thought
his own. When next under the influence of the tender passion, my friend
took good care to do in good time just what he was going to do.

Paul was perfectly aware of his defect, and often made the very best
resolutions against it, but it generally happened that they were broken
as soon as made. It was so easy to put off until the next hour, or
until to-morrow, a little thing that might just as well be done now.
Generally, the thing to be done was so trifling in itself, that the
effort to do it appeared altogether disproportionate at the time. It
was like exerting the strength of a giant to lift a pebble.

Sometimes the letters and papers would accumulate upon his desk for a
week or ten days, simply because the effort to put away each letter as
it was read and answered, and each paper as it was used, seemed so
great when compared with the trifling matter to be accomplished, as to
appear a waste of effort, notwithstanding time enough would be spent in
reading the newspapers, conversation, or sitting idly about, to do all
this three or four times over. When confusion reached its climax, then
he would go to work most vigorously, and in a few hours reduce all to
order. But usually some important paper was lost or mislaid, and could
not be found at the time when most needed. It generally happened that
this great effort was not made until he had been going to do it for
three or four days, and not then until the call for some account or
other commercial paper, which was nowhere to be found, made a thorough
examination of what had been accumulating for some time in his drawers
and on his desk necessary. He was not always fortunate in discovering
the object of his search.

Notwithstanding this minor defect in Paul's character, his great
shrewdness and thorough knowledge of business made him a successful
merchant. In matters of primary interest, he was far-seeing, active,
and prompt, and as these involved the main chance, his worldly affairs
were prosperous. Whatever losses he encountered were generally to be
traced to his neglect of little matters in the present, to his habit of
"going to do," but never doing at the right time.

Not only in his business, but in his domestic affairs, and in every
thing that required his attention, did this disposition to put off the
doing of little things show itself. The consequences of his neglect
were always disturbing him in one way or another. So long as he alone
suffered, no one