brighter things.

The causes which led to their emigration, were as many and as various as
the adventurers whom they moved. They were, most of them, mere boys:
young Whittingtons, whom the bells did _not_ ring back, to become
lord-mayors; who, indeed, had not even the limited possessions of that
celebrated worthy; and, thus destitute, they wandered off, many hundreds
of miles, "to see the world and make their fortunes," at an age when the
youth of the present day are just beginning to think of college. They
brought neither money, letters of introduction, nor bills of exchange:
they expected to find neither acquaintance nor relatives. But they
knew--for it was one of the wise maxims of their unromantic
fathers--that industry and honesty must soon gather friends, and that
all other desirable things would speedily follow. They had great and
just confidence in their own abilities to "get along;" and if they did
not actually think that the whole world belonged to them, they were
well-assured, that in an incredibly short space of time, they would be
able to possess a respectable portion of it.

A genuine specimen of the class to which most of the early schoolmasters
belonged, never felt any misgivings about his own success, and never
hesitated to assume any position in life. Neither pride nor modesty was
ever suffered to interfere with his action. He would take charge of a
numerous school, when he could do little more than write his own name,
just as he would have undertaken to run a steamboat, or command an army,
when he had never studied engineering or heard of strategy. Nor would he
have failed in either capacity: a week's application would make him
master of a steam-engine, or a proficient (after the _present manner_ of
proficiency) in tactics; and as for his school, he could himself learn
at night what he was to teach others on the following day! Nor was this
mere "conceit"--though, in some other respects, that word, in its
limited sense, was not inapplicable--neither was it altogether ignorant
presumption; for one of these men was seldom known to fail in anything
he undertook: or, if he did fail, he was never found to be cast down by
defeat, and the resiliency of his nature justified his confidence.

The pursuit of a certain avocation, for a long period, is apt to warp
one's nature to its inequalities; and as the character gradually assumes
the peculiar shape, the personal appearance changes in a corresponding
di