genius who lost by
it, and his case will bear repeating, for there is both morality and fun
in it.

Lev Smith, a native of "the Eastern shore" of Maryland, and a resident
of a small town in the lower part of Delaware, began life on a very
limited capital, and because of a natural disposition indigenous to the
climate and customs of his native place--general apathy and unmitigated
_patience_ peculiar to people raised on fish and Johnny-cake, amid the
stunted pine swamps and sand-hills of that Lord-forsaken country--Lev
never increased it. Lev had an uncle, an old bachelor, without "chick or
child," and was reported to be pretty well off. Old man Gunter was
proverbially mean, and as usual, heartily despised by one half of the
people who knew him. He had a small estate, had lived long, and by his
close-fisted manner of life, it was believed that Gunter had laid by a
pretty considerable pile of the root of all evil, for something or
somebody; and one day Lev Smith, the nephew, came to the conclusion that
as the old man was getting quite shaky and must soon resign his
interests in all worldly gear, _he_ would volunteer to console the
declining years of his dear old uncle, by his own pleasant company and
encouragement, and the old man very gladly accepted the proposals of
Lev, to cut wood, dig, scratch and putter around his worn out and
dilapidated farm. Uncle Gunter had but two negroes; through starvation
and long service he had worn them about out; he had little or no
"stock" upon his _farm_, quite as scant an assortment of utensils, few
fences, and in fact, to any actively disposed individual, the general
appearance and state of affairs about old Gunter's _place_ would have
given the double-breasted blues. But Lev Smith had come to loaf and
lounge, and not to display any very active or patriotic evolutions, so
he was not so much disheartened by his uncle's dilapidated farm, as he
was annoyed by the beggarly way the old man lived, and the assiduous
desire he seemed to manifest for Lev to be stirring around, gathering
chips, patching fences, cutting brush; from morn till night, he and the
two superannuated cuffies; and the old man barely raising enough to keep
soul and body of the party together.

At first, the job he had undertaken proved almost too much for Lev
Smith's constitution, but the great object in view consoled him, and the
more he saw of the old man's meanness, the more and more he took it for
granted that his