became an attorney with a practice of two thousand a year, and no
partner to share the profits.

His economical habits never forsook him. He married and kept a decent
table; but save in a love of good wine (or at least what his uneducated
taste considered so), he had nothing but the ordinary necessaries of
life. How much he saved each year who shall say? He had no children, and
his practice increasing while his wants stood still, he became what he
is now--a prosperous and highly respected old gentleman.

It is the fashion of the old to point out such men as models for the
imitation of the rising generation. The young, on the contrary, make
them the subjects of their ridicule, for their bad grammar and worse
manners. Let us see if we can find out the truth, unbiased by either
party. Uncle John is now a rich man, an honorable man, a hardworking
man, and in the main a sensible man. He has attained his position in
life by patience, perseverance, and industry, favored also by a little
of that good luck to which we first referred. But Uncle John is
deficient in many of the characteristics which adorn human nature. Is it
not natural that he should be so? Where was he to learn the gentler
feelings of his kind--affection, sympathy, benevolence? In his garret,
alone and unfriended? He is mean and parsimonious. He is worth forty
thousand pounds, and his deceased brother's child is starving with his
wife in a suburban garret. Uncle John will not aid him with a penny. Who
aided _him_? Did _he_ not live in a garret, and save money too? Was _he_
such a fool as to marry before he could keep a wife? Uncle John was
guilty of no weaknesses in those days; he can not forgive them in
another.

His only brother dies, leaving a large family and a widow--unprovided
for: for the children have eaten up all he could ever earn. Uncle John
does not like the widow (perhaps because she had so many children), but
he gives her L50 a year. His own income is about four thousand.

His only sister is also left a widow without a sixpence. Uncle John
gives _her_ L50 a year. "People should not marry imprudently. He can
afford no more; he has a great many calls upon him." Perhaps so; but the
answer to such calls is always, "not at home."

He has many clerks now. He makes them all work twelve hours a day. Why
not? _He_ worked twelve hours a day.

He has articled clerks too. They must work twelve hours a day also. _He_
did it. True, Uncle John; but you ha