ous
and the shrewd to come in and play high stakes with small capital--in
playing which reckless game, while some become millionaires others
become bankrupts. This latter state is a matter of comparative
unimportance in a country like the Republic, where the field is so
great, and a livelihood easily attainable until some opening occurs,
when they are as ready to rush into it again as if they had been foaled
at Niagara, and had sucked in the impetuosity of its cataract.

There is one shape that their enterprise takes which it would indeed be
well for us to imitate, and that is early rising. I quite blush for my
country when I think what a "Castle of Indolence" we are in that
respect, especially those who have not the slightest excuse for it. On
what principle the classes of society in England who are masters of
their own time, turn night into day, waste millions yearly in oil and
wax, and sleep away the most fresh and healthy hours of the morning, for
no other visible purpose but to enable themselves to pass the night in
the most stuffy and unhealthy atmosphere, is beyond my comprehension.
One thing is certain: it has a tendency to enervate both body and mind,
and were it not for the revivifying effects produced by a winter
residence in the country, where gentlemen take to field sports, and
ladies to razeed dresses, sensible shoes, and constitutional walks, the
mortality among our "upper ten thousand" would, I believe, be frightful.
In America, the "boys" get up so early, that it is said they frequently
"catch the birds by their tails as they are going to roost;" and it is
no doubt owing to this that they are so 'cute. Talk about "catching a
weasel asleep," let me see any of my metropolitan drone friends who can
catch a Yankee boy asleep!

It is not, however, merely to early rising that they owe their
'cuteness. A total absence of idleness, and the fact of being constantly
thrown on their own resources in cases of minor difficulty, aid
materially in sharpening their wits. You may see these latter influences
operating in the difference between soldiers and sailors, when placed in
situations where they have to shift for themselves. Some of their
anecdotes bearing upon 'cuteness are amusing enough. I will give one as
an illustration.--Owing to some unknown cause, there was a great dearth
of eggs in one of the New England States, and they consequently rose
considerably in price. It immediately occurred to a farmer's wife,