the
premises, and he now beckoned me to follow him to a sort of loft or
lumber-room over the office, where he had slung a hammock, which he told
me I might sleep in, or I might, if I liked, sleep on the bare boards
outside. "The hammock's more comfortable than it looks, young 'un, so
I'd advise you to try it," he remarked; and I found his remark true. As
I was very tired, I was glad to turn in early and forget my sorrows in
sleep. The next day I fared no better than the first, and all the time
I boarded with Mr Cruden the only variation in my food from bread and
cheese was hard biscuits and very doubtful-looking pork and beef. When
I told Silas Flint of the treatment I had received, he shrugged his
shoulders.

"Can you mend it?" he asked.

I told him that I could complain.

"To whom?" he said. "You have no one to complain to--no friend in the
place. Now let me advise you to do as I do. When you can't cure a
thing, grin and bear it; but if you see your way out of a fix, then go
tooth and nail at it, and don't let anything stop you till you're clear.
That's my maxim, youngster; but there's no use kicking against the
pricks--it wears out one's shoes, and hurts the feet into the bargain.
Now, soon after I took my passage in this here _Black Swan_, I guessed I
had made a mistake; but what would have been the use of my going to law
about it? I knowed better. I should only have sent my last dollar to
look after the many which have gone to prove I was first cousin to a set
of people, who would all rather have heard my father was drowned years
ago than have set eyes on me. I tell you, Peter, you must grin and bear
it, as you'll have to do many things as you get through life."

I found that my friend practised wh