r so
much that is new to me that I have hardly thought of myself as yet."

"You'll soon get accustomed to it," said Fink, laughing; "one day is the
same as the other all the year long. On Sunday, an extra good dinner, a
glass of wine, and your best coat--that's all. You are one of the wheels
in the machine, and will be expected to grind regularly."

"I am aware that I must be industrious in order to merit Mr. Schroeter's
confidence," was the rather indignant reply.

"Truly a virtuous remark; but you'll soon see, my poor lad, what a gulf
is fixed between the head of the firm and those who write his letters.
No prince on earth stands so far removed above his vassals as this same
coffee-lord above his clerks. But do not lay much stress on what I say,"
added he, more good-naturedly; "the whole house will tell you that I am
not quite _compos_. However, I'll give you a piece of good advice. Get
an English master, and make some progress before you got rusty. All they
teach you here will never make a clever man of you, if you happen to
want to be one. Good-night." And, turning upon his heel, he left our
Anton somewhat disconcerted.

Indeed, he too, in course of time, began to be conscious of the monotony
of a business life, but he did not fret about it, having been taught by
his parents habits of industry and order.

Mr. Jordan took much pains to initiate him into the mysteries of divers
wares; and the hours that he first spent in the warehouses, amid the
varied produce of different lands, were fraught with a certain poetry of
their own, as good, perhaps, as any other. There was a large, gloomy,
vaulted room on the ground floor, in which lay stores for the traffic of
the day. Tuns, bales, chests, were piled on each other, which every
land, every race, had contributed to fill. The floating palace of the
East India Company, the swift American brig, the patriarchal ark of the
Dutchman, the stout-ribbed whaler, the smoky steamer, the gay Chinese
junk, the light canoe of the Malay--all these had battled with winds and
waves to furnish this vaulted room. A Hindoo woman had woven that
matting; a Chinese had painted that chest; a Congo negro, in the service
of a Virginian planter, had looped those canes over the cotton bales;
that square block of zebra-wood had grown in the primeval forests of the
Brazils, and monkeys and bright-hued parrots had chattered among its
branches. Anton would stand long in this ancient hall, after Mr.
J