en, but with a
silver currycomb, in testimony of their admiration for his skill; but I
confess that the poetry of rubbing down had become, as all other poetry
becomes, rather prosy by frequent repetition, and with respect to the
chance of deriving glory from the employment, I entertained in the event
of my determining to stay, very slight hope of ever attaining skill in
the ostler art sufficient to induce sporting people to bestow upon me a
silver currycomb. I was not half so good an ostler as old Bill, who had
never been presented with a silver currycomb, and I never expected to
become so, therefore what chance had I? It was true, there was a
prospect of some pecuniary emolument to be derived by remaining in either
situation. It was very probable that, provided I continued to keep an
account of the hay and corn coming in and expended, the landlord would
consent to allow me a pound a week, which at the end of a dozen years,
provided I kept myself sober, would amount to a considerable sum. I
might, on the retirement of old Bill, by taking his place, save up a
decent sum of money, provided, unlike him, I kept myself sober, and laid
by all the shillings and sixpences I got; but the prospect of laying up a
decent sum of money was not of sufficient importance to induce me to
continue either at my wooden desk, or in the inn-yard. The reader will
remember what difficulty I had to make up my mind to become a merchant
under the Armenian's auspices, even with the prospect of making two or
three hundred thousand pounds by following the Armenian way of doing
business, so it was not probable that I should feel disposed to be
book-keeper or ostler all my life with no other prospect than being able
to make a tidy sum of money. If, indeed, besides the prospect of making
a tidy-sum at the end of perhaps forty years ostlering, I had been
certain of being presented with a silver currycomb with my name engraved
upon it, which I might have left to my descendants, or, in default
thereof, to the parish church destined to contain my bones, with
directions that it might be soldered into the wall above the arch leading
from the body of the church into the chancel--I will not say that with
such a certainty of immortality, combined with such a prospect of
moderate pecuniary advantage, I might not have thought it worth my while
to stay, but I entertained no such certainty, and taking everything into
consideration, I determined to mount my horse