execution.

But some day the chances are he will be late in earnest, and then he
will have to repent in a hurry of his bad speed.

A fellow who is easy-going about his time is generally easy-going about
his friends, his money, and his morals.

Not that Ned is the sort of fellow to turn out a rascal exactly. He has
not the energy, even if he had the inclination. A rascal, to be at all
successful, must be brisk, and an observer of times and seasons, and
that is altogether out of Ned's line. No; he'll be careless about what
he does, and about what people think of him; he will lend a sovereign
with as little idea of getting it back as he has of returning the pound
he himself had borrowed; he will think nothing of keeping a friend
waiting half a day; neither will he take offence if his own good nature
is drawn on to an unlimited extent.

He is, after his fashion, an observer of the golden rule, for although
he is constantly annoying and exasperating people by his easy-going
ways, he is never afflicted if others do _to him_ as he does to them.
He goes through life with the notion that every one is as complaisant
and comfortable as himself. "Easy-going-ness" (if one may coin a word
for the occasion) is, many people would say, a combination of
selfishness and stupidity, but I think such people judge rather too
hardly of Ned and his compeers. It's all very well for some of us, who
perhaps are of an active turn of mind, to talk about curing oneself of
this fault; but perhaps, if we knew all, we should find that it would be
about as easy as for a fair-complexioned person to make himself dark.
Ned's disposition is due more to his constitution than his upbringing,
and those who are blindly intolerant of his ways do him a wrong. I'm
sure he himself wishes he were as smart as some boys he sees, but he
can't be, and you might just as well try to lash an elephant into a
gallop as Ned into a flurry.

It is generally found that what he does he does well, which in a measure
makes up for the length of time he takes in doing it; he is good-
natured, brave, harmless, and cheery, and has lots of friends, whom he
allows full liberty both to abuse and laugh at him (and what can friends
want more?) and for the rest, he's neither vicious nor an idiot; and if
nobody were worse than he is, the world would perhaps be rather better
than it is.

An artificial "easy-going-ness" is undoubtedly a vice. It's a forgery,
however, easily detecte