or themselves, nor regard it for the
interest of their masters? If the first are a blessing to their masters,
and may only be made dangerous by their carrying away the trade with
them when they go, these are made curses to their masters early, for
they lose the trade for themselves and their masters too. The first
carry the customers away with them, the last drive the customers away
before they go. 'What signifies going to such a shop?' say the ladies,
either speaking of a mercer or a draper, or any other trade; 'there is
nothing to be met with there but a crew of saucy boys, that are always
at play when you come in, and can hardly refrain it when you are there:
one hardly ever sees a master in the shop, and the young rude boys
hardly mind you when you are looking on their goods; they talk to you as
if they cared not whether you laid out your money or no, and as if they
had rather you were gone, that they might go to play again. I will go
there no more, not I.'

If this be not the case, then you are in danger of worse still, and that
is, that they are often thieves--idle ones are seldom honest ones--nay,
they cannot indeed be honest, in a strict sense, if they are idle: but
by dishonest, I mean downright thieves; and what is more dangerous than
for an apprentice, to whom the whole business, the cash, the books, and
all is committed, to be a thief?

For a tradesman, therefore, to commit his business thus into the hand of
a false, a negligent, and a thievish servant, is like a man that travels
a journey, and takes a highwayman into the coach with him: such a man is
sure to be robbed, and to be fully and effectually plundered, because he
discovers where he hides his treasure. Thus the tradesman places his
confidence in the thief, and how should he avoid being robbed?

It is answered, that, generally tradesmen, who have any considerable
trust to put into the hands of an apprentice, take security of them for
their honesty by their friends, when their indentures are signed; and it
is their fault then, if they are not secure. True, it is often so; but
in a retail business, if the servant be unfaithful, there are so many
ways to defraud a master, besides that of merely not balancing the cash,
that it is impossible to detect them; till the tradesman, declining
insensibly by the weight of the loss, is ruined and undone.

What need, then, has the tradesman to give a close attendance, and
preserve himself from plunder, by acquai