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 RETIRING FROM B[JSINESS: 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE men MAN'S ERROR. 
 
 BY T. S. ARTHUR, 
 
 AUTHOR OF •• KEEPIXG UP APP5:ARAXCES.'' ' THE VOUJfG MV3JC 
 TEACHER,'' "LADV AT HOME,"" ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 PUBLISHED BY BAKER & SCRIBNER, 
 
 145 NASSAU STREET AND 3G PARK ROW. 
 
 184S.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1849, 
 
 By baker & SCKIBNER, 
 
 !r the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern 
 
 District of New York. 
 
 S. "W. BENEDICT, 
 Ster. & Print., 16 Spruce St.,N.Y?
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 VEASONS FOR RETIRING 5 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE STEP TAKEN "^ 
 
 FIRST EFFECTS 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 3 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 2068035 
 
 28 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A TRIP TO SARATOGA . 36 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 DISAPPOINTMENT 52 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 AN UNWELCOME VISITOR 62 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A CHANGE PROPOSED 67 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MODEL FARMING ''^ 
 
 CtlAPTER IX. 
 
 TAKEN IN ^'^ 
 
 SOME OF THE FRUITS "^ 
 
 GOING ASTRAY ° ' " ""
 
 iV 60XTKNTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 108 
 
 A FALSE STEP 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 TROUBLE IN EARNEST 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A RETURN • 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A NEW ENTERPRISE 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE RESULT 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 ALL LOST 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 5KT0 BUSINESS, AND AGAIN USEFUL AND HAPPY . . • • l58 
 
 116 
 125 
 136 
 144 
 149
 
 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 REASONS FOR RETIRING. ^ 
 
 For twenty-five years, Howard Franklin had 
 been the manufacturer of a useful article. In- 
 dustrious, shrewd, and prudent, from a small 
 beginning, his business had grown into impor- 
 tance, and at the age of fifty he found himself 
 worth over a hundred thousand dollars. It had 
 happened in his case, as it sometimes happens 
 with men, that everything he engaged in, pros- 
 pered ; and this Mr. Franklin confidently 
 attributed to his own superior intelhgence. To 
 some extent he was right ; for, thinking only of 
 business, it was but rational that he should see 
 more clearly, and as a consequence, operate 
 with more certainty of success, than men whose 
 attention w^as often turned, with interest, to 
 matters and things entirely apart from theii* 
 1*
 
 6 r.ETIRIXG FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 regular pursuits. But, all vras not from human 
 prudence in his case; all is not from human 
 prudence in any case. Men are often permitted 
 to obtain wealth, in order that its possession 
 may correct the false ideas they hold in regard 
 to money as the greatest good ; and such men 
 are, in all cases, more unhappy as rich men, 
 than they were as poor men. 
 
 The effect of wealth upon the minds of those 
 who acquire it by thei|^ own exertions, always 
 depends upon the end which prompted to its 
 attainment ; and this, in a measure, explains the 
 meaning of the different aspects presented in 
 the affairs, personal, social, and otherwise, of 
 men who have risen from moderate circumstan- 
 ces into affluence. Some men, as their exter- 
 nal circumstances improve, use the means that 
 come into their hands with a generous reference 
 to the common good ; v/hile others never spend 
 a dollar, that is not intended to gratify some 
 selfish desire, while their acts of apparent bene- 
 volence are merely propitiatory, and intended 
 to " cover a multitude of sins."- It is but 
 natural to conclude, as, under Providence, all 
 man's external circumstances are intended to 
 react upon his internal states, and thus aid in 
 his elevation out of e"vil affections and depraved 
 confederates, that the attainment of vrealth will
 
 REASONS FOR RETIRING. 7 
 
 produce very different results in these two 
 classes, and that the tcR'are by which they hold 
 it, will be of a very different character. 
 
 Howard Franklin belonged to the latter 
 class. He had not the inordinate love of money 
 possessed by some men, and his pursuit of 
 wealth was governed less by the desire to ac- 
 cumulate an immense estate, than by a wish to 
 acquire what he deemed an independence. From 
 the day he first commenced business, until 
 satisfied with his gains, he withdrew from a 
 life of active usefulness in the world ; he had 
 ever intended retiring from business v/lien all 
 things conspired to justify his doing so ; and 
 this with a view to his ov/n ease. 
 
 Mr. Frankhn's ideas of a ccanpetency, as 
 might be supposed, gradually changed as his 
 external condition improved. Thirty or forty 
 thousand dollars he, at one time of life, con- 
 sidered a handsome little fortune, and as much 
 as any reasonable man ought to desire. But as 
 his external circumstances gradually improved, 
 his wants increased, and his ideas of things 
 enlarged. Sixty or seventy thousand next ap- 
 peared as sufficient for all purposes. But, 
 when that mark was attained, business was too 
 prosperous for Mr. Franklin to think of aban- 
 doning it ; the more especially, as his plans for
 
 8 RETIRIXG FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 the future, had, to some extent, changed, and he 
 would be less circumscribed in the sphere he 
 wished to occupy, were he in the enjoyment of 
 an income based upon a hundred thousand 
 dollars, instead of sixty. 
 
 After having passed the liundred thousand 
 dollar mark, a slight depression in business, 
 caused Mr. Franklin to retire, in order to hve 
 the rest of his hfe at ease. Such a life, it had 
 always seemed to him, was one, of all others, 
 most delightful. While in business, his anxiety 
 to acquire a competency was so great, that he 
 permitted himself little or no relaxation. Early 
 and late, he was at his manufactory, and every 
 part of it was under his superintendence. All 
 his thoughts were bent uporu adding dollar to 
 dollar, in order to gain, at the earhest possible 
 time, an amount of money adequate to his sup- 
 port, during the remainder of his life. 
 
 Mr. Franklin was in the full possession of all 
 Ms faculties, bodily and mental, at the time he 
 resolved to close up his business, and could 
 have conducted it with advantage to himself, so 
 far as money was concerned, and benefit to the 
 community, fof many years longer. But, he 
 had acquired property enqugh to make him 
 comfortable all his life, and what use was there, 
 he argued, in making a slave of himself any
 
 REASONS FOR RETIRING. 9 
 
 longer, in order to hoard up money for the mere 
 sake of accmnulation. 
 
 When it became known that Mr. Franklin was 
 about selling out his business, everybody ex- 
 pressed surprise, as everybody will at almost any 
 step taken by other people, v/hether the step 
 be dictated by right or \\Tong motives. This 
 was nothins: strans^e. Those more intimate \nih. 
 Mr. Franklin than others, made free to speak 
 out what they thought on the subject, and when 
 his true reason for the step was known, nearly 
 all commended his prudence. 
 
 " Some men are never satisfied with getting," 
 remarked an acquaintance. "They are never 
 rich enough. With increasing wealth, come 
 increasing wants. But you have, wisely, pre- 
 scribed a limit to your desires. Pity there 
 were not more like you." 
 
 " I have as much money now as I can spend," 
 replied Mr. Franklin, "V»^hy, then, should I toil 
 for more ? It is time that I retired from the 
 field and left it to others. I am not greedy of 
 gain. As for the mere love of money, I never 
 had the feeling. All that I ever desired, was a 
 competency, and ha^■ing obtained that, I am 
 content to enjoy it. What folly for a man to 
 tug at the oar, after he has enough, just for the
 
 10 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 sake of getting more, when he can't use what 
 he ah-eady has." 
 
 " True. It is the worst of folly," was an- 
 swered, "and ennces a greedy spirit. I only 
 wish that I was worth what you are, or even 
 half of it, you would not see me long in the 
 stifled atmosphere of a counting-room. This 
 ambition of being known as a very rich man, 
 which some feel, I never had ; and I am just as 
 far from being influenced by the low deshe of 
 mere possession." 
 
 " In that we are alike," said Mr. Frankhn. 
 
 " What is the use of money, except as the 
 means of supplying our wants ? I am sure 
 that I value it from no other consideration ; and 
 having secm-ed as much as I need for this pm'- 
 pose, I am very far from being disposed to 
 work on and lay up thousands upon thousands 
 for others to squander when I am dead." 
 
 Another said, " I think, Mr. Frankhn, that 
 I would hold on a httle longer. Your business 
 is too good to throw away. Before retiring, you 
 might easily add to your present wealth the 
 convenient sum of fifty or a hundred thousand 
 dollars." 
 
 '' Perhaps I might," was answered. " But 
 what of that ? I have as much as I want now. 
 Fifty thousand dollars more could not give me
 
 REASONS FOR RETIRING. 11 
 
 a single comfort that I may not now possess, nor 
 add a drop to my cup of happiness. There is, 
 therefore, no motive for giving up ten or fifteen 
 years more of my hfe to the diTidgery of busi- 
 ness. No, no. While I have health and a 
 sound mind, let me enjoy what I have." 
 
 " But see what good a surplus of fifty thou- 
 sand dollars would put it in your power to 
 do!" 
 
 Mr. Franklin shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " Yes," said he, " no doubt, I might do a great 
 deal of good. But it is asking 'most too much 
 of a man fifty years old, who has been working 
 all his hfe, like a draught horse, to give ten 
 years to the pubhc, when he needs rest and re- 
 laxation. I believe that I am as benevolent as 
 most men, and as -vv^lling to do my part, but to 
 tax me as high as fifty thousand dollars for 
 charitable purposes, is going ratlier beyond the 
 mark." 
 
 There was one friend who took rather a 
 difierent view from all the rest, and who did 
 not hesitate to express himself freely. 
 
 *' Is it true," he said, on meeting Mr. Frank- 
 lin about this time, " that you are about giving 
 up your business ?" 
 
 " Yes. I have already arranged the prehmi- 
 naries of a sale of my whole estabhshment."
 
 12 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 " Into what new channel do you think of di- 
 recting your capital and energies ?" 
 
 Into none. I shall retire from all business.'* 
 
 Your health is yet unbroken." 
 
 I consider myself in the prime of hfe." 
 
 " Then why do you retire ?" 
 
 " I have made as much money as I want." 
 Indeed ! You are the first man I ever 
 heard say that. And, I rather think that you 
 would have no particular objection to a little 
 more." 
 
 " No ; I should make no objection to such 
 an addition, certainly. But, having as much 
 money as I can spend, my desire for more is not 
 strong enough to induce me to encounter any 
 longer the labor and perplexity of business. I 
 wish to retire and live at my ease." 
 
 " I have my doubts," said the friend, " if 
 any man has a right to do that." 
 
 " Indeed ! This is certainly a new doctrine. 
 I thought every man was free to do as he 
 pleased, so that he refrained from interfering 
 with the rights of others." 
 
 " Can you retire from business and not inter- 
 fere with the rights of others ?" 
 
 " I should think so. My business is my own. 
 I have pursued it for my own benefit, and 
 surely, I may give it up if it so please me, with-
 
 REASONS FOR RETIRING. 13 
 
 out laying myself open to the charge of injury 
 to others ?'' 
 
 " Have you consumed in your own family all 
 that your extensive manufactory produced ?" 
 
 '' What a question !" 
 
 " You did not ?" 
 
 *' No. A thousand people could not consume 
 the annual product of my establishment." 
 
 " Then you have been providing for the 
 health and comfort of more than a thousand 
 people," 
 
 -Well?" 
 
 "Have not these thousand people a claim 
 upon you as a member of society ?'' 
 
 " No. What gave them a claim upon me ?" 
 
 " Their want of your ability. Society is held 
 together by the law of reciprocal benefits. Did 
 you make the coat you wear ?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Or the shoes upon your feet ?" 
 
 "No." 
 *" Who tilled the ground that brought forth 
 the grain ; who manufactured the wheat into 
 flour ; or who converted the flour, by labor, into 
 the bread that sustains your life ? Did you do 
 all this?" 
 
 " Certainly not." 
 
 " No. All this was done by others, and you 
 2
 
 14 RETIRING FROM BU6INESS. 
 
 derive the benefit. Now suppose all men were 
 to retire from active life in society ?" 
 *' Preposterous ! All men can't retire." 
 « Why not?" 
 
 " Necessity compels them to labor." 
 " Admitted. But, take away the personal 
 necessity, for the sake of seeing the principle 
 involved. Let all men seek their ease ; let all 
 men refuse to work ; in other words, perform 
 service for others, and how quickly would dis- 
 aster and wide-spread distress prevail through- 
 out the community. A man's money would be 
 of no avail, if it would not pm'chase his neigh- 
 bor's abihty to serve him where his own ability 
 was inadequate. Depend upon it, Mr. Franklin, 
 society has just as strong a claim upon you, in 
 virtue of your ability to do a useful service, as 
 you, in virtue of your natural wants, have upon 
 society. The obhgation is radical, and you can- 
 not, justly, refuse to pay it." 
 
 " I render to every man an equivalent for 
 what I receive." • 
 
 " But not to society as one larger individual. 
 This you can only do (pardon the freedom with 
 which I speak}, by the exercise of an abiUty 
 given you to serve the general good. The 
 moment you withdraw from labor, others are 
 taxed to make up for the deficient production.
 
 REASONS FOR RETIRING. 15 
 
 If ten men retire under the \iews of personal 
 independence you take, the tax will be heavier 
 upon those who have to support the great 
 body ; and if a hundred retire, the burden will 
 be still more increased. You see, then, that if 
 you have a right to retire, so have all men .who 
 can escape from labor ; but, if all men have not 
 a right to bury the talents given them — ^to cease 
 working for the common good (no man works 
 for himself ; that is, no man uses the entire pro- 
 duct of his own skill or labor) — then no indi- 
 vidual has the right." . 
 
 "A mere abstraction,'' rephed Mr. Franklin. 
 " There are plenty of people willing to work for 
 the gains of labor. Plenty of rich men willing 
 to toil on, in order that house may he added to 
 house, and field to field. The whole area of 
 trade and business, is crowded, as it is. Instead 
 of additional labor, we want the present surplus 
 reduced." 
 
 "So I often hear it said. But I do not 
 admit the position. Take the article you manu- 
 facture. I presume that, since you commenced 
 business, the consumption, judging from your 
 own increased production, and the increase of 
 establishments in the country similar to your 
 own, has become four fold ?" 
 
 " At least."
 
 16 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 " And the sale is just as free." 
 
 "But not at the same price. While the 
 quality of the article has grown better and 
 better, the price has steadily dechned." 
 
 '' And the consumption increased ?" 
 
 " Yes. Had it not been for this, we should 
 aU have been ruined long ago." 
 
 " What caused this increase in the consump- 
 tion?" 
 
 "■ The reduction of price, which brought it 
 within the means of a poorer and more numer- 
 ous class of the community. '^ 
 
 " Under the increased consumption and re- 
 duced price, have not your profits been as great 
 as before?" 
 
 *' Greater." 
 
 "While the enlargement of your estabhsh- 
 ment enabled you to employ three or four times 
 as many hands as formerly ?" 
 
 " Not directly, for machinery enabled me io 
 dispense with a great deal of manual labor, 
 which was very hard, and generally killed up 
 those engaged in its performance, in a few years. 
 But the consumption of a larger quantity of 
 material, the manufacture of machinery, the 
 packing, transportation, and disposition of a 
 larger amount of goods manufactured, reqim-ed, 
 I am satisfied, four or five hands to one formerly
 
 REASONS FOR RETIRING. 17 
 
 employed, though not all directly under my in- 
 spection or pay." 
 
 " And the labor has been, doubtless, lighter ?" 
 " Very greatly. In our business, the labor 
 was extremely severe. But the great demand 
 which has arisen in the last few years, enabled 
 us to introduce machinery, and thus, to some 
 extent, emancipate those who were no better 
 than slaves." 
 
 " So far, then, Mr. Franklin, from their being 
 too many at work, do you not see that the won- 
 derful power of machinery is constantly being 
 brought into requisition, in order to increase the 
 production of useful articles, so that they may 
 come within the reach of all. There is no sur- 
 plus of labor, depend upon it. Else why are 
 water, steam, electricity, and every conceivable 
 natural power brought into use ? and why are 
 all the mechanical properties of matter made to 
 subserve some good end in the production of 
 things needful in the social economy ? Depend 
 upon it, there is plenty of work for men of your 
 intelhgence and ability to perform ; and if you 
 retire from your position, society will suffer de- 
 triment. If I understand aright, the cheapen- 
 ing of the article you manufacture, and the 
 bringing it, on this account, within reach of the 
 means of a large portion of the community 
 2*
 
 18 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 who used it but sparingly, or not at all before, 
 was in consequence of your introduction of ma- 
 chinery into one branch of its manufacture. Is 
 this so?" 
 
 *' It is. But I don't pretend to have had in 
 view anything more than cheapening the cost 
 of production by dispensing with hand labor, 
 and thus making more profit for myself. There 
 was no philanthropy in it, I can assure you." 
 
 " No matter. You were at work in the manu- 
 facture of an article that the people wanted, 
 and se-rved the community, whether you in- 
 tended to do so or not ; and in youi* efforts to 
 lessen the cost of its production for your own 
 benefit, you actually served the public in cheap- 
 ening it, and thus bringing it into more general 
 use. Had you retired from business, content with 
 thirty or forty thousand dollars, before you had 
 lessened the cost of manufacture, up to this day 
 the old order of things might have prevailed. 
 Think of that, and also think how much the peo- 
 ple would have lost by your ^vithdrawal from 
 yom' active duties as a member of society.*' 
 
 " Somebody else would have introduced ma- 
 chinery if I had not," said Mr. Frankhn. 
 
 *' No doubt of that," was replied. " But 
 the introduction might not have taken place for 
 some years. Suppose, however, it would have
 
 REASONS FOR RETIHING. 19 
 
 taken place at tlie time you introduced it ; still, 
 your enterprise, capital, and labor would have 
 been wanted, and no other enterprise, capital, 
 and labor of others could have supplied them. 
 Others v/ould have their part to do, and no mat- 
 ter how efficiently they might do it, still your 
 deficit remained as a balance against the com- 
 fort of society." 
 
 " That may all seem very clear to you," re- 
 plied Mr. Franklin, " but to me, it is only an 
 abstraction. As for the well-being of others, I 
 shall not interfere with it. I w^ill take no man's 
 goods ; nor stand in the w^ay of any man's 
 interests. I will leave all free to follow their 
 own ends in life, and I will claim a like freedom 
 for myself. I pursued my business, in order to 
 accumulate money and become independent. 
 My end is answered, and I have no longer a 
 motive stronf]^ enouojli to induce me to continue 
 involved in its cares and labors. What you 
 have said about my obligations to society, may 
 all be so ; but I can assure you that I do not 
 feel its force. As far as I understand the social 
 law, it is 'every man for himself.' " 
 
 The friend, seeing how useless it would be to 
 urge any further considerations of the kind he 
 had advanced, said no more on the subject, and 
 his words soon passed from the ears of the man 
 for whose good they were spoken.
 
 20 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE STEP TAKEN. 
 
 The wife of Howard Franklin was a woman of 
 clear perceptions. She saw, the moment her 
 husband declared his intention of retiring, that 
 he was wrong. He had always said that he did 
 not intend remaining in business a day after 
 securing a competency, but the act of retirin;T 
 had presented itself to her as something yet 
 far in the distance. AVhen, hovvever, he told 
 her that he had actually entered into arrange- 
 ments for affecting a sale of his establishment, 
 she could not help expressing both surprise and 
 disapproval. 
 
 " Yv hat do you intend doing ?" she very 
 naturally asked ; the fear crossing her mind 
 that he would risk his money in some other 
 business, and lose it. Her father had once re- 
 tired from a profitable business, in order to 
 encrao-e in one he ima^ned he would like better, 
 and lost in consequence, nearly all his property. 
 She was therefore aware of the danger attend- 
 ing such a chano^e. 
 
 **I intend hving at my ease," replied Mr. 
 Franklin, " I've worked hard enough, during the
 
 THE STEP TAKEN. 21 
 
 last twenty-five years, and now want to enjoy 
 the fruit of my labor." 
 
 " But can you remain idle, Howard ? Your 
 health is still good, and your mind active." 
 
 -Why not?" 
 
 " The habits of a whole life time cannot be 
 suddenly changed. The mind, after years of 
 earnest devotion to business, Avill become rest- 
 less and discontented, if it have no pursuit. 
 You will be unhappy, with nothing to do." 
 
 " Is the prisoner unhappy, when his prison 
 doors are thrown open ? or the slave, when his 
 chains are knocked off ? I have been both a 
 prisoner and a slave for years. Do you think 
 freedom will make me discontented ?" 
 
 "■ Habits of mind are not easily changed," 
 said Mrs. Franklin. " I can easily understand 
 how a prisoner, long deprived of his hberty, 
 would, under certain circumstances, find himself 
 less contented beyond, than he had been within 
 the bounds of his prison walls ; and a slave set 
 free, less contented at hberty, than wliile in 
 bondage. For a long series of years, you have 
 been deeply intent upon your business. This 
 interest in business, has been the aliment, upon 
 which your mind has subsisted, and whereby it 
 has retained a healthy vigor. Now, what will 
 sustain you, when this interest is removed ?"
 
 22 RETIEING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 To a certain extent Mr. Franklin felt the force 
 of Hs wife's questions ; but the impression was 
 not permanent. The idea of throwing aside all 
 the labor and care attendant upon business, was 
 so pleasant, that he could not seriously beheve 
 the change from toil of body and mind, to ease 
 and quiet, was going to make him less contented. 
 Why should it ? With plenty of money, and 
 freedom to go w^here he pleased, and do what 
 he pleased, why should he not be happy ? The 
 conclusion was so natural, that it quickly dis- 
 pelled all doubts suggested by other minds. 
 
 Nothing occurred to produce hesitation on 
 the part of Mr. Franklm. His fiist purpose was 
 fully carried out, and his whc/le estabhshment, 
 healthy and flourishing in every department, 
 transferred for value received to others; 
 
 At this period, Mr. Franklin's family consist- 
 ed of his wife and four children. His two eldest 
 children had died young, and those that re- 
 mained, were yet at school. Edwin was 
 eighteen, Floz-ence sixteen, James twelve, and 
 Louisa ten years of age. One of the argu- 
 ments used by Mr. Franklin in justification of 
 his withdrawal from business, was the leisure it 
 would afford him to attend to the education of 
 his children. But he was about as well fitted 
 to direct the education of his children as he was
 
 THE STEP TAKEJf. 23 
 
 to build a steam engine or navigate a ship. While 
 in business his Y>-hole soul had been in what he 
 was doing. His reading was hmited to the 
 pages of a newspaper, and his interest in things 
 beyond the sphere in which he was moving, 
 confined mainly to the state and condition of 
 the pohtical party to which he had attached 
 himself. A speech in congress, a message from 
 the president, or an annual report from one of 
 the departments at Washington, was a literary 
 achievement beyond Avhich he rarely went. 
 Since the age of twenty-five he had never suc- 
 ceeded in reading a volume of any kind regu- 
 larly through. He took no interest in books ; 
 and at one time was known to declare that they 
 were, at best, merely incentives to idleness. 
 
 With a mind thus educated, and more har- 
 dened by time into a fixed foma, it may readily 
 be supposed that, so far as the education of his 
 children was concerned, it would go on just as 
 well, and perhaps better, if Mr. Franklin 
 continued his attention to business, and left the 
 work, as begun, entirely in the hands of the 
 schoolmaster. But the declaration in regard to 
 the children was only an invented reason to 
 give force to the real ones that led to the step 
 he had taken. It was easy to talk about the 
 importance of education, and the duties of pa-
 
 24 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 rents to their children. Moreover, it soundeA 
 well. And now, that Mr. Franklin no longer 
 had business to occupy his thoughts, he had 
 more leisure to think about his position in so- 
 ciety, and the impression his actions and opin- 
 ions would make upon other people. 
 
 Like most men who know little or nothing 
 about a subject to which they first direct their 
 thoughts, under the idea of its paramount im- 
 portance, Mr. Franklin saw, or imagined that he 
 saw, abuses and defects in the system of education 
 pm-sued Avith his children, and soon began to 
 inveigh against their teachers, and to talk about 
 sending them to other schools. This was not 
 right, and that was positively wrong. Trifles 
 were magnified into importance, and even excel-' 
 lences, viewed through a distorting medium, 
 deformed into evils. Finally, much against the 
 wishes of the mother and children, the latter, 
 except Edwin, who was at College, were remov- 
 ed from the schools to which they had been 
 o-oino:, and sent to another estabhshment about 
 which Mr. Franklin knew even less than he did 
 of those from which he had removed them. 
 
 The result did not prove the wisdom of the 
 act. A week only elapsed after the change had 
 taken place, before Florence, who shed many 
 tears in consequence of being removed from her
 
 THE STEP TAKEN. 25 
 
 school and sent to another, failed in the usual 
 regularity of her return after the close of the 
 afternoon session. When questioned by her 
 mother, she gave as a reason, that she had gone 
 
 home Tvilh a certain Miss R , belonging 
 
 to the new school, who had invited her to come 
 and look at a beautiful rose-wood secretary, just 
 sent to her by an uncle in Paris." 
 
 This was considered a sufficient excuse, and 
 nothing more was thought of it. But in a few 
 days Florence absented herself again for an hour 
 or two. 
 
 " "WTiere have you been, Florence ?" asked 
 Mrs. Franklin, when her daughter came in. 
 
 " I went home with Anna R ." 
 
 " You were there two or thi'ee days ago." 
 
 "Yes, Ma'am." 
 
 "Who is Anna R ?" inquired the 
 
 mother. 
 
 " Her father is a rich merchant. Anna in- 
 troduced me to him this afternoon. He said he 
 knew papa very well." 
 
 " Why did you go home with Anna R 
 
 again?" 
 
 "She wanted me to go. She is a very 
 pleasant girl, and I like her." 
 
 Although Mrs. Franklin did not feel altoge- 
 ther satisfied about this httle matter, yet no good 
 3
 
 26 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 reason why she should forbid Florence again 
 going home with Anna, presented itself. When 
 
 she mentioned the name of Mr. R to her 
 
 husband, he spoke very highly of the merchant, 
 and said his family was one of the first standing 
 
 in the city. The fact that Mr. R had 
 
 said to Florence that he knew him very well, 
 was grateful to his feelings. 
 
 From that time a warm intimacy grew up 
 between the two young ladies, and they spent a 
 ofood deal of time too^ether, when not at school. 
 Sometimes Anna would com.e home with Flo- 
 rence, and sometimes Florence would go home 
 with Anna. This was Florence's first friendship, 
 and the effect upon her mind was by no means 
 favorable to advancement in her studies. Anna 
 was a gay girl, and had seen a good deal more 
 of the Avorld than Florence. She was older by 
 a year. Neither at home, nor in the school 
 where she had been for years, had Florence 
 heard much about dress or company. But, 
 among the girls with whom she mingled in 
 the more fashionable establishment to which 
 her father, in his wisdom, had sent her, she 
 heard of little else. Study was lightly esteemed 
 among the gay Misses who daily congregated in 
 the spacious rooms of the seminary ; while gos- 
 sip of all kinds passed from hp to lip, and
 
 THE STEP TAKEN. "At 
 
 proved far more interesting and more easily re- 
 membered than the teacher's lessons. 
 
 To one like Florence, Anna R was any 
 
 thing but a suitable companion. Under her 
 tuition, the sweet simplicity of girlhood soon 
 passed away, and Florence, from being quiet, 
 reserved, and modest, became a smart young 
 Miss ; and when not in the presence of her pa- 
 rents, could talk of beaux, dress, parties, and 
 fashion, as freely as any. 
 
 Both Mr. and Mrs. Franklin saw with pain 
 that their daughter, at this most interesting and 
 critical aire, was chanmno- for the worse. The 
 latter did not hesitate to affirm it as her belief 
 that this change was in consequence of new as- 
 sociatioKo in the new school. Mr. Frankha 
 would not admit this, though in his heart he 
 felt that it was too true, and secretly regretted 
 having proposed and insisted upon the unfortu- 
 nate change which had been made. 
 
 Late one afternoon, about six months subse- 
 quent to the change just mentioned, Mr. Frank- 
 Hn, in returning home from some time-killing 
 expedition, came suddenly, in turning a corner, 
 upon Anna R and his daughter, gal- 
 lantly attended by a fashionably dressed young 
 man, who was engaging their attention so fully 
 that neither of the young ladies perceived him.
 
 28 RETIRING PROM BUSINESS. 
 
 The young gentleman he happened to know, 
 having frequently met him at his barber's, where 
 he geneially showed off a httle. He was the 
 idle dissipated son of a broken merchant, and 
 by some means, not clearly apparent, managed, 
 without work, to keep up a fashionable exterior, 
 and by dint of a bold face, to force himself into 
 the society of people who would willingly have 
 dispensed with his company. 
 
 By Mr. FrankHn, he had always been utterly 
 despised. To find, then, his daughter in com- 
 pany with this man, and e\'idently pleased with 
 the fellow's attentions, half maddened him. So 
 astonished T\'as he when he first saw them, that 
 he had not sufficient presence of mind to speak 
 to Florence ; and she passed on, unconscious 
 that her father's eyes had just been upon her. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FIRST EFFECTS. 
 
 When Mr. Franklin informed his wife, on re- 
 turning home, of what he had just seen, she 
 was deeply distressed. 
 
 " We must at once break off all intercourse
 
 FIRST EFFECTS. 29 
 
 between her and Miss R . The more I 
 
 have seen of that girl the less I have liked her. 
 I believe the association ha^ been of great in- 
 jury to Florence." 
 
 " I am afraid it has," rephed Mr. FrankKn. 
 "At any rate, it must now, as you say, be 
 
 broken off. If Mr. R permits his 
 
 daughter to associate with young men of that 
 stamp, it is more than I do." 
 
 " We must remove her from the school also. 
 She has learned httle there that v,dll ever be of 
 any use to her." 
 
 " The only way effectually to break off the 
 intimacy, is to take her from the school. She 
 must not go another day." 
 
 There was no controversy on this point. 
 When Florence came in, which was not until 
 nearly dark, she merely looked into the room 
 where her parents v^ere sitting, and then went 
 up to her chamber, where she remained for the 
 evening. When the bell rung she did not come 
 down. On being sent for, she said that she 
 was not very well, and did'nt wish any tea. 
 
 After a good deal of conversation on the sub- 
 ject, the parents came to the conclusion not to 
 say anything to Florence until the following 
 day, and she was therefore left to herself for 
 the evening.
 
 30 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 On the next morning, when the family assem- 
 bled at the breakfast table, the place of Flo- 
 rence was still vacant. A servant was sent up to 
 her chamber, but returned with the information 
 that she was not there. 
 
 A painful suspicion flashed across the mind 
 of Mrs. Franklin. She arose up quickly and 
 ascended to her daughter's room. Every thing 
 there corroborated the suspicion. The bed had 
 not been slept in during the night, and on ex- 
 amination, she found that Florence had taken or 
 worn some of her handsomest clothing and or- 
 namental jewelry. Upon a bureau, and partly 
 covered by a small cushion, lay a note, which 
 the mother eagerly read. Its contents were as 
 follows : — 
 
 Dear Mother : — Don't be alarmed at my 
 absence, I will be home again in a few days. I 
 know you and papa will scold me terribly when 
 I come back ; but I am sure you will forgive me. 
 I refused for a long time my consent to go, but 
 no denial would be taken, and at last I yielded. 
 Don't, let me beg of you again, be in the least 
 alarmed. I will be back in a few days. I can- 
 not say more. 
 
 Affectionately your daughter, 
 
 Florence." 
 
 The letter dropped from the mother's hand, 
 and she sunk, ^dth an exclamation of grief.
 
 FIRST EFFECTS. 31 
 
 upon a chair. It was clear to her mind, that 
 Florence, scarcely more than a child, had been 
 inveigled into a marriage vdih the young man 
 in whose company she was seen on the previous 
 day. A second reading of the letter, however, 
 created a doubt, while it suggested a more 
 dreadful suspicion. While she yet remained in 
 her daughter's room, Mr. Franklin, whose anx- 
 iety of mind was so intense that he could en- 
 dure but a brief suspense, came up. 
 
 " What is this ?" he said, catching eagerly at 
 the letter of Florence. He read it twice before 
 his bewildered mind fully comprehended its 
 meaning, and then the magnitude of the e\il 
 which had fallen suddenly upon them, so crush- 
 ed his feelings as to take away for a time his 
 utterance. In all his hfe, no affliction like this 
 had crossed his path. Children had been taken 
 from him by disease, but there remained a hope 
 in their death. What hope was there now ? 
 
 Clasping his hands across his forehead, Mr. 
 Franklin stood for more than a minute, endea- 
 voring to calm the wild agitation of his feel- 
 ings. 
 
 " I must see Mr. R instantly !" he 
 
 at length said, and as he spoke, he turned to 
 go. 
 
 " Do you think she has gone in company with
 
 32 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 Anna?" asked Mrs. Franklin, in a tremulous 
 voice. 
 
 *' No doubt of it. They were together last 
 evening." 
 
 " Then see Mr. R , by all means. Per- 
 haps " 
 
 But the mother did not trust herself to finish 
 the hopeful sentence. Mr. Franklin left the 
 
 house immediately. He found Mr. R , 
 
 as much agitated as himself. Anna had also 
 disappeared on the night previous, but on what 
 errand she had gone, or in what direction, her 
 parents yet remained ignorant. 
 
 " I saw them both on the street, late yester- 
 day afternoon, with that puppy, Elmer," said 
 Mr. Frankhn. 
 
 "What !" responded Mr. R , while the 
 
 blood rushed instantly to his face. " Elmer ?" 
 
 " It is too trae." 
 
 " The scoundrel ! Within a month he has had 
 the despicable assm ance to call here, and ask to 
 see my daughter, as yet but a school girl. It 
 is well for him, that I was not at home, or I 
 would have pitched him into the street. I met 
 him a few days afterwards and threatened to 
 cut off his ears, if he ever dared even speak to 
 Anna. In company with him ! Can it be 
 possible ?"
 
 FIRST EFFECTS. 33 
 
 " And worse," said Mr. Franklin, " I sadly 
 fear, that either youi' daughter or mine, has 
 been enticed by him into a clandestine mar- 
 riage." 
 
 Mr. R, grew instantly pale as ashes. 
 
 " Into a marriage with Elmer !" he said in a 
 choking whisper. " Impossible !" 
 
 " Heaven grant that the fear may not be 
 reahzed. But either you or I have got this 
 great affliction, if not a worse one to bear." 
 
 " I wiU shoot him !" exclaimed R , in 
 
 a loud, excited voice, losing entirely his self- 
 control. 
 
 ** First, we must find the fugitives," said Mr. 
 FrankUn, upon whose mind the conviction that 
 Florence had only gone away as the friend of 
 Anna, was becoming every moment clearer. 
 The fact, that Elmer had actually attempted to 
 visit the latter, naturally led him to this con- 
 clusion. 
 
 "True," rephed Mr. R , growing 
 
 calmer. "But where shall we seek them? 
 Have you any knowledge of the direction that 
 has been taken." 
 
 " Not the slightest. It is more than proba- 
 ble, however, that they have gone on to Phila- 
 delphia."
 
 34 EETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 *' Then let us seek tliem there. Will you go 
 on this afternoon ?" 
 
 " Yes. No time is to be lost. The present 
 doubt is terrible ; it seems as if I could not bear 
 it for an hour." 
 
 " It may be days before it changes into a 
 
 blasting certainty," returned Mr. R . 
 
 *' Oh ! To think that my child should come to 
 this folly ! So much for that accursed school ! 
 So much for a fashionable establishment ! I 
 was a fool ever to let her go there. I might 
 have known, that evil instead of good would 
 spring from all the associations connected there- 
 with. It was the fashionable school. All the 
 first families sent their children there. So much 
 the worse ! But it is too late to talk of this. 
 The mischief has been done." 
 
 The words of Mr. R were felt by the 
 
 father of Florence, as a rebuke. In order to 
 send his daughter to this school, he had taken 
 her from one to which she had been going for 
 years, and where all the associations were of 
 the best character. It was not a fashionable 
 institution, but it had an advantagfe in being: a 
 good school, which others did not always pos- 
 sess. 
 
 To Philadelphia, the anxious fathers pro- 
 ceeded ; but were not successful in meeting
 
 FIRST EFFECTS. 35 
 
 with, the fugitives. While they were away, 
 however, both Florence and Anna returned; 
 the latter as the bride of Elmer. Florence had 
 only accompanied the latter, as a friend. 
 
 In the angiy excitement of the moment, Mr. 
 
 E, threw his daughter indignantly from 
 
 him. But, it was the old story in his case. A 
 few months cooled doTvii the father's passion, 
 and tenderer feelings took their place. In less 
 than a year the banished one was brought back 
 from her exile, and with her came the man she 
 now called by the name of husband. And had 
 this man really loved her? Let her already 
 sobered face answer the question. He had 
 loved her father's wealth and position — nothing 
 else; and had inveigled this young and silly 
 creature into a marriage with no other end than 
 to obtain a claim upon both. The history of 
 their wedded life, it is not our purpose to trace. 
 Happy it was not. Can a bitter fountain send 
 forth sweet water ? 
 
 tft
 
 36 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A TRIP TO SARATOGA. 
 
 The education of Florence Franklin was com- 
 plete, at least in respect to rudimentals. The 
 last establishment to which she had been sent 
 proved a finishing shop, so far as she was con- 
 cerned. With her removal from that hot-bed 
 for yomig ladies, died the last state of the 
 youthful mind, in which the love of knowing 
 predominates ; and she now felt herself a woman, 
 ready to apply in real life, what she had learned 
 as a child. And Florence was not yet seventeen 
 years old ! So much for a change of associa- 
 tions. So much for introducing a young girl at 
 her critical age, into the atmosphere of a fash- 
 ionable school for young ladies. For ever gone 
 from her cheek was the delicate rose-bud tint 
 of girhsh modesty ; for ever gone from her eyes 
 the maidenly repose, so pure and passionless. 
 She was a woman, without the woman's weight 
 of character. 
 
 And this sad change was the first result of 
 Mr. Franklin's retirement from business, which 
 left his mind imoccupied. All was going on 
 well, and he was performing an essential service
 
 A TRIP TO SARATOGA. 37 
 
 to the community ; but, he must needs retire 
 from his useful position, in order to seek his 
 own ease. But his mind could not rest. Inac- 
 tivity was a state utterly repugnant to its nature. 
 There being no business to call forth its energies, 
 it tm-ned aside for something to do, as naturally 
 as the flower turns itself to the sun. And the 
 first irregular work presented was an interfer- 
 ence in the education of his children, about 
 which he had no previously well-formed views ; 
 about which he had no well digested plans. A 
 mere notion that all was not right came into his 
 idle brain, and tliere magniiied itself into im- 
 portance. The habit of his whole life had been 
 action. He could not think without acting. It, 
 therefore, followed, as a natural consequence, 
 that, so soon as he got a notion into his head 
 that all was not right in the matter of his chil- 
 dren's education, he would promptly act in the 
 matter. And, as it has been seen, he did act, 
 and that not from any distinct views, but from 
 a conceit that he saw the whole subject of edu- 
 cation in clear light. The consequences were 
 deplorable. His daughter received, when her 
 character was in a state of formation, and just as 
 it was beginning to harden, impressions that no 
 after culture could entirely eflface. 
 
 But this was not the only case where the
 
 38 RETIRING FROM EUSINZ36. 
 
 effect of Mr. Franklin's retirement from business 
 was felt injuriously at home. There is, about 
 eveiy man, a tranquilizing or disturbing sphere, 
 according to his state of mind. Before his re- 
 tirement from business, Mr. Franklin came home 
 to his family, with his mind prepared for repose 
 or the quiet social pleasures of home. He met 
 his children with dehght ; the close of every- 
 day being a kind of domestic re-union. They, 
 too, had laid aside the graver duties of the day. 
 The season of study was over, and the time for 
 enjoyment had come. But there was a change 
 now. With nothing of importance to occupy 
 his thoughts, and nothing of importance to do, 
 Mr. Franklin soon found the hours hansfino; 
 heavily upon his hands ; and evening, instead of 
 coming as before, a calm and pleasant time, 
 generally found him so fatigued with doing 
 nothing, or thinking about nothing, as to be in 
 no humor to meet his family as of old. Dis- 
 turbed in his own feehns^s, he threw a disturb- 
 ing sphere around him. The children were no 
 longer gay, as before, in his presence, and he no 
 longer entered, as of old, into their innocent 
 pleasures. The effect of this was bad. Home 
 was far from being to any member of the fami- 
 ly, as happy a place as before. 
 
 Moreover, Mr. Franklin grew impatient. Lit-
 
 A TRIP TO SARATOGA. 39 
 
 tie in*egularities that were once unnoticed, fretted 
 him, and faults in tlie children were reproved 
 with a harshness unknown in former times. He 
 meddled, too, in domestic affairs, seriously hin- 
 dering the orderly progression of his wife's du- 
 ties, and producing household difficulties that 
 never w^ould have occurred but for his interfer- 
 ence. The reaction of these increased his fret- 
 ful temper, and at times, rendered his wife, foi 
 whom there there was no retirement from busi- 
 ness, really unhappy. 
 
 Unfortunately for the family of Mr. Franklin 
 these effects did not lessen, but increased daily. 
 For a short period after giving up his establish- 
 ment, the retired gentleman felt his chest ex- 
 panding with pleasure, as he inhaled the new 
 atmosphere of freedom from care and business. 
 But this state was of but short duration. Not 
 a week passed before many hours in each day 
 dragged heavily on, and brought the night 
 more slowly than it had ever come before. 
 From that time his restless, dissatisfied state 
 went on gradually increasing, and soon began 
 to expend itself in correcting abuses in his fa- 
 mily. How successful he was in his first impor- 
 tant attempt has been seen. In nearly every 
 other instance his success was of a like charac-
 
 40 REimiNG FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 ter, thousfli, fortunately, not in all cases so dis- 
 astrous in the final result. 
 
 At the end of a year, Mr. Franklin was de- 
 cidedly unhappy. iNothing had turned out 
 precisely according to his anticipations. The 
 men to whom he had sold his business failed to 
 conduct it with the success that had attended 
 his efiforts, and, in consequence, failed to meet 
 all their notes given for the purchase. At least 
 one-half of them had to be renewed ; and 
 although Mr. Franklin considered himself amply 
 secm-ed, he pennitted the fact to worry him. 
 Edwin finished his colleo^iate coui-se durinof the 
 period and came home ; not, however, to enter 
 upon the study of a profession according to his 
 father's wishes. The young man did not bear 
 off the highest honors — very far from it. Study 
 was no pleasure to him ; and the idea of con- 
 tinuing a student in one of the learned profes- 
 sions all his life, was anytliing but an attractive 
 one. He, therefore, rebelled against the pro- 
 posed disposition to be made of him, and this 
 was another source of trouble to Mr. Franklin, 
 who fretted under the disappointment, and made 
 the whole family uncomfortable. Besides, 
 there were other causes of trouble, as will be 
 seen. 
 
 During this year, Mr. Franklin had to resort
 
 A TRIP TO SARATOGA. 41 
 
 to various expedients in order to make tlie time 
 pass more quickly. Reading, at first tried, was 
 soon abandoned. He could not get interested 
 in books, except occasionally in a narrative of 
 some kind or other, and even then his interest 
 flagged before a hundred pages were mastered. 
 The difficulty, even in books of this character, 
 "was the restless state of his mind. He could 
 not fix his attention, except with difficulty, upon 
 anything. His thoughts had lapsed along in 
 one channel for so many years, that it was next 
 to impossible to turn them into a new course. 
 The daily newspaper only gave a mouthful of 
 interest before breakfast, and left the whole day 
 unprovided Avith aliment. He soon tried walk- 
 ing the streets with no object but to kill time ; 
 and as for riding into the country, it gave him 
 no pleasure after he had driven out daily for a 
 few v/eeks. 
 
 Mrs. Franklin was a woman of domestic 
 habits. She loved her children, and her hisfhest 
 pleasure Tvas in ministering to their comfort. 
 She had no desire for fashionable life, and had 
 mingled but little in society. Home was the 
 place she liked best, and a few tried friends 
 made up the circle of her associations. While 
 devoted entirely to business, Mr. Franklin was 
 as domestic and home-loving as his wife ; but 
 4*
 
 42 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 when lie became a retired gentleman, home lost 
 its attraction, and his thoughts wandered away 
 in search of pleasure. As well to do in the 
 world as they were, up to the period of with- 
 drawal from business, not a single day had been 
 passed at any fashionable watering or bathing 
 place during the summer. While other men 
 were seeking recreation, Mr. Franklin was in his 
 manufactory, taking more delight in business 
 than it was possible for him to take in any other 
 way. 
 
 But the very first summer that followed his 
 emancipation, Mr. Franklin proposed a tour of 
 pleasure and a visit to the springs. The chil- 
 dren received the proposition with exclamations 
 of delight. Florence, especially, was in ecsta- 
 cies on the subject. Mrs. Franldin made no 
 opposition, but she anticipated but httle pleasure 
 from the change. 
 
 For weeks the busy note of preparation was 
 heard, and then the whole family took a flight 
 to Saratoga. But not a day passed while they 
 were there, that something annoying to Mr. 
 Franklin, did not occur. Either he was jostled 
 or crowded out of his place by some exquisite, 
 whom, in his sturdy repubhcanism he felt like 
 stranghng, or he was neglected by the waiters 
 at the table, and thus deprived of all appetite
 
 A TRIP TO SARATOGA. 43 
 
 for dinner. One day he would seat himself and 
 family in reserved chairs, and have to endm^e 
 the mortification of a removal when the party 
 for whom they had been turned down, appeared 
 in the dining room ; and another day he would 
 run, in his ignorance, against some other estab- 
 lished usage of the hotel where he was staying, 
 and have his blood raised almost to boiling 
 point, when he felt the re-action that was pro- 
 duced. 
 
 The only members of the family who really 
 enjoyed themselves, vrere Edwin, just from 
 college, and Florence, who had received from 
 the younsr ladies of the fashionable school to 
 
 J CD 
 
 which she had been sent for a few months, as 
 many ideas on the subject of " the Springs," as 
 enabled her to take her share in the passing 
 fraieties. Edwin met, as usual, half-a-dozen 
 Yoxm^r men from the citv, and two or three from 
 college, with whom he was on terms of inti- 
 macy, and they introduced him to the lions of 
 the place ; while Florence found herself again 
 restored to the companionship of several well- 
 bred Misses, whose sayings and doings had 
 greatly instructed her in the brief, but pleasant 
 season, that she passed in Mrs. G 's semi- 
 nary. 
 
 *' I don't hke things here," said Mr. Frankhn,
 
 44 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 gravely, as lie sat alone Tvitli his wife, on the 
 fourth or fifth day after their arrival. 
 
 " Nor do I," replied Mrs. Franklin. " As 
 far as I am concerned, I would much rather be 
 at home ; and I am sure Edwin, Florence, and 
 the rest, would be much better there. The 
 company here is doing them no good." 
 
 " Not a particle. Edwin has got in with a 
 parcel of young fellows, dear knows who they 
 are ; and they're off somewhere out of sight, 
 more than half the time. I gave him thirty 
 dollars, the day before we left home ; and he 
 came to me this morning for as much more." 
 
 "Edwin !" said Mrs. Franklin, in surprise. 
 
 " Yes, Edwin." 
 
 " Did you give it to him ?" 
 
 " Why, yes. I did not like to refuse. But I 
 have since wished that I had done so. He's no 
 business to spend money after this rate." 
 
 " What does he do with it ?" enquired the 
 mother. 
 
 " I'm sure I don't know. I've seen him 
 riding out every day with three or four others. 
 As hkely as not he pays for the horses, and 
 treats the compan}^ into the bargain. It's just 
 like him." 
 
 Mrs. Franklin looked serious. 
 
 A
 
 A TRIP TO SARATOGA. 45 
 
 "It's not the right place for him, that is 
 clear," said Mr. Franklin. 
 
 "No, nor for Florence either," remarked 
 Mrs. Franklin. " I have not been satisfied at 
 all with the company into which she has been 
 introduced. At least three or four of her late 
 schoolmates are here, and they are too much 
 
 like Anna Pv, , now Mrs. Elmer, to be of 
 
 any service to her. Is not that her now ?" 
 
 And Mrs. Franklin directed her husband's 
 attention to a number of young people, of both 
 sexes, who were walking at a little distance. 
 
 Mr. Franklin looked attentively, for a few 
 moments, and then said, 
 
 " Yes, that is Florence. But vfho is the 
 young fellow on whose arm she is leaning, and 
 who is talking to her with such earnest familia- 
 rity." 
 
 " I don't know. But I have seen him with 
 her two or three times. Last night he danced 
 with her ; I asked her his name, and she said 
 it was Le-Le-Le — something — Le Grand. 
 Yes, that's it — Le Grand." 
 
 " Le Grand — Le Grand. I must know who 
 he is," said Mr, Franklin, rising and going to 
 the bar. 
 
 " Is there a person here by the name of Le 
 Grand ?" he asked of a bar-keener.
 
 4b PtETIRIXG- FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 " There is," was replied. 
 
 "Where is he from?" 
 
 " The south, I beheve." 
 
 " What part ?" 
 
 The reo-ister was consulted. 
 
 " From Charleston. He's the son of a 
 wealthy cotton-grower, I understand." 
 
 ''Ah! Who says so?" 
 
 " I don't know anything about that. So it is 
 understood here." 
 
 Mr. Franklin turned away and passing from 
 the hotel into the open air, put liimself in a 
 position that enabled him to observe the young 
 man attentively. Ke was talking earnestly to 
 Florence, who seemed exceedingly well pleased 
 with either him or the subject of his conversa- 
 tion. The result was by no means satisfactory 
 to Mr. Franklin. Le Grand might or might not 
 be the son of a rich southern planter. But, 
 whether he were or not, it was all the same to 
 him ; he wanted nothing to do with him ; and 
 cared still less to have him an associate of his 
 daughter's. That he vras not a true and good 
 man, was plain to him from a single glance at 
 his face. And a more attentive observation but 
 confirmed the first impression. 
 
 " It is high time for us to leave here," said 
 Mr. Fra:iklin, on returning to his wife. " I 
 
 (
 
 A TRIP TO SARATOGA. 47 
 
 don't like that fellow who is so familiar with 
 Florence. They say he is the son of a wealthy 
 cotton-grower at the South. But it is far more 
 probable that he is some penniless adventurer. 
 Depend upon it, this is a bad place for a 
 thoughtless girl like our daughter, Yv^ho, I am 
 sorry to say, is sadly disappointing all my best 
 hopes in regard to her." 
 
 " And is it not just as bad for a young man 
 like Edwin ?" 
 
 " Yes ; equally so. His associates are doing 
 liim no good. We must leave at once." 
 
 "And return home direct?" 
 
 " No. We can make our proposed tour to 
 Niagara." 
 
 *' I care little about going." 
 
 " I have never been there, and I wish very 
 much to cro. You ouMit also to see the Falls. 
 And you know we have promised the children 
 a visit there this summer." 
 
 " True. Let us go, then, immediately." 
 
 " To-morrow ?" 
 
 "Yes. I would not remain a day longer 
 here. Every hour increases, I am well satisfied, 
 the danojer to our children." 
 
 " We will leave here in the morninof," said 
 Mrs. Franklin to her oldest daughter, as soon 
 as she found an opportunity to speak to her.
 
 48 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 ** To-morrow !" exclaimed Florence, with a 
 look and tone of disappointment. 
 
 *' Yes. Your father and I have concluded to 
 start for Niagara to-morrow." 
 
 " I thought you were going to spend two 
 weeks here ?" 
 
 " We have cliangfed our minds ; not findinor 
 things as agreeable as we had expected," 
 
 " I am sure, ma, I find it very pleasant. 
 And so does Edwin, and the rest of us. We 
 will all be dreadfully disappointed." 
 
 " I am sorry. But your father has decid- 
 ed to leave in the morning, and you will all 
 have to be ready." 
 
 Florence was sadly put out by the unexpect- 
 ed decision of her parents. Her countenance be- 
 came serious, and her gaiety of manner left her. 
 
 " We will all stay at home, another season," 
 remarked Mr. Frankhn to his wife, when he ob- 
 served the effect of their intended departure 
 upon his daughter. 
 
 " I think it will be much wiser to do so. Ah 
 me ! This is a bad school for young misses." 
 
 " Or young masters either. I saw Edwin 
 just now, and desired him to be in readiness to 
 go in the morning. He flared up in an instant, 
 and said he could'nt go so soon as that." 
 
 "He did!" 
 
 k
 
 A TRIP TO SARATOGA. 49 
 
 " Y^s. He imagined, T suppose, that he was 
 his own master. But I soon convinced him of 
 his eiTor. Then he wanted me to let him re- 
 main here until our return from the Falls. 
 But I snid * No ' so emphatically, that he didn*t 
 repeat the request again. And now he looks as 
 sulky as a bear. And this is all the thanks we 
 get for our trouble in bringing him here. I 
 think I will know better next time." 
 
 There was still further resistance on the part 
 of the younger members of the family, but Mr. 
 and Mrs. Franklin had such good reasons for 
 going, that all was of no avail. 
 
 It was the mother's intention to prevent Flo- 
 rence from meeting again with the young man 
 who has been referred to. But the daughter 
 managed to elude her vio-Hance, and a:et into 
 his compan}^ during the evening, vrhen they 
 had a long v^alk and talk all to themselves. No 
 more reluctance about going was expressed after 
 this. The clouds all retired from the young 
 lady's face, and she Avas as eager to set out for 
 the Falls as she had been ere leading home, 
 to start for Saratoga. The parents marked the 
 change, and wondered as to the cause. 
 
 On their way from the supper table, Edwin 
 drew his father aside, and Avith some hesitation 
 of manner, requested the sum of fifty dollars. 
 5
 
 50 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 '■ What !" returned Mr. Franklin in surprise. 
 
 " 1 would like to have fifty dollars." 
 
 " You have already had sixty, and yet I pay 
 all the bills." 
 
 " I know, but " 
 
 ''But: what?" 
 
 " I must have fifty dollars before I can leave." 
 
 " You must, indeed !" ' 
 
 " Yes Sir. I — I — In fact, father, I owe that 
 much." 
 
 ''You owe it?" 
 
 " Yes Sir. I — I — I borrowed as much 
 from a young man here." 
 
 " For what purpose ?" 
 
 " I wanted it." 
 
 " You couldn't have wanted it for any good, 
 Edwin ; I am certain of that." 
 
 " You judge me too severely, father." 
 
 " When a young man of your age spends a 
 hundred dollars in less than a week, and then 
 tries to conceal from his father the disposition 
 made thereof, it is clear that the money has not 
 been used for a good purpose. I can come to 
 no other conclusion." 
 
 " Will you not let me have the sum I want?" 
 asked Edwin, after standing silent for some 
 time. 
 
 " Not now, my son. I wish to think about
 
 A TRIP TO SARATOGA. 51 
 
 the matter. But I will say, that unless I am 
 informed as to the true disposition you liave 
 been making of your money, I shall hardly feel 
 willing to supply the sum now desired." 
 
 Edv/in turned off slowly, with a disappointed 
 and troubled air ; and the father, as he walked 
 out into the large portico, and tliere paced 
 thoughtfully back and forth for a long time, 
 had a no less troubled aspect. In about an 
 houi- he was again joined by Edwin, who once 
 more uro-ed his former request. But Mr. 
 Franklin was no better prepared than at first to 
 gratify his wishes. Tlie more he reflected on 
 the subject the more concerned did he feel. 
 
 " Indeed, father," said the young man, " I 
 cannot leave here, honorably, unless this debt is 
 paid." 
 
 " Let me know for what purpose it was con- 
 tracted," replied Mr. Franklin. "Then, and 
 not before then, will I pay it. To this my mind 
 is fully made up." 
 
 Edwin's countenance fell. He again turned 
 from his father, and did not show himself duiing 
 the evening. In the morning he joined the fa- 
 mily at the breakfast table ; but his appearance 
 was that of a person who had been up a greater 
 part of the night. He said no m^orc about the 
 fifty dollars, and ]\rr. Franklin, for reasons of
 
 52 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 sufficient vreigiit to himself, thought proper not 
 to allude to the subject. 
 
 In due time i^Ir. and ^J.Irs. Franklin, in com- 
 pany with their children, left the fashionable 
 watering- place ; all, except Florence and the 
 yoimger children, looking as serious as if going 
 to a funeral. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 DISAPPOINTMENT. 
 
 Much to the disappointment and concern of 
 Mr. and Mrs. Franklin, they discovered very 
 soon after starting on their western journey, that 
 Mr. Le Grand was a fellow passenger. He oc- 
 cupied a seat contiguous to the one that con- 
 tained Florence ; and, soon after the cai-s started, 
 engaged her in conversation. A suitable op- 
 portunity otTering, Florence introduced him to 
 her father and mother. As the young man's 
 manner was extremely courteous, they could not 
 treat him i-udely ; the more especially as it 
 mififht be true that he was a member of a 
 southern family of wealth and standing. 
 
 Availing himself of the introduction, Zslr. Le
 
 DI3APP0IXTMEXT. 53 
 
 Grand presumed to make himself extremely 
 agreeable to Mr, and Mrs. Franklin. Havino- 
 before travelled along tlie route tbey had taken, 
 he was familiar witli all the localities, and 
 posted up in regard to any historical association 
 connected v/itli points or places through, or 
 near which thej passed. Affable in his mannei'S, 
 possessed of fine conversational pov/ers, and in- 
 telligent beyond the ordinary class of men, it 
 was no very hard mritter for Mr. Le Grand to 
 remove, to some extent, the prejudice with 
 which his approaches had been anticipated. 
 Before the first day's ride was completed, he 
 was on such good terms vrith all the family as 
 scarcely to be considered a stranger. 
 
 But, for all this, neither Mr. Franklin nor his 
 wife was pleased with the marked attentions 
 that were shown to their daugiiter, and much 
 less pleased at the manner in which these at- 
 tentions were received. In their eyes, she was 
 little more than a child ; and they still wished 
 others to regard her in the same light. 
 
 In this liglit it was plain that Le Grand did 
 not regard her. 
 
 Three days Avere passed at the Falls, and 
 then a trip down the St. Lawrence was deter- 
 mined upon. This was the very route the affa- 
 ble southerner had decided upon taking before
 
 5-t REniilNCT FKO-M BUSINESS. 
 
 leavinof Saratoi>-a. He was, of course, a fellow 
 voyager. At J^-Iontreal they parted company. 
 But met again at Lake Champlain. Determined 
 to get rid of a man whom he could not throw 
 off, ^Ir. Franklin took the quickest route home- 
 w^ard. When the doors of his own house 
 closed upon him, he breathed more freely. 
 
 Had the summer trip been a source of plea- 
 sure to Mr. Franklin ? Far, ver}' far from it ! 
 He had not spent a single comfortable hour 
 since leaving liome, and he came back with the 
 painful conviction that his tvro oldest children 
 had been injured by coming in contact with im- 
 proper associates. Mrs. Franklin showed plainly 
 that she had I'cturned v\'it]i a weight upon her 
 feelings. Edwin vras changed ; and no longer 
 met the fiimil}- with a cheerful countenance. 
 Something that did not bring pleasant thoughts 
 was upon his mind. And, as for Florence, she 
 evinced little interest in anything, and much pre- 
 ferred being alone than with her mother. 
 
 How changed was this family ! A year be- 
 fore Mr. Franklin was daily occupied in active 
 business, and his children were as earnestly en- 
 gaged in pursuing their studies. When they 
 met, cheerfulness pervaded the circle. They 
 were not robbed of happiness by unsatisfied 
 dreams; nor filled with dread as the shadows
 
 DISAl'POIXT.MENT. 55 
 
 of approaching evil fell upon tliem. i^one 
 thought of going from home in search of plea- 
 sure, for the liearth-fire blazed warmly, and all 
 felt its genial influence. 
 
 But it was different now. Mr. Franklin 
 having retired from the useful position he occu- 
 pied in society, must needs do something — to 
 be entirely idle vras impossible — and he had, 
 unfortunately put his hand to a work, the fruit 
 of which proved evil. The removal of Florence 
 from her school v^'as, apparently, alitlle matter; 
 but sad effects follovred, as has been seen. Just 
 at the most dangerous age, she was throv\'n 
 among associates, whose influence upon her was 
 anything but good ; and her feelings had re- 
 ceived a bias that caused her parents serious 
 alarm. 
 
 In search of some new mode of passing the 
 time, a visit to the Springs was proposed. The 
 effect upon at least tv/o members of his family 
 is already partially apparent, and I>Ir. Franklin 
 might well tremble for tlie ultimate result. 
 
 Edwin had come home, a short time previous 
 to the trip to Saratoga, having completed his 
 collegiate term. It was only a week or two 
 before starting on this tour of pleasure, that he 
 liad expressed his utter unwillingness to enter 
 upon the study of law, for wliich profession his
 
 50 RF.Tir.INGr FilOM BUSINESS. • 
 
 father had designed him. Shortly after their 
 return from Saratoga and the Falls, the subject 
 Yvas renewed, when Edwin expressed a still moye 
 decided aversion. 
 
 " What profession, then, will you choose ?" 
 asked ilr. Franklin, with some petulance of 
 manner. 
 
 " I do not v.-ish to become a professional 
 man at all," said Edwin. " My inclinations do 
 not lead me that way !" 
 
 " Then, pray, in what direction do they lead 
 you?" 
 
 " I would much prefer going into some busi- 
 ness." 
 
 ••' You arc too young for that. x\nd, besides, 
 nave not received afcusiness education." 
 
 "It is not yet too late to learn ?" 
 
 " xN^o. But you will not be willing to go into 
 a store or counting-room, for three or four years, 
 in order to acquire a knowledge of business."- 
 
 '' I would rather do that, than attempt the 
 law, for which I have a great dislike." 
 
 " But all business is precaiious. Wot one in 
 twent)^ who enter the avenues of trade, escapes 
 disaster. In the professions, it is not so. Suc- 
 cess is more gradual, but it is more certain. As 
 a professional man, you will bt; removed from 
 the ai>'itations. losses, and anxieties of trade ;
 
 DISAPPOrXTMENT. • 57 
 
 and starting with a competency, can go on, 
 steadil}^ advancing until you gain wealth, and 
 distinction, at the same time. To a young man 
 in your position, one of the learned professions 
 is in ever)^ way to be preferred." 
 
 But Edwin thought differently. He preferred 
 business to study. Reluctantly did Mr. Frank- 
 lin seek for him a place in a commercial hotise. 
 AVhile he was doing so, under the pressure of 
 a natural anxiety for his son, a wish that he had 
 never withdrawn from business, more than once 
 crossed his mind. Had he still been engaged in 
 his extensive manufacturing operations, he could 
 have taken Edwin into his counting-room, and, 
 retaining him thus under his own care, have 
 made him extremely usefiil, and at the same 
 time, imparted a knowledge of his business. In 
 a few years, he could come in as a partner, 
 while he, in retiring then, would have left his 
 son in a fair ^ivay of amassing an independence 
 for himself. 
 
 But this opportunity was novr gone. He was 
 a retired gentleman, and had no business into 
 which he could bring his son. The only expe- 
 dient, therefore, Avas to get liim into some good 
 house, and hope for a favorable result. This 
 was accordingly done, and at the age of nine- 
 teen, Edwin, who had already foraied some inti-
 
 58 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 mate associations Trith young men of the city, 
 whom he had met at the Springs, entered a new 
 world. Tlie establishment into v/hich he was 
 introduced, was an extensive one, and employed 
 about twenty-five clerks, many of them the 
 sons of wealthy parents. Several of these 
 were in the enjoyment of a liberal allowance of 
 230cket money ; thus having in their hands the 
 means of dissipation, which a few of them, did 
 not fjiil to use. 
 
 With no love for intellectual pursuits, and 
 naturally inclined to sensual indulgence, the po- 
 sition of Edwin, was anything but a safe one. 
 Mr. Franklin felt that it was unsafe, but did not 
 clearly comprehend tlie reason. Had he done 
 so, he Avould have ||pemed the advantages to be 
 gained in the house vrhere he had placed his 
 son, as of no moment whatever, v.-hon consid- 
 ered in vievv^ of the injuiy that must ineA'itably 
 be suffered. But Mr. Franklin, was not a man 
 sufficiently accurate in his knowledge of human 
 nature, nor vfell enough learned in mental philo- 
 sophy, to be able, abstractly, to detennine the 
 exact effect of circumstances upon a particular 
 temperament. Life was to him a problem ; and 
 the relation between mental causes and ulti- 
 mate results one of the arcana that he had been 
 unable to enter, by the force of his own reason.
 
 disafpoint:ment. 59 
 
 There were certain wise saws and oft repeated 
 axioms, that to liim had become self-evident 
 truths ; and when circumstances led to their appli- 
 cation in real life, lie made tliem standards of 
 action. But in new and untried positions, where, 
 by the light of his own intelligence he was re- 
 quired to see the right Avay, his uninstructed 
 mind gave him httle aid. In business, he had 
 followed in the well beaten paths. Industry, 
 prudence, and economy, all directed by an earnest 
 desire to accumulate money, made success cer- 
 tain. Here, by a long concentration of his 
 thousjhts, intellio-ence in business matters had 
 grown clearer, and when sufficient means of 
 enlargement came, he was prepared to intro- 
 duce machiner}'', and to ext^id largely his ope- 
 rations. 
 
 The introduction of his * children into the 
 world, however, v,^as an untried experiment with 
 Mr. Fi:anklin, and the difficulties appertaining 
 thereto, were never clearly apparent until now. 
 If he had been in business when Edwin came 
 home from college, it v/ould have been an easy 
 thing, he savf, to have introduced him into it. 
 The young man would then ha^ve been under 
 his own eye, and he could have given him an 
 interest, in order to balance his mind against 
 undue social attractions, so soon as prudence
 
 60 RETIRIXG FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 dictated the step. Now, liowever, he would 
 have to take his chance ; and when Mr. Frank- 
 hn recollected Edwin's associations at the 
 Springs, and the fact that he had spent money 
 there with a strange person — for what, he was 
 yet ignorant — he might well fear for the 
 result. 
 
 In thinking of Florence, his eldest daughter, 
 novr at the most critical age, the father had lit- 
 tle more to encourage him. She had suddenly 
 changed from a modest, unassuming girl, into a 
 forward, self-reliant young Miss. The origin of 
 that change he could too accurately trace. The 
 cause lay at his own door. He had disturbed 
 the regular progress of her education. Broken 
 up old associations that were good, and intro- 
 duced her, ignorantly on his part, among those 
 whose influence and example had the worst pos- 
 sible eiTect upon her. She was not a strong 
 minded girl. In fact, there was no marked in- 
 tellectual character about any of the family. 
 The children were precisely of that stamp so fre- 
 quently seen among those who have risen into 
 affluence by what may be called a sort of unin- 
 tellectual devotion to business, in which the 
 higher powers of the mind have remained 
 asleep. As to eminence in anything, that was 
 next to impossible for them to obtain. They
 
 DISAPPOINTMENT. 61 
 
 lacked, by birth, sufiScient mental activity. No 
 wonder Edwin had no fancy for such hard work 
 as the study of law appeared in prospect. A 
 course of four years at college, in which he was 
 distinguished for nothing, was sufficient expe- 
 rience in mental labor for him. 
 
 Such being the character of Florence — we 
 might almost have said, want of character — any 
 change of associations such as we have men- 
 tioned, could not but be permanently injurious. 
 With a mind unbalanced by serious thoughts of 
 any kind, and uninstructed in regard to hfe and 
 its mighty considerations, it was but natural that 
 she should step aside into the first path that 
 allured her feet. 
 
 If Mr. Franklin had, wliile in business, per- 
 mitted his thoughts wisely to regard his family ; 
 if he had, as his children's minds began to open 
 to the hght, di\TLded his attention between them 
 and his manufactory ; if he had studied their 
 character, wants, and destiny, with half the 
 earnestness that he studied the means and ends 
 appertaining to a successful issue of his busi- 
 ness, he would, as a consequence, have hved 
 along with them from year to year, and so 
 guided the development of their characters and 
 guarded their future steps as to have provided 
 against the evils which had fallen upon them. 
 6
 
 62 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 Had this been the case, he might even have re- 
 tired from business, without their suffering any 
 disturbing consequences. The effects of this 
 unwise step would then have been felt more 
 particularly in his own person. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 AN UNWELCOME VISITOR. 
 
 With nothins^ in the world to do, his mind 
 painfully concerned about his two oldest chil- 
 dren, and restless and anxious in regard to the 
 two youngest, Mr. Franklin was a most unhappy 
 man. James and Louisa, who had been taken 
 from their old school and entered in the new one 
 with Florence, were removed from the latter 
 establishment at the same time with their sister. 
 The mother wished them to go back to the 
 school from which they had been at first taken. 
 But Mr. Franklin objected to this. Having as- 
 sumed that it was not a good school, his pride 
 of consistency would not let him recede from 
 this position. They were, in consequence, en- 
 tered at another academy, or, rather at two 
 different academies, the one especially for young
 
 AX UNWELCOME VISITOR. 63 
 
 gentlemen, and the other for young ladies. 
 Neither of these schools satisfied Mr. Franklin. 
 They were not good, or he imagined they were 
 not, which was all the same, so far as his 
 peace of mind was involved. Having no busi- 
 ness to think about, he had of necessity to con- 
 cern himself about something ; and as his chil- 
 dren were now the most prominent objects of 
 interest, they furnished food for as much trou- 
 ble as was needful to make him about as mise- 
 rable as he could wish to feel. 
 
 Florence, now a young lady in her own eyes, 
 was not, of course, to be mewed up at home. 
 She had fashionable acquaintances, and must 
 needs visit them, and receive their visits in re- 
 turn. And as she was the daughter of a retired 
 gentleman of fortune, whose wealth was estimat- 
 ed at something like half a milhon of dollars, 
 there was no scarcity of attractive young men, 
 ready to dance attendance on her at every turn ; 
 while some, bolder than the rest, returned a 
 morning call now and then, or tendered a beau- 
 tiful bouquet of choice flov/ers. 
 
 Much against her mother's viev^s and ^\^shes, 
 Florence insisted upon '' coming out" during the 
 succeeding winter. She had entered her eigh- 
 teenth year, and considered herself old enough 
 to lay off the girl, and play her part in society
 
 64 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 jis a woman. To parties, balls, the opera, and 
 other public entertainments she must now go, 
 and take her share in the world of fashionable 
 gaieties. Mr. and Mrs. Frankhn ofiered only a 
 feeble resistance to their daughter's wishes. 
 To protect her as far as possible, they always 
 accompanied her to places of pubhc amusement, 
 and never gave their consent for her to attend 
 balls or parties, unless they went also. By this 
 means they hoped to keep her ever within the 
 circle of their observation, and be prepared to 
 guard her from the approaches of danger. 
 
 But over Edwin, it was impossible to extend 
 even this observant care. He was a young man, 
 and there could be less restraint thrown over 
 his actions. For the greater part of his time, 
 he was from under his parents' eyes, and it was, 
 therefore, impossible for them to know what in- 
 fluences were operating upon him. To some 
 extent they could see the efifects, but that only 
 awoke uneasiness, while it placed in their hands 
 no counteracting forces. 
 
 In o event of importance transpired dming the 
 winter, except the unwelcome appearance of 
 Mr. Le Grand, who, in passing through the 
 city, as he said, coolly enough called upon the 
 family as famiharly as if he were an old ac- 
 quaintance ; and in^dted Florence to go with
 
 AN UNWELCOME VISITOR. Co 
 
 him to the opera on the next evening. The 
 young lady readily assented. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Franklin were far from being pissed ; but they 
 did not forbid Florence going ; when Mr. Le 
 Grand called for her, he found that he was to 
 make one of a family party. He seemed not in 
 the least disappointed at tlys, but instead, ex- 
 pressed his pleasure at ha\ing the company of 
 Mr. and Mrs. Franklin so warmly, that they be- 
 gan to doubt the correctness of the suspicions 
 they had held in regard to him, and gave him 
 credit for being a most agreeable and highly in- 
 telligent young gentleman; and even forgot 
 themselves so far as to express pleasure at his 
 having had the politeness to call upon them 
 while passing a few days in the city. He said 
 that he had come on north to transact some of- 
 ficial business of great importance for the Gov- 
 ernor of his State, and that he would return 
 through New York in a week or two, when he 
 would do himself the pleasure to call again. 
 
 According to promise, at the end of three 
 weeks, another visit was received from Mr. Le 
 Grand. In the interim, Mr. and Mrs. Frankhn 
 had thought and talked a good deal about him, 
 and both came to the conclusion, that he had 
 taken an unwarrantable liberty, in forcing him- 
 self upon the family, on the mere plea of 
 6*
 
 Q6 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 havino- been introduced to tlieir daiiQrhter at tlie 
 Springs, and being in their company for a few 
 days as passengers, in the same pubhc convey- 
 ances. The reception which the young man 
 met, was not so agreeable as at first, and his 
 second invitation to Florence, to accompany him 
 to a place of public entertainment, though ac- 
 cepted by the young lady, was not approved 
 by her parents. 
 
 When he called for Florence, in accordance 
 ■^^^th the engagement made, he was informed by 
 a servant that she was indisposed, and could 
 not be seen that night. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. 
 Frankliiij|Made their appearance. He under- 
 stood v^ wdl what this meant. 
 
 On the next day, a note was received from 
 Mr. Le Grand by Florence, in which he 
 expressed his regret for her indisposition, spoke 
 of the pleasure he had lost, in not having been 
 favored with her company, hoped her indisposi- 
 tion was but temporaiy, mentioned that he 
 would leave for the South that afternoon, and 
 concluded with a request to make his compH- 
 ments to her parents. 
 
 His departure frOm the city was a relief to 
 the minds of Mr. and Mrs. Franklin. Sincerely 
 did they hope that he would never cross their 
 path again ; for, notwithstanding his frequent
 
 A CHANGE PE0P03ED. 67 
 
 allusions to his high connexions at the South, 
 his intelHgence and gentlemanly bearing, they 
 had strong suspicions that he was only a bold 
 adventurer, who possessed neither wealth, social 
 standing, nor principle. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A CHANGE PROPOSED. 
 
 By the next spring, Mr. Frankhn's unsatisfied 
 state of mind, consequent upon having nothing 
 to do, had increased to such a degree, that he 
 deteimined to buy a handsome country resi- 
 dence, a few miles from the city, which was 
 offered for sale, and amuse himself as an ama- 
 teur farmer. A temporary interest in agricul- 
 ture had been awakened, in consequence of 
 having strolled one day into a farmer's club, 
 where he Hstened to some of the proceedings ; 
 and it was kept alive, afterwards, by a friend 
 who owned a small farm on Long Island, and 
 who spoke in the v,rarmest terms of the pleasure 
 its cultivation gave him. 
 
 This proposal, however, did not meet the 
 approval of his family. Mrs. Franklin had no
 
 68 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 taste for country life, and the idea of removing 
 from the city, was one that gave her httle 
 pleasure. 
 
 "I don't think it will be as well," she replied 
 to her husband's proposal. " James and 
 Louisa, ^vill have to be taken from school ■'* 
 
 *' Not at all," he interrupted her. " They 
 can come into the city every day." 
 
 " Six or seven miles ?" 
 
 *' Yes. The carriage can bring them in 
 every morning, and the ride will do them good." 
 
 " But there must occur many interruptions. 
 Storms, or slight indisposition, will prevent their 
 going." I 
 
 " Not much oftener than the same causes in- 
 terfere Avith their studies now." 
 
 "But, Edwin, it will throw him off from 
 home. He will then be, more than ever, mas- 
 ter of his own actions." 
 
 " He can come home with James and Lomsa 
 every evening, and go in with them in the morn- 
 ing. This will remove him from his present 
 associates, and compel him, as it were, to spend 
 his evenings at home." 
 
 " If that could be done." 
 
 '' It can be done. The fact is, if for no other 
 reason, this ought to be a conclusive one in fa- 
 vor of our removal from the city."
 
 A CHANGE PROPOSED. 69 
 
 " I am afraid Edwin's employers would not 
 consent to his coming to the store so late, and 
 leaving his business so early." 
 
 " I'll arrange all that. There'll be no diffi- 
 culty. And if I could only get him inte- 
 rested in agricultural pursuits, I would remove 
 him entirely frofti the city. There is less dan- 
 ger both, to the morals and the purse, in a far- 
 mer's hfe than in the merchant's. An intelligent 
 system of agricul-tiire ensures certain results, 
 while, in trade, a thousand causes often com- 
 bine to produce disaster. A farmer has few 
 inducements to be dishonest ; but temptation be- 
 sets the merchant at every turn. E(^vfin must 
 have a pursuit in hfe. He must be engaged in 
 some useful employment. An idle brain, you 
 know, has been called the devil's workshop ; and 
 of young men, the saying is most undoubtedly 
 true. He has no taste whatever for the pro- 
 fession for which we designed him ; and I have 
 no wish to see him a merchant, for I know that 
 failure will be the ine\itable result whenever he 
 ventures into business, and venture, of course, he 
 will. Losses, be they large or small, will most 
 likely fall upon me. If I were still at the head 
 of my old estabhshment, I could bring him into 
 that, and in a few years he could succeed me. 
 By retaining an interest I could still exercise
 
 '70 KETIRIXG FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 control, and thus prevent him from involving 
 himself, if he departed from a prudent line of 
 operations." 
 
 " That is out of the question now," said Mrs. 
 Franklin, in a tone that expressed regret that 
 such an opportunity for their son vras not still 
 open. 
 
 " Yes. It is even so. And now we must do 
 the best we can. The place I think of buying 
 is most beautifully situated, as you know. It 
 contains thirty acres of ground, upon which I 
 will establish a model farm, cost what it may. 
 I feel sanguine of being able to interest Edwin's 
 mind, fnsp in fruits and flowers, and then in the 
 more important productions of the soil. I will 
 hold out every possible inducement. He shall 
 have a farm of his own, the moment he feels 
 willing to enter upon its independent culture. 
 
 And Mr. Franklin, warming with this idea, 
 continued to expatiate thereon for some time. 
 But his wife had no confidence in the good re* 
 suit of this new scheme. She had no taste for 
 a country life herself, and could not conceive it 
 possible for a young m.an like Edwin to find any 
 interest Vv hatever in the tame and common-place 
 pursuits, as they appeared to her, connected 
 with a tillage of the soil. And she was right, so 
 far as her son v/as concerned. The proposition
 
 A CHANGE PROPOSED. 71 
 
 to remove to the conntiy pleased liim very 
 much, for the first thought, connected with him- 
 self, that it occasioned was in reference to the 
 greater freedom of action the consequent sepa- 
 ration from the family would give him. When 
 his father said — 
 
 *' You can be at home at night as usual, for 
 the carriage will be in town every day," he re- 
 plied — 
 
 " I'm afraid the distance is so great that I 
 will not reach the store early enough in the 
 morning." 
 
 *' yes, you will. But even if you should 
 be an hour later in the morning, and be com- 
 pelled to leave an hour earlier in the afternoon, 
 it will make no great difi'erence. I will arrange 
 
 matters with Messrs. D and L , so as 
 
 to make it all right with them." 
 
 *' I don't think it will do," said the young 
 man. " They are very particular in the matter 
 of punctuality. Every clerk must be in the store 
 by eight o'clock." 
 
 *' Circumstances alter cases, you know," re- 
 turned the father. '' I will see that no trouble 
 
 arises on this head. But, suppose D and 
 
 L object ; you are under no obligation to 
 
 remain with them." 
 
 *' Of course not. But to leave theu- estab-
 
 12 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 lisliment would be to deprive myself of advan- 
 tages not readily gained." 
 
 *' I don't know. At least to nine-tenths of 
 young men, a knowledge of mercantile affairs is 
 more injury than benefit. This, you are aware, 
 is my opinion. I have no confidence in trade. 
 Its fluctuations are so great, and its disturbances 
 so constant, that no foresight can guard against 
 the disasters they occasion." 
 
 " May not this be said of all pursuits ?" re- 
 marked the young man, 
 
 " By no means," rephed the father. " A 
 profession, followed in the right spirit, is far 
 more certain in its beneficial results. Agricul- 
 ture is not cursed with the e^als to which I al- 
 lude." 
 
 " Agricidture ! Would you have me become 
 a farmer ?" 
 
 " I would rather see you a farmer than a 
 merchant." 
 
 At this declaration the young man became 
 mute with surprise. He could hardly believe 
 that he had heard aright. 
 
 "A farmer!" he exclaimed, when he had a 
 little recovered himself. 
 
 "Yes; a farmer," repeated Mr. Franklin. 
 *' A farmer may be contented, prosperous, and 
 happy. Removed from the clashing interests,
 
 A CHANGE PROPOSED. ^3 
 
 and distui'bmg influences of a city life, he may 
 ride the waves of prosperity, free from the dan- 
 gers of storms and breakers." 
 
 And in this strain Mr. Franklin went on, en- 
 tering at great length upon the superior advan- 
 tages appertaining to a countr}* , over a city life, 
 and disclosing, as he did so, more muiutely, the 
 plans he had been turning over in his mind. 
 His own model farm was to be the first experi- 
 ment, and into this, he wished to introduce 
 Edwin, in order that the rudiments of an agri- 
 cultural education might be gained, imder the 
 insti-uctions of a practical farmer, wjio was to be 
 engaged. So eloquently did he descant upon 
 the beauties of the little paradise that was to 
 grow up around them, and so glowingly did he 
 picture the delights that would arise when they 
 saw the vmes hanging thick mth tempting 
 clusters, the trees bending beneath their bm-den 
 of fruit, and the ground teeming with all the 
 luxury of vegetation, that the imagination of the 
 young man began to warm. Contrasted with 
 the freedom and beauty of all tliis, there was 
 about the ware-house and countinsf-room 
 somethincT constrained and unin\dtinDj. And 
 it did not take much after-persuasion to induce 
 Edwin to acrree to his father's wishes. 
 
 Mr. Franklin's heart was now lisrht. He veri- 
 7
 
 14: RETIRING TROil BUSINESS. 
 
 ly believed that tlie change in vievr, bj remov- 
 ing his son and daughter from the perverting 
 associations which they had formed in the city, 
 would be of the most salutary nature. For 
 himself, he felt a restless enthusiasm in regard 
 to the new life contemplated. He had been 
 reposing so long, that on awakening, he was 
 like a restive animal, eager to escape the rein ; 
 and he could not understand, in his very want 
 of abstract thought, how it was possible for any 
 one not to find, in a country hfe, every tiling to 
 fill the measure of his desires. 
 
 Mrs. Franklin, however, felt none of this en- 
 thusiasm ; her mind was therefore xjalmer, and 
 she could look more clearly to the end. She 
 knew that Edwin would take no permanent in- 
 terest in a pursuit so entirely at variance with 
 all his habits of mind ; and her natural fear was, 
 that in removing him from a place where h.e 
 was required to give strict attention to business, 
 for at least ten hours every day, under certain 
 fixed rules, and leaving him free to employ him- 
 self or not upon a farm, would prove an injury 
 instead of a- service. It was not expected that 
 he would put his hand to the spade or plough ; 
 no one wished him to do that. The father's 
 idea was, if he had any distinct idea on the sub- 
 ject, that both he and his son would have a kind
 
 MODEL FARMING. Y5 
 
 of general superintendence over everything, and 
 find enough, in this to occupy all their time. 
 But Mrs. Franklin thought more practically than 
 her husband, and knew that this was but a 
 pleasant fancy. Her fears for Edwin were, 
 therefore, well grounded. 
 
 As for Florence, she opposed the removal to 
 the country with all the eloquence of words and 
 tears that she could summon to her aid . But 
 her disapproval of the measure did not in the 
 least retard its execution. 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 MODEL FARMING. 
 
 The beautiful country seat, situated in New 
 Jersey, some five or six miles from New York, 
 and but a short distance from the majestic Hud- 
 son, was purchased by Mr. Franklin for twenty- 
 five thousand dollars. Thirty acres of land 
 a portion of it, already in a high state of 
 cultivation, lay around the elegant mansion. 
 There was a large garden, filled with the choicest 
 varieties of small fruit ; a young and thriving 
 "orchard, an extensive grapery, and a green-
 
 76 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 house containing several hundred rare plants. 
 All the grounds contiguous to the dwelling were 
 laid out with taste, and ornamented with foun- 
 tains, statues, walks, and arbors. 
 
 Just as nature was putting on her spring at- 
 tire, the family of Mr. Franklin removed from 
 the city. Their new house was indeed a pleas- 
 ant one, and all felt that it was so. Even Flo- 
 rence said it was a lovely spot, and the mother, 
 now that the change was made, often expressed 
 herself as pleased with everything. She expe- 
 rienced a sense of freedom not felt in the city, 
 and her bosom seemed to expand with a new 
 life, as she breathed the purer air. Florence 
 rambled about among the pleasant places which 
 taste had provided to dehght the eye, and for 
 a few days thought it all veiy delightful. Af- 
 ter that her mind began to turn towards the 
 city, and before two weeks elapsed, she had, on 
 one pretence or another, visited New York half 
 a dozen times. This was an easy matter, as 
 the carriage went in every day. 
 
 It was not the wish of Mr. Franklin that Ed- 
 win should leave his place immediately upon 
 his removal mto the country. He thought it 
 best to get a little under way himself, and fa- 
 miliar with agricultural matters, so that, to a 
 certain extent, he would be able to give an in-
 
 MODEL FARMING. '7'7 
 
 telligent direction to liis son's efforts. But the 
 thought of abandoning mercantile pursuits al- 
 tosfether, having: once entered Edwin's mind, 
 and an idea of the freedom of a country hfe 
 having bewitched his imagination, he lost all in- 
 terest in business, and could not be prevailed 
 upon to continue in his clerkship, over a few 
 weeks after the family left the city. 
 
 To both Mr. Frankhn and Ed^vin, the new 
 pursuit upon which they had entered was new 
 in every sense of the word. The father, as well 
 as the son, looked upon it less as a business than 
 as a pleasant kind of recreation ; a sort of half 
 work, half play affair. A practical farmer and 
 gardener had been employed as overseer. He 
 was an Englishman, and professed to know 
 everything in relation to the tillage of the soil, 
 and to be particularly at home in matters of 
 horticulture. He also set forth that he had 
 considerable experience as a florist. In fact, 
 to take his own word for it, there was no other 
 man in the country half so well fitted for the 
 situation he held. For his valuable services, 
 Mr. Franklin contracted to pay him twelve hun- 
 dred dollars a year. He had two sons, stout 
 boys, who were represented to be each as good 
 as a man on a farm. Three hundred dollars 
 more were to be paid for the work of these two
 
 78 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 lads. A dairy, on a small scale, the overseer 
 said must of course be established, or the model 
 farm would not be complete. Mr. Franklin ap- 
 proved the suggestion, and the overseer's wife 
 and daughter were engaged at two dollars each 
 a week to do all things needful in the milk and 
 butter department. 
 
 Besides the overseer, his wife, daughter, and 
 two sons, a regular fann hand at twenty dol- 
 lars a month was employed. Tlie wages paid 
 to these model farmers and dairy maids — six in 
 all — amounted to within a fraction of two thou- 
 sand dollars. Add the cost of their board to 
 this sum, and the gross amount would not fall 
 very far short of three thousand dollars per an- 
 num, as the cost, in wages, necessary to conduct 
 Mr. Franklin's agricultural experiments. In ad- 
 dition to this sum were the regular expenses of 
 the family, which, for the past two or three 
 years, had been over four thousand dollars, and 
 would be fully that now ; and to this the in- 
 terest on the sum which it took to purchase 
 stock, and put the model farm in a state to en- 
 sm*e the highest success to the experiment, and 
 we have the handsome aggregate of nine thou- 
 sand dollars as the regular annual expense at 
 which Mr. Franklin was living. 
 
 While in his regular business, Mr. Franklin
 
 MODEL FAEinXG. Y9 
 
 had been in the habit of making close estimates. 
 But that good habit seemed to have been en- 
 tirely laid aside. He was on new gronnd, and 
 unacquainted, entirely, with the way in which 
 he was walldng with too-confident steps. To 
 his overseer, he went for all needful information, 
 and that individual, a shrewd, not over scrupu- 
 lous personage, managed him just as he thought 
 fiL His ansivers, touching the productiveness 
 of farmi n g and horticulture, excited the most 
 extravagant ideas. We would hardly like to say 
 how much the thirty acres were expected to 
 yield ; but even under the heavy expense 
 at which his experiment was conducted, Mr. 
 FranHin confidently looked for a handsome 
 profit! 
 
 The grounds around the mansion wemfive 
 acres in extent. All this was of course unpro- 
 ductive. Five acres had been sown in wheat, 
 the previous fall. The kitchen garden occupied 
 half an acre, and the fiower garden as much 
 more. Two orchards covered each an acre ; and 
 two acres were left untilled, as a lanere for the 
 cattle. Four of the remaining fifteen acres 
 were put down in potatoes, five left for grass, 
 foiu- planted in com, two in carrots and other 
 root crops- 
 
 The season proved a good one. Everything
 
 80 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 grew luxuriantly. And it would have been 
 strange, if such had not been the case, for, 
 under the overseer's direction, the land had 
 been covered with various fertilizing^ ajrents, at 
 a cost nearly equal to the price all the products 
 could possibly yield. 
 
 Deeply interested in his new emplo3rnient, 
 Mr. Franklin was moving about his farm, early 
 and late, and entering into the spirit of every- 
 thing. He took the agricultural journals, and 
 studied them as attentively as a school-boy 
 studies his lessons ; and this, not without having 
 occasional doubts awakened as to the correct- 
 ness of some things done by his overseer. Oc- 
 casionally he would say to him, that such and 
 such an agricultural winter held such and such 
 opinions on a certain point, at variance with the 
 practice adopted on the " model farm." But 
 the answer would only be an expression of con- 
 tempt for all " book-farming," and a broad de- 
 claration that the man who could write such 
 nonsense was nothing but a quack ; most proba- 
 bly, if set down on a piece of ground by him- 
 self, could not, with his own hands, raise an 
 onion. 
 
 Mr. Franklin listened to all this, but contin- 
 ued to read, and the more he read, the more 
 his eyes were opened. By mid-summer, his
 
 MODEL FARMING. 81 
 
 doubts in regard to his overseer's plan of ope- 
 rations began to assume a rather respectable 
 form, and his ideas touching the profits of farm- 
 ing in general, and this first year's operations in 
 particular, to range discouragingly low. 
 
 When the five acres of wheat were har\'ested, 
 and threshed out, instead of sixty or seventy 
 bushels to the acre, as he had been led to 
 believe would be obtained, twenty-five bushels 
 was the product, or a hundred and tvv^enty-five 
 for the field, which, after the cost of harvesting, 
 threshing, and carr}'ing to market, retmiied him 
 one hundred and twenty-five dollars. 
 
 " A beggarly account, that !" he muttered to 
 himself, as he tossed the proceeds into a drawer 
 of his secretary, and, with a disappointed feel- 
 ing, walked out into the open air, to think a 
 httle more understandingly than at first, on the 
 subject of agricultural returns. 
 
 The choice small- fruits of the garden, straw- 
 benies, raspberries, &c., had all been consumed 
 in the family ; and the butter and cream pro- 
 duced, at a cost of four dollars a week for the 
 simple extraction of the lacteal fluid and atten- 
 tion to the dairy operations, had nearly all gone, 
 so far, in the same way. Not over twenty 
 dollars' worth had gotten beyond the home-con- 
 sumption market.
 
 82 RETIRIXa FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 October Came, with its serious face, and its 
 matter-of-fact results. The foiu' acres of pota- 
 toes, instead of yielding two hundred bushels to 
 the acre, produced a hundred and twenty bush- 
 els of good tubers, which sold at forty cents. 
 Four hundred and eighty bushels, at forty cents, 
 gave the sum of one hundred and ninety-two 
 dollars for the four acres of potatoes. When 
 they were plantedin the spring, potatoes were a 
 dollar a bushel. Tlie seed, therefore, cost eighty 
 dollars, twenty bushels having been planted to 
 each acre. Added to this, were fifteen loads of 
 compost to each acre, at a dollar a load, making 
 sixty dollars more, and learing but fifty-two 
 dollai*s of profit to pay for the cost of tillage. . 
 
 The corn turned out better. Forty-five 
 bushels were produced from each acre. Car- 
 rots, i-uta bagas, and other root crops, produced 
 abundantly, but they sold for a mere song. 
 The product of the orchards and grapery, were 
 very fair, but the first two or three attempts to 
 sell, discouraged IMr. Franklin, and a greater 
 portion of the fruit was either given away or 
 suffered to rot.* 
 
 Nine thousand dollars, it has been seen, was 
 the expense at which Mr. Franklin was living. 
 Added to this, six hundred dollars paid for 
 Ume, marl, and composts, of various kinds, from
 
 TAKEN IX. 83 
 
 ^ano to bone dust, during tlie season; five 
 hundred more for stock, and five hundred laid 
 out in various improvements, and the sum is 
 swelled to ten thousand six hundred 'dollars. 
 
 Four thousand a year ^u'as the previous cost 
 of living. Six thousand six hundred were there- 
 fore added to sustain the model farm experi- 
 ment. And what, after all the product was 
 sold, was the return in money ?, Only just siy 
 hundred dollars ! The six thousand were as 
 good as thrown into the sea. So much for the 
 profits of amateur fauming. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 TAKEN IX. 
 
 During the summer, while everything was 
 growing, and while splendid results were . in 
 prospect, Mr. Frankhn was a happy man. But 
 as crop after crop matured, and the true result 
 presented itself in bushels, and the prices cur- 
 rent gave a multiplier to these, the thermome- 
 ter of his feehngs began to falh He saw that 
 be had been doubly deceived — by his overseer
 
 84 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 and by himself. He had acquired some expe- 
 rience, but at a serious price. 
 
 One day while all the ifs were going on 
 swimmingly, and before Mr. Franklin's confi- 
 dence in his overseer had been impaired, a man 
 came and asked for the latter. Mr. Franklin 
 pointed to where he was at work in the green 
 house. The stranger presented himself to the 
 overseer, and remained in earnest conversation 
 with him for a good while. When he went 
 away, the overseer's manner was changed from 
 what it had been. He looked troubled. A 
 day or two passed, and he still had a thought- 
 ful and anxious coimtenance. On the third day 
 the man called again. As soon as he was gone 
 away, the overseer sought Mr. Frankhn, and 
 after a good deal of apparent reluctance, went 
 on to state that a brother residingr on Loner 
 Island had got himself into difficulties by en- 
 dorsmg for a countiyman, who had gone ofi" and 
 left him to pay the note, which, not being able 
 to do, his farm had been seized, and was now 
 in the hands of the sherifi". 
 
 *' That's bad," remarked Mr. Franklin. 
 
 "You may well say that," rephed the 
 overseer. "A more honest, industrious man 
 than my brother, does not five. He laid by his 
 earnings for years in order to get a farm ; and
 
 TAKEX IX. 85 
 
 it is only a few montlis since he paid the 
 last hundred dollars of the purchase money. 
 And to think that he should lose everything ! 
 Indeed, sir, it is very hard." 
 
 " Why did he commit the folly of endorsing 
 any body's note ? That ruins more men than 
 anything else, I would not endorse for my 
 father." 
 
 " He was very wrong to do it, sir. Yery 
 wrong. But, then the man was an old friend. 
 None of us thouo^ht that he would act dis- 
 honestly." 
 
 " How much was the note for ?" 
 
 " A thousand dollars." 
 
 *' So much as that ?" 
 
 "Yes, sir. His farm is worth more than 
 double this sum, but if sold by the sheriff, will 
 be sacrificed." 
 
 " No doubt of that." 
 
 "It will be sure to be sacrificed." 
 
 " Well, what do you propose doing ? Any- 
 thing ?" 
 
 "We are brothers," said the man with much 
 feehng. " Y-'e have stood by each other ever 
 smce we came from the old country. Once I 
 was sick a long time, and he took care of my 
 family all the while, and never seemed to feel 
 thek support a bm'den. He has been a good 
 S
 
 PO nKTiniNU KUOM niTSINESS. 
 
 I)n>tlu'r, and I Nvould niukc any sacrifurc to help 
 liim." 
 
 " What is iti your miiul ? Speak (Hit," suit! 
 Mr. I'^raakliii. 
 
 *' If you could" — And the man spoke with 
 a good deal of hesiUition — *' If you could 
 advaneo nie a thousand dollars on tho wagOH 
 yuu are paying us, I couKl lend it to my brother, 
 tuid that would savo hiiu IVom ruin ! I know 
 thnt this is asking a groat doal ; hut yt)u must 
 forgive t\w boldness of the request. A man 
 who is oppressed by circumstances, will often 
 presume to ask favors, tlu^ very thought of 
 which at another time, would make his cheek 
 Imrn." 
 
 Mr. I'' raidvlin thought for .1 few lUDmcnU, .-md 
 thenVid promptly, 
 
 " You shall have it." 
 
 A light came inU) the man's face, but he did 
 not attempt to express his gratitude. 
 
 *' When will you want the n\oney ?" in(piired 
 Mr. I'^ranklin. 
 
 *' The sale is to be made to-morrow, ut twelve 
 o'clock." 
 
 *' So soon ?" 
 
 ♦' Yes sir." 
 
 And the overseer drew a printed bill from his 
 pocket, wliich nnuouuced the fact he bad stated.
 
 TAKEN IX. 87 
 
 ** Then you had better go to-day and have 
 the matter arranged. Come to me when you 
 are ready to leave for the city, and I Avill give 
 you a check for the sum you want." 
 
 The check was given, and a receipt taken. 
 Ah'eady the overseer and his family had drawn 
 five hundred dollars. Their wages for the year 
 was to be seventeen hundred ; only two hun- 
 dred of the entire sum therefore, would remain. 
 This was July; less than three months from 
 the time they had entered Mr. Franklin's ser- 
 vice. 
 
 The overseer remained away all night. When 
 he came back on the next day, he reported that 
 everything had been satisfactorily arranged ; 
 and warmly expressed both his own and his 
 brother's gratitude, for the great kindness they 
 had received. 
 
 Not many weeks passed after this, before 
 Mr. Franklin observed a change in the overseer. 
 He was not as respectful as he had been ; and 
 spent much more of his time unprotitably to his 
 employer, than the latter fully approved. Wlien 
 questions were asked, or suggestions made, his 
 answers were far from being satisfactory. Be- 
 fore tAvo months elapsed, Mr. Franklin found it 
 necessary to speak to him veiy plainly and de- 
 cidedlv. This offended the overseer, and he
 
 88 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 was exceedinglj disagreeable to every body 
 about the place for a Tvliole week. 
 
 After October, when the whole result of the 
 agricultural season vras known, and the disap- 
 pointment felt by Mr, Frankhn exceedingly keen, 
 mingled with a pretty strong feeling of indig- 
 nation towards the indi\'idual who had led him 
 so far astray in his ignorance, he took occasion 
 one day, to speak his mind plainly to the over- 
 seer. Being now in possession of data, obtained 
 by dear bought experience, he was able to 
 charge home upon him a dishonesty of purpose 
 in leading him into enormous expenses, under a 
 false idea of product. The overseer had but 
 one argument in answer to all this, which was 
 to get angry, and becomiC abusive. Mr. Frank- 
 lin was in no mood to bear with this, and so 
 promptly ordered hhn to leave his premises. 
 
 The overseer took him at his word. He had 
 drawn his year's salary, as well as that of his 
 family, seventeen hundred dollars in all. This, 
 for six months' service, he considered very good 
 pay ; and retired well content with his part of 
 the bargain. 
 
 The next thing Mr. Franklin heard of him, 
 was, that he had bought a farm on Long Island, 
 for which he paid doAvn two thousand dollars 
 cash. And he, moreover, learned, that he had
 
 SOME OF THE FRUITS. 89 
 
 no brotlier in the country, and that the story 
 of the endorsement and execution was a mere 
 fabrication, in order to get an advance of his 
 salary, preparatory to a rupture between him 
 and Mr. Franklin, which he knew must come 
 so soon as the eyes of the latter were opened. 
 And opened he very well knew they Vv^ould be, 
 ere many months rolled around. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SOME OF THE FRUITS. 
 
 The reader will not be surprised to hear that 
 in all these agricultural experiments, Edwin 
 took but Httle interest. Far more of his time 
 was spent in gunning and fishing than in study- 
 ing into the mysteries of corn and potatoes. 
 We doubt very much if at the end of the sea- 
 son he knew whether wheat were planted in 
 the autumn or spring, or whether potatoes were 
 propagated from seed or the tubers. But in 
 matters of woodcock and snipe, sea bass and 
 porgies, he was all right. 
 
 Emancipated from the slavery of a counting- 
 room, he felt a high sense of freedom, and en-
 
 90 RETIRIXG FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 joyed the new life that liad opened before him 
 with a keen reUsh. Mr. Franklm, from the very- 
 habit of his mind, entered into everything ap- 
 pertaining to the farm, and left Edwin but little 
 to do ; and that little was of but trifling impor- 
 tance. Sometimes when he happened to get a 
 few new ideas, and happened at the same time 
 to be communicative, he would give his son a 
 lecture on agricultural chemistry or physiology, 
 which was understood about as well as if spoken 
 in Hindoostanee. The next hour would find 
 the young man buried in the Mysteries of Eu- 
 gene Sue, Dumas, or some other French novehst 
 of like attractions ; or, with his gun on his 
 shoulder, making his way with light footsteps 
 towards the fields and woods. 
 
 As for companionship, Edwin enjoyed nearly 
 as much of that as he did while residing in the 
 city. His gunning and fishing expeditions were 
 not conducted on the sohtary principle. Scarce- 
 ly a week passed that some young friend from 
 New York did not come over and spend a day 
 or two with him, and scarcely as long a period 
 went by without his managing, on some pre- 
 tence or other, to pass a night or two in the 
 city. Florence, likewise, had her congenial vis- 
 itors, and nearly as often as Edwin enjoyed an 
 evening in New York.
 
 SOME OF THE FRUITS. 91 
 
 The pretext for tliese city visits wa&, usually, 
 the pleasure of an attendance at some concert 
 given by a musical star, or the enjoyment of 
 some other attraction. Mrs. Frankhn never 
 gave her consent for Florence to go on these 
 occasions, except on the stipulation that Edwin 
 should accompan}^ her to the theatre, concert 
 room, or other place of public amusement. Lit- 
 tle did the mother, so solicitous and so fearful 
 in regard to her children, imagine, that by 
 mutual consent, both Edwin and Florence sepa- 
 rated as soon as they reached the city, and only 
 met at the time appointed for return. Florence 
 went to the house of some one or other of the 
 j^oung ladies who reciprocated her visits, and 
 her brother went amoncr those cono^enial to his 
 taste and feelings. Usually, the morning found 
 him with all the sad evidences of a night's dis- 
 sipation too plainly visible to any attentive eye. 
 
 And thus the summer passed away, Mr. 
 Franklin too deeply absorbed in liis model farm- 
 ing operations to have any eyes for the rank 
 weeds that were springing up thickly over 
 the ground of his son's mind, and threatening 
 to choke every good plant wdiose leaves were 
 vainly trying to lift themselves up into the pure 
 light and free air. The mother vras not blind. 
 She saw the evil in a part of its fearful ma^jni-
 
 92 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 tilde ; but, though she often alluded to it, she 
 could not arouse her husband to a sense of the 
 real danger. 
 
 " I know it is not good," he would say. " A 
 young man like Edwin should not have so much 
 idle time on his hands. But we must hope for 
 the best. I will soon find plenty for him to 
 do." 
 
 And thus he would put her oflP, and hide 
 from his own mind the real aspect of things. 
 
 But evil weeds, though so feeble when they 
 first spring up that a child may pull them from 
 the soil, soon push their roots deep into the 
 earth and spread forth seemingly in a single 
 day, their deforming branches, to be seen and 
 kno^vn by all. And so it is Avith enl piinciples 
 when they enter the mind. If met in their in- 
 cipiency, and thoroughly eradicated by a judi- 
 cious apphcation of the right means, and good 
 seed planted and well cultured at the same time, 
 they will remain inert and harmless. But, left 
 to themselves, they will quicken into life, and 
 take entire possession of the soil to the destruc- 
 tion of its better products. 
 
 In due time, even Mr. Franklin saw that 
 weeds, instead of healthy plants, had over- 
 grown the garden of Edwin's mind ; and when 
 he put liis hand upon them to draw them from
 
 SOME OF THE FRUITS, 93 
 
 tlie soil they burdened and deformed, alas ! lie 
 found the roots too deeply imbedded ; he swept 
 his hand among them \-io-orously, and the 
 spreading branches fell on all sides ; but in 
 falling, they cast their millions of seed into the 
 ground, Avhile their roots still remained, to shoot 
 forth mider the warmino; sun, and fertihzin-'^- 
 rain. It was too late now. 
 
 While at Saratoga, evil seed fell into a rich 
 and mellow soil, and the germination had 
 been quick. But Mr. Franklin did not fully 
 comprehend the danger that existed. He 
 imagined that there had been some slight im- 
 prudence ; but he did not dream, that the money 
 spent so freely, had been lost among his young 
 associates at cards. But it was even so. He 
 had lost over fifty dollars to one of his young 
 companions, and then, in the hope of recovering 
 himself, had staked his due-bill for fifty more, 
 and lost again. It was to pay this " debt of 
 honor," that he was so anxious to get fifty 
 dollars from his father, before leaving Saratoga. 
 For reasons sufficiently conclusive to himself, 
 Mr. FrankUn did not furnish the sum desired. 
 The debt was, a few months afterwards, can- 
 celled by Edwin. His failure to meet it at once, 
 however, subjected him to an insult, thai his 
 hot blood could but ill brook, and came near
 
 94 RETmiXG FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 causing a serious rencontre witli the " honorable 
 young gentleman" of t^venty, who had played 
 his cards so skilfully. 
 
 This trip to the Springs brought Edwin into 
 an association with young men of a diflferent 
 stamp from any he had before met, and he was 
 just weak-minded enough to be led captive by 
 the boldness of their folly. Aping the fashion- 
 able vices of those who were older, they were 
 vain enough to imagine that smoking, drinking, 
 and playing at cards, were manly accomplish- 
 ments. 
 
 If iNlr. Franklin had been in business at this 
 time, he would not, in all probabihty, have 
 taken his family to this fashionable watering 
 place. But even if he had gone, on his return he 
 would have had the means in his hands of guard- 
 ing his son, to a great extent, from the dangers 
 that now lay in his path. Having declined the 
 study of lav/, he would have taken him imme- 
 diately into his own estabhshment, and thus 
 given him a chance to acquire a knowledge of 
 business, with the encouraging prospect in his 
 mind, of a profitable interest in that business, so 
 soon as he reached his twenty -first year. But 
 this, under the circumstances, could not be 
 done, and Edwin was placed in a store where he 
 became associated with voun^ men, who soon
 
 SOME OF THE FRUITS. 95 
 
 drew him away from the path of safety. The 
 daily useful work in which he was engaged, and 
 the respect and deference that he naturally, paid 
 to his employers, had a restraining influence. 
 But the moment he was set free, and for the 
 first time in his life, impressed with the idea 
 that he could do pretty much as he pleased ; 
 that he was, in fact, his own man ; the dangers 
 that had before hovered around him, became 
 imminent. The mother felt this, but the father 
 was too much interested in his new employment, 
 to be able to think as seriously about his son, as 
 the nature of the case demanded. 
 
 But sober action brought the mind of Mr. 
 Franklin into a more reflective state. No longer 
 so much absorbed in his agricultural doings as 
 to be unable to think about anything else, he 
 became aware, among other unpleasant things, 
 that Edwin was going fast astray. His appear- 
 ance had changed very much in a few months, 
 and he bore too plainly the marks of evil indulg- 
 ence. Besides, his demands for money were 
 so frequent, as to make it necessary at times to 
 refuse his apphcations. When this was done, 
 he generally exhibited a good deal of indigna- 
 tion, and sometimes went off to the city and 
 remained from home two or three days. 
 
 A request for seventy dollars, which came
 
 96 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 soon after Mr. Franklin's rupture -mth. liis over- 
 seer,, and at a time when he Avas in a most dis- 
 satisfied state of mind, was the occasion of 
 turning the father's thoughts more intently upon 
 his son. 
 
 "Seventy, did you say?" inquired Mr. 
 Frankhn, in not a very mild tone of voice. 
 
 " Yes sir," replied Edwin. 
 
 " You spend a good deal of money for a 
 j^oung man whose bills for necessary articles are 
 all paid," remarked Mr. Franklin, looking seri- 
 ous. " I have before said that I disapproved 
 such prodigaUty; and have before done what I 
 must do now, refuse to supply your demand. 
 If I am not in en'or, you have spent four or 
 five hundred dollars since we have been in the 
 country, when a hundred ought fully to have 
 satisfied you. I am afraid everything is not 
 right. It does'nt look well." 
 
 " You are veiy suspicious !" rephed Edwin, 
 speaking in a tone of voice that his father felt 
 to be insulting^, and which caused an indignant 
 rush of blood through his veins. 
 
 " Don't forget yom'self, young man," said Mr. 
 Franklin, sternly. 
 
 " I hope I shall never do that," was coolly 
 answered, a toss of the head at the same time
 
 SOME OF THE FRUITS. 97 
 
 indicating the degree of respect felt by the son 
 for his father. 
 
 Mr. Franklin was not very well prepared for 
 anything hke this. Even undue familiarity he 
 had always been quick to repress in his cliildren. 
 Insult and contempt, so plainly exhibited as to 
 leave no room for mistake, threw his mind into an 
 excitement that destroyed all rational seK- control. 
 
 " Leave my presence, instantly !" he exclaim- 
 ed, stamping his foot upon the floor. 
 
 Edwin tui-ned from him and left the house. 
 A httle while after he vras seen riding towards 
 the city on horseback. Mr. Franklin was pain- 
 fully disturbed. 
 
 "Has it come to this ?'' he said to himself, 
 bitterly, as he leaned his head down upon his 
 hands. " Has it indeed come to this ! Not yet 
 twenty years of age and so far advanced on the 
 road to ruin !" 
 
 Mr. Franklin avoided saying anything to his 
 wife about what had just occurred. That could 
 do no good, he reasoned, and would only make 
 her unhappy. As for himself, from the moment 
 of that inten^ew, his peace of mind was gone. 
 Edwin had exhibited disappointment and anger 
 at pre\dous denials, but he had never before 
 shown a spirit like this. He had never before 
 ventured upon insult. 
 9
 
 98 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 CHAPTERXI. 
 
 GOIXG ASTRAY. 
 
 Three days passed, but the young man did 
 not return. Before, when Edw^n thought 
 proper to absent himself, Mr. FranMin, though 
 strongly urged by the mother, never woidd go 
 after him. 
 
 "No," he would reply to all her sohcitations. 
 " No. Let him come home of his own accord. 
 Let him himible do-svu. I'm not going to run 
 after liim. It is high time he understood where 
 his bread comes from." 
 
 But now he was concerned. His eyes had 
 suddenly opened. He saw that his son was 
 making false steps, and that swift destruction 
 was before him if not checked in the career 
 upon which he had entered. All this he ought 
 to have seen before. All this the mother had 
 seen with a troubled heart ; and she had in 
 vain striven to awaken him to a sense of the 
 truth. 
 
 On the fourth day of Ms son's absence, Mr. 
 Franklin went mto the city. In passing one of 
 the hotels, he saw the hostler leading to the 
 stable the horse that Edwin rode when he went
 
 GOING ASTRAY. 99 
 
 away. He immediately entered and made in- 
 quiries for his son, but was told that no suck 
 person was there. On mentioning the horse he 
 had seen, he was told that it belonged to one of 
 the boarders. With this individual he requested 
 an interview. 
 
 " Pardon the freedom of my question," he 
 said, on taking the stranger aside ; " but will you 
 be kind enough to tell me how long you have 
 been the owner of the horse that I just saw at 
 the door?" 
 
 " I bought him day before yesterday." 
 
 " From a young man ?" 
 
 " No. I bought him at a stable in Franklin 
 street." 
 
 " At what price ?" 
 
 The mdi\adual thus questioned, rather hesi- 
 tated to answer. He did not exactly hke to be 
 inten-ogated so freely by a stranger. 
 
 " 1^0 matter," said Mr. Franklin, seeing the 
 effect produced. "The stable is in Franklin 
 street ?" 
 
 " Yes Sir." And the precise location was 
 described. 
 
 " ]\IaY I take the hberty of inquiring your 
 name ?" asked Mr. Franklin. 
 
 " Oh, certainly !" And the name was given. 
 
 Mr. Franklm bovred, and with an apology for
 
 100 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 tlie freedom he had taken, was retuing, when 
 the man said : 
 
 ** Do you know anything that is not right 
 about this horse ?" 
 
 *' I know," replied Mr, Frankhn, " that he 
 was mine a few days ago, and that I have not 
 sold him." 
 
 " Ah ! Was he stolen from you ?" 
 
 " No. My son rode him into the city last 
 week, since which time not a word has been 
 heard from him. Did the person from whom 
 you purchased the animal say anything about 
 the manner in which he came into his hands ?" 
 
 " Isot a word. I hired the horse, and hked 
 him so well, that I offered to buy him. The price 
 asked was a himdred and fifty dollars, which I 
 paid." 
 
 " Just half what he cost me as a match horse. 
 But I care nothing for the horse now, only so 
 far as he furnishes a clue to the discovery of 
 my son, who, I much fear, has fallen into evil 
 hands." 
 
 " If you will accept of any aid in my power 
 to render you," said the stranger, '4t will be 
 most freely given. I will go with you, forth- 
 with, to the keeper of the stable, if you think 
 it of any use." 
 
 " It may be."
 
 GOIXG ASTRAY. 101 
 
 " I am ready to go ^th you at once," was 
 promptly said. 
 
 On calling at the stable, Mr. Franklin learned 
 that the horse had been bought from the son 
 of a wealthy citizen residing in the upper part of 
 Broadway, on the day prenous to his being- 
 sold to his present owner. 
 
 " Will you give me the name of the yoimg 
 man ?" asked Mr. Franklin. 
 
 There was some hesitation. But the name 
 was at length given. 
 
 "The son of P ?" said Mr. Frankhn, 
 
 evincing surprise. 
 
 " Yes Sh. It was Edward P ." 
 
 " Ah ! \Yas it that young man from whom 
 you bought the horse ?" remarked the person 
 who had accompanied Mr. Franklin, his manner 
 showing equal surprise vv^ith that displayed by 
 the other. 
 
 "You know him?" said the stable keeper. 
 
 " I know no good of him. If ever a young 
 man was on the high road to ruin, he is. I 
 wouldn't be his father for all the wealth he pos- 
 sesses, if I had to be cursed with such a son." 
 
 " I have seen him several times," said Mr. 
 
 Franklin, recollecting that Edward P had 
 
 visited his son in the country frequently during 
 the summer, and that they had often gone into
 
 102 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 the city together — " but I had no suspicion that 
 his character Avas so bad.'' 
 
 " He is scarcely twenty," was repHed, " but 
 few men a dozen yeai^s his senior have as many 
 \ices, or lead so evil a life." 
 
 " Is his father not aware of this ?" asked Mr. 
 Franklin. 
 
 " Heaven only knows ! If he is, he must 
 have a heart as insensible as stone, or lay his 
 head each night upon a" thorny pillow." 
 
 " It takes money to lead a reckless, dissipated 
 
 life. Can it be possible that Mr. P fm*- 
 
 nishes it to him at will." 
 
 "I should think not. P understands 
 
 as well as any one the A-alae of money." 
 
 '' Then where does he get the means to sup- 
 ply his extravagance ?" 
 
 " You have become cognizant of one of his 
 money raising transactions." 
 
 " What r 
 
 " The sale of your own horse." 
 
 " But how came the horse in his posses- 
 sion?" 
 
 The man did not -reply immediately, although 
 it was plain from his maimer, that he had an 
 answer to the question. 
 
 " Can you tell ?" asked Mr. Franklin, after 
 waiting for some moments.
 
 GOING ASTRAY. 103 
 
 *' I can only conjecture." 
 
 " Even conjecture may throw some light on 
 this mysterious affair. Speak freely." 
 
 "My conjecture is, that he has by some 
 means, card playing most likely, managed to 
 get your son in debt, and induced liim to trans- 
 fer the horse to his possession in payment of 
 the obligation." 
 
 "I should hardly think that ?" said the stable 
 keeper, with an uneasy manner. 
 
 " It may not be so," returned the man," but I 
 fear my suggestion is very near the truth. I 
 happen to know a case where this was done." 
 
 "By P V 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Humph !" 
 
 Mr. Franklin mo\^d away, saying as he left 
 the stable, 
 
 " I must see Edward P , immediately. 
 
 For your kindness, sir," addressing the stranger, 
 •** accept my thanks." 
 
 "Will you do me the favor," said the latter, 
 '' to let me know th€ result of yom- investiga- 
 tions in this unhappy affair ? And if I can aid 
 you in any way, it will afford me great pleasure 
 to do so." 
 
 " I mil see you again," said Mn Franklin, as 
 lie bowed, and hurried away.
 
 104 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 Mr. P , upon whom the father of 
 
 Edwin called immediately, had not seen his son 
 since the day before. He said that the young 
 man's habits were very uTCgular, and that his 
 conduct caused the family great uneasiness. 
 Mr. Franklin then stated fully the nature of his 
 en-and to the city ; and the discovery he had 
 made of his horse in the possession of a 
 stranger, who had purchased the animal from a 
 stable keeper, to whom he had been sold by 
 young P . 
 
 " How came your horse in the possession of 
 my son?" asked Mr. P . 
 
 " I do not know," replied Mr. Franklin. " But 
 the fact that he was in his possession, shows 
 that your son has some knowledge of Edwin, 
 and for this reason I wish to see him," 
 
 " Oh dear !" exclaimed Mr. P , risinor. 
 
 and walking about uneasily. " This boy will 
 kill me ! I have spent thousands of dollars 
 upon his education, and here is the result. I 
 beheve, after all, that we cannot lay a hea\'ier 
 curse upon our children, than to give them 
 money. The poor lad, who works as you and 
 I did, twelve hours a day for his plain food 
 and coarse clothing, is really happier and better, 
 and gives more promise of a useful and pros- 
 perous life, than the sons of the wealthy. Oujt
 
 GOING ASTKAY. 105 
 
 children, Mr. Franklin, are tlie drones of socie- 
 ty ! Aye, more, in some cases, than drones." 
 
 Mr. Franklin felt that this was true. He had 
 never reflected much upon the subject, and 
 therefore, his thoughts had not previously led 
 him to such a conclusion. J^ow results, flowing 
 from apparent causes, made the truth plain. 
 
 " Money is a curse to young men, rather than 
 a blessing!" he said, half to himself. ''That 
 is, if they are not engaged in some useful work." 
 
 He might have said, a curse to any one not 
 so engaged. 
 
 " Where do you think I would find your 
 son ?" asked Mr. FrankUn. 
 
 " I cannot tell ; I know but little of his in- 
 comino^s and outo^oins^s. That a father should 
 say this ! But it is even so. 'For more than a 
 year, he has acted towards me with a kind of 
 insolent independence, which has stung me hke 
 the fangs of a serpent." 
 
 Mr. Franklin rephed with a groan. 
 
 " He is frequently in company with a young 
 man named Welford, whose father's store is in 
 
 the same block with mine," added Mr. P . 
 
 " Perhaps from him you could gain the infor- 
 mation your desire." 
 
 " I will see him mimediately. All I hear,
 
 106 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 but increases my anxiety. What a sad mistake 
 I have committed I" 
 
 From the father of Welford, he learned 
 that the three yomig men had gone on a 
 fishing and pleasure excursion, and T/ould not 
 return until the next day. This information 
 being corroborated in one or two other quarters, 
 Mr. Franklin had to go home that evening, un- 
 accompanied by his son ; with what feelings, 
 the reader may imagine. 
 
 But httle of vvdiat he had learned could be 
 disguised from his mother, whose anxiety 
 through the day had been very great. 
 
 On the next morning, Mr. Franklin went 
 again to the city. But he returned at night 
 "without havmg seen Edwin. As far as he was 
 able to learn, the party of pleasure was still 
 absent. On the third day, he ascertained that 
 the three young men had come home late on 
 the previous evening. After some inquiry, he 
 was informed that Edwin was at one of the 
 hotels in the lower part of Broadway, where he 
 found him about tvrelve o'clock. The young 
 man's countenance fell the moment he saw his 
 father, who merely said to him, in a serious, not 
 angry voice — 
 
 " Come, my son." 
 
 Edwin did not hesitate, and they left the hotel
 
 GOING ASTRAY. 107 
 
 together, proceeding immediately homeward. 
 While on the way, Mr. Franklin said — 
 
 " Edwin, I find that the horse you rode to the 
 
 city has been sold by Edward P . How 
 
 came he in possession of my property?" 
 
 A deep crimson covered the yomig man's 
 face, and his eyes fell to the ground. After 
 waiting for some time for a reply, Mr. Frankhn 
 added, 
 
 " As I shall take the proper step to recover 
 the horse, I wish to know, beforehand, the 
 
 manner in which Edward P acquired the 
 
 right to dispose of him." 
 
 " I owed him money, and he took the horse 
 in payment," said Edwin. 
 
 " But he had no rights in my property for 
 your debt. Moreover, both you and he are 
 minors, and cannot, legally, make such trans- 
 actions. How came you in his debt?" 
 
 Edwin was silent. 
 
 " Did you bon'ow money from him ?" 
 
 Edwin hesitated for a few moments, and then 
 rephed in the affirmative. Mr. Franklin looked 
 at him steadily, until his eyes fell. The father 
 was satisfied that his son did not tell the whole 
 truth. 
 
 " How much did you owe him ?" 
 
 *' Seventy dollars."
 
 108 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 " Was that the price at which he sold the 
 horse ?" 
 
 " He received a hundred and twenty for 
 him." 
 
 " And paid you fifty ?" 
 
 " Yes Sir." 
 
 "Where is that sum?'' 
 
 Edwin was silent. 
 
 " All gone, I presume." 
 
 There was no answer. 
 
 The father sighed heavily, and for the rest of 
 the way home they rode in silence. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A FALSE STEP. 
 
 So signally had the farming experiment of 
 Mr. Franklin failed, that he was completely dis- 
 heartened, and abandoned all idea of agriculture 
 as a caUing for his son. In fact, the latter had 
 shown not the shghtest fancy for the pursuit, 
 and, as has been seen, the attempts to initiate 
 him into the art and mystery appertaining 
 thereto, had proved entirely abortive. It was 
 therefore determined, that he should go back
 
 A FALSE STEP. 109 
 
 again into some mercantile establishment. But 
 six months of idleness and vicious association 
 had completely unfitted the young man's mind 
 for business. He could not submit to the 
 drudgery and confinement of a store or count- 
 ing-room. Humbled, in some degree, on ac- 
 count of his conduct in selling a valuable horse 
 belonging to his father, in order to satisfy a 
 debt made at the gambling table, Edwin yielded 
 to the wish of his parents to take his old place, 
 which was still open for him. But all rehsh for 
 useful employment was gone, and not a week 
 passed before he was sighing in spirit for the 
 freedom he had laid aside. 
 
 It was Mrs. FrankHn's desire to moye again 
 into the city. This her husband opposed. He 
 wished to stay where he was, at least for the 
 winter. He thought that by remaining in the 
 country during the coming fashionable season, 
 they would be able to keep Florence secluded. 
 
 *' It is of the utmost importance," he said, 
 " to keep her out of the fashionable whirl, imtil 
 her mind gains more strength. She is yet too 
 young for society — woman as she thinks her- 
 self." 
 
 To all this Mrs. Franklin readily agreed, but 
 doubted their ability to seclude her. 
 
 ** She is in the city two or three times every 
 10
 
 110 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 week ; and she will continue to go, unless we 
 lay positive commands upon her, which I think 
 we should avoid doing. And she will attend, pro- 
 bably, just as many fashionable entertainments 
 as if we were in New York. This being so, it 
 would be much better for us to be living there, 
 for then no reason for her ever remaining all 
 night from home, would exist as now." 
 
 But Mr. Franklin did not want to remove into 
 the city then, and therefore the reasoning of 
 his wife, which was very clever on this and 
 other subjects connected with her cliildren, 
 failed to have any effect. 
 
 When winter set in, they were still at their 
 seat in J^e country. Edwin came home with 
 tolerable regularity, while the season remained 
 pleasant ; but as soon as the cold weather set 
 in, he became less and less punctual in liis re- 
 turn, and by the middle of Januaiy did not 
 make his appearance more than once a week. 
 Florence spent at least half of her time in Kew 
 York, against the wishes and remonstrances of 
 her parents, and followed there a gay round of 
 fashionable dissipation. 
 
 By mid-winter, Mr. and Mrs. Franklin were 
 almost sleepless with trouble about their two 
 oldest children. The former regretted irot
 
 A FALSE STEP. Ill 
 
 having moved into tlie city in the fall, and 
 openly expressed his regret. 
 
 " Had we not better go, even at this late pe- 
 riod ?" said his wife. 
 
 "We cannot move m now," replied Mr. 
 Franklin. 
 
 " We can take rooms at one of the hotels un- 
 til spring." 
 
 *' Yes, that could be done." 
 
 "It would enable us to have Edwin and 
 Florence more directly under our own eyes. 
 Thingii as they now are distress me to death. 
 I am afraid they will be ruined." 
 
 The more Mr. Franklin pondered this sug- 
 gestion, the better he hked it, and, finally, it 
 was decided to make the change. A little to 
 the surprise of Mrs. Franklin, when the fact was 
 mentioned to Florence, she did not seem much 
 pleased, and from that time appeared thought- 
 ful. Nor did Edwin manifest much pleasure 
 when he became aware of the fact. 
 
 On the day before the proposed removal, 
 Florence went into the city. There was to be 
 an entertainment at the house of a friend of the 
 family, in which she .was desired to participate. 
 She went in the carriage as far as the ferry at 
 Hoboken, and then, passed over the river alone. 
 As the feny-boat touched the landing, a gen-
 
 112 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 tleman stepped on board, and looked eagerly 
 around. A moment after, and Florence was 
 by his side. 
 
 " I was half afraid you would not come. I 
 have been waiting for an hour," he said, as they 
 went quickly from the boat. 
 
 " I tried to get away sooner, but could not," 
 rephed Florence, speaking in an excited voice. 
 
 " No matter, you are here now." And as he 
 said this, he handed her into a carriage. 
 
 They leaned close together, and conversed 
 earnestly while the carriage moved as rapidly 
 down Greenwich street as the crowded state of 
 that thoroughfare would permit. They reached 
 Jersey City ferry just in time to join the pas- 
 sengers for the south, and pass over the river 
 with them. At the depot they entered the 
 through train of cars, and in a few moments 
 were moving swiftly on their way towards Phila- 
 delphia ! Strange, yet sad coincidence — in the 
 car next to the one in which Florence was 
 journeying from her home, sat her brother. He 
 was also taking a step that could only be follow- 
 ed by repentance, and that, perchance, when it 
 was too late to be of any avail. They reached 
 Philadelphia without meeting, each entirely ig- 
 norant of the other's proximity. 
 
 Florence had eloped with Le Grand, and
 
 A FALSE STEP. 113 
 
 EdAvin had gone soutli in company with a man 
 of the worst character, whose only object in 
 the association, was the hope of plundering his 
 young companion of money that he knew him to 
 have. How this came into his possession, will 
 appear. 
 
 The removal of Mr. Franklin from the city, 
 instead of withdrawing Florence and Edwin 
 from dangerous associations, had only left them 
 freer to enter into any that suited .their fancy, 
 Le Grand was not long in discovering how af- 
 fairs were situated, nor backward about taking 
 advantage of them. He was an adventurer, as 
 Mr. Franklin had correctly inferred. His stock 
 in trade was a good education, a good address, 
 and the most perfect assurance. His business 
 was to provide himself ^nth. a competency by 
 securing a rich wife. As to the lady herself, he 
 did not care much whether she were young or 
 old, wise or simple, so that she had money. 
 That would cover all defects, if any existed. 
 
 The time-kilhng visit of Mr. Frankhn to the 
 Springs, brought Florence under the eye of Le 
 Grand, and he saw at a glance that she was to 
 be won, if worth the winning ; careful, yet well- 
 guarded, inquiry, satisfied him that she was a 
 piize. He then made his observation of the 
 father and mother. The old gentleman did not 
 10*
 
 114 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 please him very well. He thought he saw 
 somethino^ unbendino- about him. But he was 
 satisfied that the mother was tenderly attached 
 to her cliildren, and that through her an easy 
 reconcihation could be obtained, if he should 
 find it advisable to run away with Florence. 
 No speculation equal to this, and as sure of suc- 
 cess, presented itself to Le Grand. After due 
 deliberation, he resolved to make sure of the 
 advantage presented, and ere Mr. and Mrs. 
 Franklin took the alarm and retired from Sara- 
 toga, he had whispered tender sentiments into 
 the ear of the weak minded girl. During the 
 trip to Niagara, these were repeated. After the 
 return to New York, he managed to get a meet- 
 ing with Florence about once a week, and be- 
 fore the winter was half over, it was all manag- 
 ed between them, that as soon as she had 
 reached her eighteenth year, a marriage should 
 take place. Once or tmce Le Grand called at 
 the house of Mr. Franklin, in order to see what 
 impression his visit would make ; but the second 
 visit satisfied him that, with all his pretensions 
 to wealthy southern connexions, the impression 
 made upon Mr. and Mrs. Franklin, was most 
 unfavorable. 
 
 Florence saw no particular reason for waiting 
 until she had completed her eighteenth year.
 
 A FALSE STEP. 116 
 
 but Le Grand was not disposed to take so im- 
 portant a step without having as many chances 
 in his favor as could be obtained. The legal 
 age of his wife, he considered one of them.. 
 
 After making all as secure as possible, the 
 young adventurer went south, where he pursued 
 a certain not very reputable calling, in order to 
 supply the money needful for present wants ; 
 returning every few months in order to see 
 Florence, and keep bright the links of the chain 
 by which they were bound together. During 
 his absence, they corresponded through a friend 
 and confidant of Florence, in the city ; and 
 through the same party, with whom Florence 
 spent the greater part of the time when she 
 came in from the country, their inter\iews 
 were arranged, v/hen Le Grand visited the 
 north. The removal of her family from the city 
 favored all this ; and it so happened that none 
 of those who saw what was in progress, were 
 disinterested enough to give the parents a hint 
 of what was going on. 
 
 The sudden determmation of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Franklin, to remove to the city in mid-winter, 
 alarmed Florence. She feared that some dis- 
 covery of the relation that existed between her 
 and Le Grand had been made, and that this was 
 one of the steps about being taken to interrupt
 
 116 RETIRING- FROM BUSIXESS. 
 
 tlieir intercoui-se. She wrote to lier lover, wlio 
 was in Baltimore, and he came on immediately. 
 Florence had just completed her eighteenth 
 year, and no legal difficulty therefore remained. 
 Immediate marriage was determined upon, and 
 consummated on their arrival in Philadelphia, 
 after the flight made to that city. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 TROUBLE IX EARNEST. 
 
 With a far less buoyant and hopeful spirit 
 than that in which he had left the city, did Mr. 
 Franklin return to it. On his way to the hotel 
 where rooms had been taken, he passed his old 
 manufactory, and as his eye fell upon it, he 
 sighed involuntarily. Nothing had gone right 
 since his retirement from business ; and there 
 was a sad presentiment at his heart, that the 
 worst was yet to come. He felt, it is true, of 
 much more consequence in the world, than he 
 did while in the daily pursuit of a useful caUing. 
 (It is a little singular that a feeling of self-im- 
 portance is strongest in men who are of the least 
 importance to the social well being), and rather
 
 TROUBLE IN EARNEST. 117 
 
 looked do^Yn upon those who, either from choice 
 or necessity, were still bending at the oar. 
 
 Mrs. Franklin sat almost crowding in a corner 
 of the carriage, dreamily pondering the future, 
 but seeing little light in the sky that hung over 
 the path she was treading. Her greatest anxi- 
 ety was for Edwin. She did not know all the 
 evil of his hfe. Indeed, she knew but httle 
 of what he did, or where he went when away 
 from her presence ; but she had seen enough in 
 his face and in his whole appearance, when at 
 home, to leave no doubt upon her mind, that, 
 young as he was, he had wandered far astray 
 from the path of safety. As for Florence, she 
 noted a change in her during the past few 
 months. She had ceased to be so restless in 
 the country, and did not make so many frivolous 
 excuses, in order to get to the city, as she did 
 during the summer and early part of the fall. 
 Still, she spent at least a day and a night in 
 New York every week ; and appeared to have 
 some purpose in her mind for doing so, beyond 
 any public amusement, or social pleasure. This 
 Mrs. Frankhn remarked, and it produced a 
 vague state of uneasiness that entirely destroyed 
 her peace. 
 
 Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Frankhn, felt very 
 happy in taking possession of their temporary
 
 118 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 home in the city. All day long the mother 
 waited in expectation of being joined by Flor- 
 ence, and as houi' after hour went by, their 
 constant looking for her appearance, changed 
 into something like anxiety. When night came, 
 a vacrue fear minfrled with the concern she felt. 
 
 '' Strange, that Florence does not come," she 
 said, for almost the hundredth time. " Can it 
 be possible that she has mistaken the hotel in 
 which we took rooms ?" 
 
 This was scarcely probable, Mr. Frankhn 
 thought. 
 
 " What, then, can keep her away. I told 
 her, particularl}^, to be here by mid day, as we 
 would certainly be in by that time." 
 
 Neither could make any satisfactory sugges- 
 tions, in reofard to her absence. After night- 
 fall, they remained in momentary expectation of 
 her anival, but the hour for retirino^ came, and 
 she was still away. It was then too late to 
 make inquiries for her, and the parents went to 
 bed -v^dth troubled feehngs. The non-appeai'- 
 ance of Edwin, was also a, disappointment and 
 caused them uneasiness. 
 
 Early on the next day, Mrs. Frankhn called on 
 the lady with whom she knew Florence spent a 
 large portion of her time when in the city.
 
 TROUBLE IN EARNEST. 119 
 
 But to lier surprise and pain, learned tliat her 
 dausrhter had not been there. 
 
 o 
 
 "She came in day before yesterday," said 
 Mrs. Frankhn, " to attend Mrs. Blake's party, 
 and said that she was going to your house to 
 dress." 
 
 " I have seen nothing of her for a week," 
 returned the lady, with much apparent con- 
 cern in her manner. 
 
 " You have not ?" 
 
 " No, ma'am." 
 
 " Were you at Mrs. Blake's, evening before 
 last ?" 
 
 *•' I was." 
 
 " And was not my daughter there ?" 
 
 '*' I beheve not." 
 
 " You did not see her ?" 
 
 "No ma'am." 
 
 Mrs. Franklin was so stunned by this intelh- 
 gence, that it was some time before she could 
 collect her mind sufficiently to make further in- 
 quiries of the lady. Then, in answer to many 
 questions, she gleaned enough to satisfy her 
 that Florence had been frequently in com- 
 pany with a young man, the description of 
 whom left her mind in no doubt touching his 
 identity. And she was also satisfied, that the 
 lady, notwithstanding her apparent ignorance
 
 120 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 on the subject, had been a party to the meet- 
 ing. 
 
 o 
 
 With a sick heart, the mother went back to 
 the hotel where they had taken up a temporary 
 residence. She found her husband, who had 
 gone out at the time she did, to see about 
 Edwin, walking the floor of their parlor ra- 
 pidly, and in a state of deep distress. Their 
 pale faces grew paler, as they looked at each 
 other. 
 
 " Where is Florence ?" asked Mr. Frankhn, 
 with much anxiety in his voice. 
 
 *' I do not know," replied Mrs. Franklin. 
 •'Where is Edwin?" 
 
 '• Gone." 
 
 " Gone ! ^YheTe ?" 
 
 " I cannot tell. But Florence ?" 
 
 " She has not been at Mrs. K 's." 
 
 -No?" 
 
 " Nor at Mrs. Blake's party. But Edwin ?" 
 And the mother's face was ashy pale, while her 
 hps quivered. 
 
 " He has not been at D & L 's, for 
 
 a month." 
 
 Mrs. Frankhn sunk down with a groan. 
 
 " Not for a month !" she said, in a low heart- 
 breaking voice. " My poor boy ! He is lost !
 
 TROUBLE IX EARNEST. 121 
 
 He is lost ! But have you learned nothing of 
 him ?" 
 
 " Xot a word. I hurried home to hear from 
 you the tidings from Florence. That Le Grand 
 was here a day or two ago." 
 
 " And she's with him, I fear," returned the 
 mother. " From all I can learn, she has met 
 him frequently dm*ing the last few months." 
 
 '' Oh, Heavens !" exclaimed Mr. Franklin, 
 clasping his hands across his forehead. " Has 
 it come to this ! My children ! My poor, un- 
 happy, erring children ! Has it come to this ? 
 and so soon !" 
 
 Just then, a servant came to the door, and 
 handed in a letter. Its post-mark was Phila- 
 delphia. Mr. Franklin eagerly tore off the 
 envelope, and read. 
 
 "My Dear Parents : 
 
 "At the earliest possible moment, I 
 write to reheve your minds of the anxiety my 
 unexpected absence cannot have failed to pro- 
 duce. When I left you, it was with the inten- 
 tion of taking a step that I could not hope you 
 would approve ; although I doubted not of its 
 correctness. You remember Mr. Le Grand, 
 whom we met at the Springs, and whom, at one 
 or two visits subsequently, you treated with so 
 much coldness. From the hour of our first 
 meeting, we have entertained a mutual attach- 
 ment, and have been ever since in regular cor- 
 11
 
 122 RETIRINa FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 respondence. We only awaited my eigliteentli 
 year, for a closer union than already existed 
 between our hearts. On leaving you, I met him 
 by appointment, when Ave proceeded to this 
 city. Yesterday, our marriage was duly so- 
 lemnized, and we now tender you our dutiful and 
 affectionate regard. 
 
 " Mr. Le Grand, as you know, is a gentleman 
 of wealth, and connected with a family of 
 distinction in the south. We at first thought 
 of going on immediately to Charleston, to join 
 liis friends, but knowing how anxious you must 
 be, we have determined not to do so at present, 
 unless you turn from us in anger. 
 
 ** Dear Parents ! Forgive what seems unkind 
 and undutiful in jour child. She could not 
 help doing Avhat she has done. When you 
 come to know Mr. Le Grand as well as she does, 
 you will be the last to say that she did wrong 
 to accept the offer of his hand and heart. Oh, 
 let me hear from you quickly. I shall not rest 
 an horn* until I know that you forgive me. 
 Your affectionate and dutiful 
 
 Florence." 
 
 " Dutiful !" ejaculated Mr. Franklin, as he 
 crushed the letter in his hand. 
 
 From the mother there burst forth a wailing 
 cry. For some moments she writhed her body 
 like one in agonizing pain. Then a gush of 
 tears came to her rehef, and she wept into 
 calmness a wild tempest of feeling.
 
 TROUBLE IN EARNEST. 123 
 
 In silence tlie unhappy parents sat for a long 
 time. 
 
 " Write for lier to come home," said the 
 mother, at leno-th arousino- herself. 
 
 Mr. Franklin made no answer, blit arose and 
 began walking about the room with uneasy- 
 steps. 
 
 " Weak, foolish o-irl ! A man of wealth and 
 family ! It is all a base lie ! He is a deceiving 
 scoundrel !" fell from the lips of the father, as 
 he paced the floor of the room. 
 
 '-' It may not be so," suggested Mrs. Frank- 
 hn, " he may be ," 
 
 " It is so. Men of character nerer steal 
 away the daughters of wealthy and respectable 
 citizens. If he were all that he pretends to 
 be, he would not run off with a silly young girl ! 
 Oh ! to think that im should have all this to 
 suffer. We, of all others. We who have been 
 so anxious and so careful of our children I" 
 
 To this the mother did not reply. She felt 
 that they had been to blame. She had a heart- 
 withering consciousness that the sin lay at their 
 own door. 
 
 '' Let us get the poor child home as quickly 
 as possible," said Mrs. Franklin, after her hus- 
 band had ceased speaking. " If Le Grand is all
 
 124 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 that we have reason to fear that he is, Florence 
 needs to be under our own protection." 
 
 " But he shall not cross my threshold !" re- 
 phed Mr. Franklin, passionately. 
 
 " Can we separate them ?" 
 
 " They must be separated, if Florence comes 
 back," said Mr. Franklin, emphatically. " Take 
 into the bosom of our family one mean and base 
 enough to entice our child away, and marry her 
 without our knowledge and consent ? Oh no ! 
 we cannot do that." 
 
 " We can hardly expect Florence to return, 
 if we refuse her husband," said the mother, 
 with much seriousness. 
 
 " I will never accept him !" replied Mr. 
 Franklin, passionately. 
 
 His Avife said no more, and Mr. Franklin con- 
 tinued his restless movements. At length he 
 stopped suddenly, saying — 
 
 " I must find Edwin," 
 
 And without further remark left the room.' 
 But his search for t]ie young man proved un- 
 availing. JS'o one upon whom he called, 
 could give any information in regard to him 
 whatever ; and he returned late in the afternoon 
 with a still lieaA-ier weight of trouble upon his 
 heart.
 
 A RETURN. 125 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A RETURX. 
 
 On the next morning, enclosed in an envelope, 
 Mr. Franklin received a notification from one of 
 tlie banks, that liis note for five thousand dol- 
 lars would be due in about two weeks. 
 
 " What does this mean ?" he asked, in sur- 
 prise. " I have no paper out. Five thousand 
 dollars ! Strange ! I must see about this." 
 
 And off he went, post haste, to the bank, 
 and requested to see the note said to be held 
 against him. It was produced. 
 
 " Who deposited this ?" he inquired. 
 
 A broker in Wall street was named. 
 
 Mr. Franklin went to the broker and inquired 
 of him the name of the party, from whom it 
 was received. 
 
 ''' I discounted the note for a voung man of 
 wealth and standing in the citj," replied the 
 broker. 
 
 " May I ask his name ?" 
 
 " Have you an interest in knowing ?" inquired 
 the broker, looking curiously at Mr. Frankhn. 
 
 " I have ; and very great interest in knovring, 
 as my name is on the note as drawer." ^ 
 
 11*
 
 128 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 " Your name !" said the broker, evincing sur- 
 prise. 
 
 " Will you now inform me from whom you 
 received it ?" 
 
 " I received it," replied the broker, " from the 
 son of old Mr. P ." 
 
 "From Edward P ?" 
 
 " Yes Sir. I have another which I took from 
 him three or four davs aoro, of the same 
 amount, with sixty days to run." 
 
 " Another !" exclaimed Mr. Franklin. 
 
 " Yes sir. I hope there is nothing wrong 
 about these notes, Mr. Franklin. I should be 
 very sorry if there was. I supposed it was 
 all right." 
 
 Without reply, Mr. Franklin turned and left 
 the office. He had only taken a few steps from 
 the broker's, when he mel: the young man of 
 whom they had just been speaking. Edward 
 
 P tried to pass Mr. Franklin under the 
 
 appearance of not seeing him, but the latter 
 laid his hand upon his arm with a sudden grasp. 
 The young man affectod to be surprised and 
 offended at the rudeness, but Mr. FrankUn 
 interrupted an angry expression by saying, 
 peremptorily, 
 
 " How, sir, did you come in possession of 
 ten thousand dollars' worth of my paper."
 
 A RETURN. 127 
 
 The manner of Ed^vard changed, and he said 
 very coolly — 
 
 " I received it from youi' son." 
 
 " From Edwin ?" 
 
 " Yes, from Edwin." And he looked firmly 
 at Mr. Franklin. 
 
 " It is strange that you should have transac- 
 tions with my son to that amount," returned 
 Mr. Frankhn, as soon as he could control him- 
 self, speaking with assumed calmness. " Pray, 
 on what account did you receive these notes ? 
 What was the value conveyed for them." 
 
 " Pardon me," returned P-^ , coolly. " But 
 
 I do not recognize your right to question me on 
 this, or any other private matter. Enough, that 
 I gave him value." 
 
 Mr. Franklin looked at the young man until 
 the eyes of the latter fell beneath his steady 
 
 gaze. As they did so, Edward P turned 
 
 and walked away. But Mr. Franklin was by 
 his side in a moment. 
 
 " I must know something more about this 
 matter, young man," he said, sternly. 
 
 " What jnore would you know ?" demanded 
 Edward, turning with a look of defiance upon 
 Mr . Franklin. '•' Did you not draw the notes ?" 
 
 There was a pause on both sides.
 
 128 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 " Or," added P , Tiitli a measured em- 
 phasis, " are they forgeries ?" 
 
 For a few moments, the men looked at each 
 other steadily. Then both retreated a few 
 paces, and walked away in different directions. 
 
 Mr. Frankhn was more than satisfied. The 
 sad intelligence of his son's criminality fell upon 
 
 his heart vrith a crushing force. That P 
 
 was an accomphce in the guilt, and took the 
 notes as forgeries, he did not for a moment 
 doubt. But that in no way mitigated the pain 
 so dreadful a discovery produced. He had 
 walked only a few paces, when the thought that 
 
 P mio-ht be able to srive him some infor- 
 
 rnation of Edwin, glanced through his mind, and 
 he turned quickly and ran after him. 
 
 "Can you tell me where my son is at this 
 time ?" he asked, as he came alongside of 
 P . 
 
 I 
 
 " I cannot," was rephed. 
 
 " When did you see him last ?" 
 
 P thought for a moment, then said, 
 
 " Not for a week." 
 
 " Can you direct me to any place where I 
 would be likely to hear of him ?" 
 
 " Yes. I've seen him frequently at No. — , 
 Broadway. No doubt they can tell you some- 
 thmg about him there."
 
 A RETURN. 129 
 
 Mr. Franklin went to a house in the upper 
 part of Broadway, as directed. It was a large 
 and handsome residence. On ringing the bell, 
 a servant came to the door. Of him the father 
 inquired for Edwin, but the servant professed 
 entire ignorance of any such person, and Mr. 
 
 Frankhn went away, satisfied that young P 
 
 had purposely deceived him. He did not know 
 that this was a club house, into which his son 
 had been introduced, and where he had taken 
 lessons in vice — an apt scholar. 
 
 " Ah ! Mr. Franklin," said a voice by the 
 side of the wretched father, as, with his eyes 
 upon the ground, he was slowly passing down 
 Broadway. lie looked up sadly, and recognized 
 an old acquaintance. 
 
 " I hope you are all safe with Clark & Ash- 
 well," said this person, not waiting for any of 
 the compliments of the day, " for I understand 
 they were protested on Tuesday."" 
 
 "Protested!" 
 
 " Yes. And it is said the failure will be a 
 bad one. They have run down their business 
 terribly since it went into their hands. The 
 fact is, they were not St to carry it on. But, I 
 hope, as I said, that you are all safe with them." 
 
 " Very far from it. They still owe me twen- 
 ty thousand dollars."
 
 100 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 " I am soiTy to Iiear that, for I understand 
 they won't pay twenty cents," 
 
 " Good Heaven ! What can they have been 
 domg ?" 
 
 " Meddhng in stocks, instead of attending to 
 their legitimate business." 
 
 " Oh dear ! Madness ! Madness !" 
 
 "Most insane conduct,'' said the friend. 
 "With a proper attention to business they were 
 sure of a fortune. But, instead of keeping their 
 goods up to the right quahty, and their stock as 
 near the demand as possible, they killed their 
 business by a poor article, and, even of that, no 
 one was sure of getting enough for his regular 
 orders. I quit dealing with them six months 
 ago, and depend now for my supply on the 
 East. And I know several other houses that 
 have done the same. Every one in the trade 
 has regretted your retirement from business." 
 
 " Has a meeting of the creditors been called ?" 
 mquired LIr. Frankhn. 
 
 " I understand there is to be one to-morrow. 
 You will attend, of course." 
 
 " I presume so," 
 
 " Get back, if you can, the estabhshment they 
 have so shamefully mismanaged," said the ac- 
 quaintance, speaking earnestly, " and put life 
 into it again. Your ability and enterprise are
 
 A RETURN. 131 
 
 wanted in this branch of business, ^Mr. Frankhn. 
 We cannot spare you. We cannot afford to let 
 you retire from active service. If you will do 
 this, }'ou need not sigh for the loss ^pf twenty 
 thousand dolhirs." 
 
 Mr. Frankhn made no reply to this, although 
 he said to himself, mentally — 
 
 " If things go on as they are going at present, 
 I shall be driven back into business in order to 
 get bread for my family. I was, perhaps, a 
 fool ever to have left it." , 
 
 With a heavy heart did Mr. Franklin return 
 to his wife. 
 
 "Have you heard from Edwin?" eagerly 
 asked the latter, as he entered. 
 
 Mr. Franklin shook his head. 
 
 *' Not a word ?" 
 
 " Only that he has committed forgeries upon 
 me for ten thousand dollars," replied Mr. Frank- 
 Un, without reflecting upon what might be the 
 consequences of such an abrupt announcement. 
 
 Had a ball pierced the brain of the unhappy 
 mother, she could not have fallen more sudden- 
 ly. The conduct of Florence had seemed to 
 her more than she could bear. This intelligence, 
 so terrible in its character, and coming upon her 
 ■without even a shadow of warning, snapped the
 
 132 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 thread of endurance, and nature sought refuge 
 in total unconsciousness, from a worse evil. 
 
 On recovering from this state of bodily and 
 mental paralysis, Mrs. Franklin was so ill as to 
 require the ^d of a physician. Her mind par- 
 tiaBy wandered, and the whole physical system 
 was prostrated. To other causes of anxiety, 
 Mr. Franklin had now added the livehest fears 
 for his wife, who, as day after day went by, 
 seemed rather to sink under the pressure that 
 was upon her, than to gain strength to throw it 
 off. 
 
 In the mean time another letter came from 
 Florence, addressed particularly to her mother, 
 begging for a word to say that she was forgiven. 
 The whole tone of the letter showed that the 
 silence of her parents deeply distressed her, and 
 that, until she was restored to favor, she could 
 not have a moment's peace of mind. Mr. Frank- 
 hn had just turned from the bed of his wife, 
 after having, in vain, striven to fix her thoughts 
 rationally on some subject of minor importance, 
 when this letter was put into his hands. He read 
 it almost at a glance, and then tossed it from 
 him with a gesture of impatience. An hour 
 aftei-wards he read it again, but with different 
 feelings. What they were, may in part be
 
 A RETURN". 133 
 
 gathered from the brief answer he penned to 
 her earnest appeal. 
 
 " My Daughter : 
 
 " When your second letter came, your 
 mother was too ill either to read it or under- 
 stand it, if read by another. Your conduct, 
 and that of Edwin is killing her. If you wish 
 to see her ahve, come home. 
 
 " Your Father." 
 
 A more cruel epistle, under the chcumstan- 
 ces, could hardly have been written. But Mr. 
 Franklin's feelings were excited to their utmost 
 tension, and he was scarcely responsible for his 
 conduct. 
 
 It was a week from the day on which Flor- 
 ence deserted her parents, for the protection of 
 a man of whose real principles and character, 
 she knew nothing, when this first response 
 from home came. Le Grand, who was by her 
 side when she read it, was not prepared for the 
 wild burst of grief that followed its perusal. 
 He tried to soothe her, and spoke words of 
 encouragement. Florence answered these by 
 handing him the letter, and saying as she did 
 so — 
 
 " Take me back ! Oh ! take me back quickly !" 
 
 Le Grand was about as little prepared as his 
 young wife, for this. Here was a result upon 
 which neither had calculated. A brief estrange- 
 12
 
 134 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 ment, and tlien a reconciliation. This had been 
 the money hunter's confident anticipation. But 
 here was the promise of something different. 
 Should the mother's illness prove fatal, a portion 
 of family trouble, for which he had no taste, would 
 come with the fortune of his wife. In the old 
 gentleman's letter, there seemed to him a kind 
 of ferocity that argued no very gentle reception 
 of either him or his bride ; and he proposed 
 that Floi'ence should, on their arrival in New 
 York, rejoin her parents alone. To this she had 
 no objection to make. It was a matter, now, of 
 indifference to her, whether her husband were 
 with her in the naeetinfy, or not. She thouo^ht 
 only of her mother, whom she feared, from the 
 tenor of her father's letter, that she would not 
 find alive. 
 
 A change for the better, had taken place 
 during the period that elapsed from the time 
 Mr. Franklin's letter was despatched, until 
 Florence was enabled to reach New York. The 
 mother had just been reading, for the third 
 time, the last communication from her daughter, 
 and was weeping over it, when the door of her 
 chamber opened quickly, and Florence came 
 rushing in. 
 
 " Mother ! Mother !" she exclaimed, passion- 
 ately, as she flung herself forward upon the bed.
 
 A RETURX. 135 
 
 and hid her face upon her mother's bosom, 
 where, in spite of all efforts to control herself, 
 she lay weeping and sobbing, for many minutes. 
 Mr. Franklin entered, before either the mother 
 or daughter had recovered from their first.over- 
 mastering emotion. Florence, whose ear 
 detected, instantly, the step of her father, arose 
 from the bed, and turned to him with a timid, 
 deprecating look. 
 
 " Florence !" he said, but in a tone that caused 
 his daughter to start forward and throw herself, 
 with a fresh gush of tears into his arms. Thus 
 was the erring one forgiven ; and ere the day 
 had closed, her husband was received as a 
 member of the family, and with a much better 
 grace than even he had anticipated. He knew 
 not all the causes which had conspired to break 
 the will, and humble, suddenly, the pride of 
 Mr. Franklin. Had he known everything at 
 the time, he would have felt far less satisfied 
 than he did, at the result of his speculation.
 
 136 RETIRINa FKOM BUSINESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. . 
 
 A NEW ENTERPRISE. 
 
 Months elapsed, but there came not a word 
 of tidino-s from Edwin. The bills to which he 
 
 o 
 
 had forged his father's name, amounting to ten 
 thousand dollars, were lifted the same as if they 
 had presented a genuine signature. Few un- 
 derstood that a crime had been committed, and 
 a hea\'y loss sustained in order that it might be 
 concealed. 
 
 Clarke & Ashwell, the geijtlemen who had 
 purchased Mr. Frankhn's manufactory, had 
 been permitted by the creditors to continue in 
 business under an extension of two and three 
 years, they giving their notes without endorse- 
 ment, for fifty cents on the dollar, of the claims 
 held against them. This made a certain loss 
 to Mr. Franklin of ten thousand dollars more, 
 besides putting the ten thousand to be paid by 
 Clarke & Ashwell, in an exceedingly doubtful 
 position. 
 
 Early in the ensuing spring, the model farm 
 was sold for eighteen thousand dollars ; seven 
 thousand less than it had cost originally, to say
 
 A NEW ENTERPRISE. 137 
 
 nothing of what Mr. Franklin had expended in 
 improvements and experimental farming. This 
 latter outlay, had been nearly five thousand 
 dollars. Added to all this, came a loss of 
 twelve thousand dollars invested in the stock of 
 some railroad or steamboat company, the direc- 
 tors of which wasted the entire capital, without 
 eflfecting the objects for v/hich the company 
 had been chartered. 
 
 Thus, in his agricultural experiments, from 
 losses in the sale of his manufactory, and from 
 other causes just stated, one half of Mr. Frank- 
 lin's handsome fortune had been lost in a little 
 less than two years, while a third of what re- 
 mained, was in Pennsylvania stocks, upon which 
 the payment of interest was suspended until the 
 State could have time to replenish her exhausted 
 coffers. But a httle over thirty thousand dol- 
 lars of productive property remained, and the 
 income from this v^as not more than sufficient to 
 meet one half of his expenses. 
 
 What a change had two years wrought in 
 every thing that concerned the retired gentle- 
 man ! Property had passed from his hands so 
 suddenly and in so unexpected a way, that no 
 time for prudent anticipation of the result was 
 given. His children had gone astray — one of 
 them, he feared, hopelessly. The health of his 
 12*
 
 138 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 wife, under the painful affliction she had suffer- 
 ed, was sadly broken, and his head, in which 
 few lines of silver lay when, in the vigor of 
 manhood, he sought ease and retirement, was 
 -so marked with white, that every old acquaint- 
 ance whom he chanced to meet, observed it. 
 And the home — how sadly was that changed ! 
 Once, every evening was a pleasant re-union. 
 Now, the members sat silent when they met ; 
 or, with an oppressive sense of disquietude, 
 passed hours in the solitude of their own apart- 
 ments. 
 
 Florence remained in the family, now perma- 
 nently reHioved to the city. The true character 
 of her husband showed itself more and more 
 plainly from the first. He had married her 
 from the basest of motives, and had used gross 
 deception in order to obtain her hand. It was 
 not possible for him long to hide from the fami- 
 ly of his wife the real quality of his mind. He 
 was thoroughly unprincipled and selfish, and 
 this none could help seeing. Mr. Franklin only 
 tolerated him from a kind of necessity. Imme- 
 diately upon the fact of his having married 
 Florence becominor known, there were enousfh 
 to inform the father of his character, and thus 
 confirm all his worst suspicions. 
 
 Only a few months rolled away ere Florence
 
 A NEW ENTERPRISE. 139 
 
 had e^-idence, not to be mistaken, of the sad 
 truth, that her husband was not all he had pre- 
 tended to be — and evidence of a still sadder 
 truth, that he had never loved her with the deep 
 devotion so long and tenderly avowed. Cold- 
 ness and neglect followed quickly on his dis- 
 coveiino- that Mr. Franklin was not worth one 
 dollar where he had supposed him worth five ; 
 and that there was but little hope for him, even 
 in what he did possess. His eagerness to get 
 money through Florence, on one pretence and 
 another, in due time made it apparent to her 
 eyes that he had deceived her in regard to his 
 wealth ; and the fact that he talked no more 
 of his family in the South, and never received 
 letters from th-em, made it very doubtful to her 
 mind if he had any relatives there whatever. 
 
 Still Le Grand, for very shame, kept up a, 
 certain appearance in the family of Mr. Franklin- 
 He had been deceived ; or rather, he had de- 
 ceived himself. He had entered into a marri- 
 age speculation, certain of the highest success ; 
 but the speculation, considering the character 
 of his anticipations, had turned out a failure. 
 He was united for life to a young and silly girl, 
 with whom his mind found no companionship ; 
 and the connexion brought none of the external 
 advantages, without which it could not be any
 
 140 RETIRING FKOM BUSINESS. 
 
 thing but intolerable. In order to supply him- 
 self with the means of self indulgence, he found 
 it necessary to pm-sue still his old trade, and 
 this, with other causes, took him from home 
 frequently, and prolonged his absence, when 
 away, sometimes, for weeks. 
 
 To his absence, neither the father nor mother 
 of Florence had any objection, for his presence 
 to them grew every day more and more intolera- 
 ble. But Florence, even though she felt that 
 he did not love her truly, looked even with 
 anxious hope for his retura. 
 
 Le Grand had not yet made p^ny dii^ect apph- 
 cation to Mr. Franklin for money. During the 
 first few months, he had contented himself with 
 ascertaining, as nearly as possible, the precise 
 extent of his wealth, and calculatmg the chances 
 in favor of his obtaining a liberal supply of cash 
 for his own purposes. But after the lapse of 
 six or eight months, he thought it time to make 
 an effort to reap the advantages, if any were to 
 come from his marriage. The occasion of put- 
 ting this determination into practice, was one 
 calculated to modify very greatly the feelings 
 of Mr. Franklin. By some accident Le Grand, 
 while on a short professional tour at the Souths 
 discovered that Edwin was in Mobile. He im- 
 mediately sought him out, made loiow^n the
 
 A NEW ENTERPRISE. 141 
 
 relation which he bore to him, and used such 
 arguments and persuasions as finally induced 
 the young man, who was acting as a sort of 
 stool pigeon to a noted gambler, and who was 
 by this time, heartily sick of the life he was 
 leading, to return home. Immediately Le 
 Grand wrote to the father of Edwin, and mao^ni- 
 fied to the utmost extent the trouble he had 
 taken, at the same time that he pictured most 
 vividly, the condition in which he had found the 
 young man. 
 
 Naturally Mr. Frankhn was grateful, and 
 when Le Grand returned with his long wan- 
 dering but now repentant son, it is not 
 wonderful that there should be a considerable 
 change in his feelings. He looked upon Le 
 Grand as a benefactor ; and in this new light he 
 could see, or imagined he could see, higher and 
 more generous traits of character in the young 
 man, than he had before believed him to pos- 
 sess. 
 
 Le Grand was quick to perceive the impres- 
 sion he had made, and he understood very well 
 how to take advantage of it. No one, not even 
 the father, could be more watchful over the re- 
 pentant Edwin, who, having tasted some of the 
 bitter fruits of evil, was little inclined for a 
 second repast. He was home a great deal, and
 
 142 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 made all possible efforts to win good opinions 
 from every member of the family. After awhile 
 he began to talk about the necessity of Edwin's 
 beincr in some business. All ac^reed in this. 
 Then, at a fitting moment, he mentioned the 
 fact, that he had been for five years in an ex- 
 chanoje broker's office, and was thorouo'hlv ac- 
 quainted with the business. By well directed 
 approaches he got Mr. Franklin to feel an inte- 
 rest in the subject of money and stock ex- 
 changes ; and related numerous instances of 
 fortunes having been made in an almost incredi- 
 ble space of time. Finally, when he saw his 
 way clear, he suggested to Mr. Franklin the 
 propriety of putting him and Edwin in the busi- 
 ness. 
 
 The losses which Mr. Franklin had sustained, 
 produced two effects. It made his mind less 
 clear by disturbing it, and created a desire to 
 recover himself by some shorter way than he 
 had at first arisen to wealth. He was, there- 
 fore, prepared to listen to Le Grand's represen- 
 tations, and to ponder them seriousl3^ 
 
 " How much capital will it take ?" he at 
 last inquired of his son-in-law. 
 
 " Ten thousand dollai*s will be ample," was 
 the prompt answer. 
 
 ** Would twenty thousand double the profit
 
 A NEW ENTERPRISE. 143 
 
 of the business ?" further asked Mr. Frankhn 
 of his son-in-law. 
 
 " It would treble it," was answered as 
 promptly. 
 
 " You are certain of that ?" said Mr. Frank- 
 lin. 
 
 "We cannot be absolutely certain of anything. 
 But such is the relation between capital and 
 profit in this business. The heavier the capital, 
 the larger the productive ratio. But ten 
 thousand dollars is, perhaps, as large a cash 
 capital as it would be prudent to operate with 
 at first. As we grow familiar with the business 
 as it now stands, more might be brought in and 
 used as occasion offered. 
 
 Le Grand gained his object. Mr. Franklin 
 advanced the capital asked for to place Edwin 
 and his son-in-law in business, on condition that 
 he was to have a third interest for the use of his 
 capital, and to be an irresponsible and unavowed 
 partner in the concern.
 
 144 KETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE RESULT. 
 
 In due time, an office in Wall Street was 
 opened, and a sign exposed, bearing the words, 
 " Franklin & Le Grand, Bank Note, Stock, 
 AND Exchange Brokers." The business of the 
 new firm did not open with much activity. Le 
 Grand, for all his gi\ings out in regard to his early- 
 experience in the business, had a good deal more 
 to leaiTi than his associates imagined. But he had 
 a quick, shrewd mind ; and ha\4ng entered 
 upon the only game he ever expected to play 
 against his father-in-law, he did not mean to 
 lose it for want of the science requisite to play 
 it well. He, therefore, mingled freely with the 
 money changers of the street, and gathered up 
 knowledge at every point, even while he- at 
 times afi:ected to be imparting information. The 
 more he learned, the more satisfied did he be- 
 come that he w^as entering a field that promised 
 a richer harvest than he at first supposed. A 
 small capital, and the credit of his father-in-law, 
 put it into his power to control, in the end, large 
 sums of money, and to turn the golden current 
 at a fitting time, into his own hands.
 
 THE RESULT, 145 
 
 Two or three months passed before things 
 looked at all encouraging. By that time, how- 
 ever, Le Grand began to comprehend more 
 clearly the operation of cause and effect in the 
 money-world, and to understand the movements 
 of the wheels within wheels, and the under 
 cmTents hidden from all eyes but those initiated. 
 Then he began to play his cards, and with the 
 success that usually attends the sharp sighted 
 and unscrupulous among the class of men with 
 whom he had become associated. 
 
 Edwin, since his return ihome, had become 
 really changed. The wild speed with which, 
 be had run a course of folly, launched him sud- 
 denly into crime, and consequent shame and 
 wretchedness to one so young. The remem- 
 brance of all he had suffered vrhile away, re- 
 mained too xivid in his mind to leave much de- 
 sire to court old acquaintances, or to indulge in 
 old foUies. After the office was opened in 
 Wall Street, he was engaged there the greater 
 part of the day, and the new interest going into 
 business awakened, kept his mind from wander- 
 ing. Mr. Franklin was at the office almost 
 every day, and thus had Edwin under his own 
 eye for a large portion of the time. 
 
 As soon as the business, under the impetus 
 given to it by Le Grand the moment he iinder- 
 13
 
 146 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 stood how to make operations beyond mere 
 money exchanges and draft collections, began 
 to show encouraging results for the present and 
 to promise handsomely for the future, Edwin's 
 mind felt an increased interest. The love of 
 gain was excited, and this, being an end in his 
 mind, saved him, when old allurements presented 
 themselves, from falhng into temptation. There is 
 a power that sustains in good, and protects from 
 evil, in all useful employments, when pursued 
 with affection ; and so far as Edwin was con- 
 cerned, the business was useful. The scheming 
 and dishonest purpose, were all with Le Grand, 
 who adroitly concealed from Mr. Franklin and his 
 son the meditated wrong of any skilful operations. 
 
 Gradually Le Grand ventured into deeper 
 and deeper water, and leagued himself with 
 bolder spirits. His transactions became larger, 
 and the profits greatly increased. Mr. Frank- 
 lin, before a year had passed, became so dazzled 
 by the results of his son-in-law's money opera- 
 tions, that he not only ventm-ed nearly all he 
 was worth in the business, but gave the use of 
 his name to almost an equal amount. 
 
 Connexions were next formed with brokers in 
 Boston, Philadelphia, Charleston, New Orleans, 
 Cincinnati, and St. Louis, and every effort 
 made to obtain the confidence of the business
 
 THE RESULT. 147 
 
 community, in order to secure as large a share 
 as possible of the business of collecting drafts. 
 Long before this, Mr. Franklin was fairly off his 
 feet, and carried along the road to wealth with 
 a velocity that rather alarmed him at times. 
 But every day, Le Grand talked of their suc- 
 cess, and predicted so confidently for the future, 
 that he was forced to stifle all misgivings. His 
 ignorance of the busmess, and lack of the bold 
 and comprehensive spirit of Le Grand, gave 
 the latter the most unlimited control in every- 
 thing, and enabled him to direct affairs in any 
 channel that suited his purpose. 
 
 For two years Le Grand conducted the busi- 
 ness in this dashing way, and with a success 
 that even surprised himself. His connexion 
 with Franklin, who was believed to be worth 
 much more than he really was, had given him 
 the command of almost unlimited credit, and 
 upon this, as well as upon the real capital they 
 possessed, he finally proceeded to carry out the 
 purpose from which he had never wavered. 
 
 His first operation, in the last scene of the 
 drama he was playing, was to draw drafts upon 
 New Orleans, Charleston, Cincinnati, and St. 
 Louis, in sums of one, two, or three thousand 
 dollars each, and get them discounted. The 
 proceeds were tui-ned into gold immediately, and
 
 148 RETIRING FKOM BUSINESS. 
 
 shipped to Cuba, in a vessel on the eve of sail- 
 ing. In this way, he raised about sixty thou- 
 sand dollars, and got it out of the country. 
 Then he made sales of a large amount of stock, 
 in which they had invested fifty thousand 
 dollars, and converted the money into sight bills 
 on London, Paris, and Antwerp. The final ope- 
 ration was to borrow at various sources, forty 
 thousand dollars on the day previous to the 
 saihng of a Liverpool steamer from Boston, and 
 to give the checks of the firm dated four or five 
 days ahead, or due-bill memorandums, for the 
 amomit. All this was done within a week. Le 
 Grand then coolly announced his intention of 
 gomg to Boston, to see after some afi"airs there, 
 connected with the business which required per- 
 sonal attention. Not the slightest suspicion 
 was awakened, as the reason assigned for going 
 was a good one, and there were no preparations 
 made for a longer absence than two or three 
 days. 
 
 Pleasantly, as if he were to retmn in a week, 
 did Le Grand bid his yonng wife good bye, and 
 bend over playfully and kiss the babe that lay 
 asleep in her arms. Then, with his carpet bag 
 in his hand, as though he sought to attract 
 attention, he jumped into a cab and rode down 
 to the Boston boat.
 
 ALL LOST. 149 
 
 On the next day when the Atlantic steamer 
 sailed, he was on board, and safely off for 
 Europe. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 ALL LOST. 
 
 On the morning after Le Grand left, a broker 
 came into the office, and asked for him. Edwin 
 said that he had gone to Boston. 
 
 "Ah! I'm sorry for that," returned the 
 man, with a sUghtly disappointed air. But per- 
 haps you can do what I want just as well. Yes- 
 terday, I loaned Mr. Le Grand eight thousand 
 dollars, for three or four days. Unexpectedly, 
 I am drawn upon for fifteen thousand, at sight, 
 and shall be hard put to it to make up the sum 
 unless I can get you to return me the money, I 
 let you have yesterday. Do you think you can 
 do it ?" 
 
 *' Oh yes : I presume so," rephed Edwin, 
 
 promptly. And he referred to the cash 
 
 book, and found that the balance on deposit 
 
 'as ten thousand dollars. Without taking time 
 
 ^flection, he drew a check and handed it to 
 
 13*
 
 150 RETIRINa FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 the broker, who returned the memorandum 
 which Le Grand had given him. 
 
 Ten minutes afterwards, the broker reappear- 
 ed and said, in a way that rather amazed both 
 Edwin and his father, 
 
 " There's no money in bank." 
 
 " Who says so ?" inquired Edwin, in a quick 
 voice. 
 
 ^'TheteUer." 
 
 "Another of his blunders," remarked Mr. 
 Franklin, impatiently. 
 
 The check book was again referred to. The 
 balance stood then at ten thousand dollars. 
 
 *' Come over in a quarter of an hour, and I'll 
 have the money here for you," said Edwin. 
 " It's a mistake of the book-keeper, I presume." 
 
 The man retired, and Edwin went immediate- 
 ly over to the bank. 
 
 " You've made another mistake," he said to 
 the teller, a little fretfully. 
 
 " How so ?" was inquired. 
 
 *' Why, you refused our check for eight thou- 
 sand dollars, when Y»^e have a balance of ten 
 thousand on deposit." 
 
 The teller went to the book-keeper, who 
 turned to Franklin & Le Grand's account. As 
 it stood on the Deposit Ledger, there was an 
 over draft of five hundred dollars. 
 
 i
 
 ALL LOST. 151 
 
 " Impossible !" said Edwin, wlien tliis was 
 announced. " It's a mistake." 
 
 The book-keeper footed the two columns of 
 figures, and strack tbe balance once more. 
 The balance was the same. 
 
 " Will you send over your bank book and let 
 me balance it ?" said he to Ed\\an. " By that 
 means the error, wherever it is, will appear. 
 There is a check of ten thousand five hundred 
 dollars charged yesterday." 
 
 Edwin went back to the office, and again ex- 
 amined the check-book. No such check as 
 that mentioned by the book-keeper was noted 
 there. The balance of ten thousand dollars ap- 
 peared in Le Grand's figures. 
 
 This discovery produced on the mind of both 
 Mr. Franklin and his son, a sense of uneasiness. 
 Edwin went over to the bank and asked to see 
 the ten thousand dollar check. It was genuine, 
 and drawn by Le Grand. 
 
 Eight thousand dollars had been loaned and 
 over ten thousand dollars checked out of bank 
 on the eve of Le Grand's departure for Boston, 
 and no memorandum of either transaction could 
 be found. Mr. Franklin did not like the appear- 
 ance of this. Althoua^h Le Grand manao-ed 
 afiairs pretty much in his own way, a regular 
 system of entries had always been observed.
 
 152 RETIRINa FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 " Well ! Have you discovered the error ?" 
 said the broker, from whom the eight thousand 
 dollars had been borrowed, coming in soon after 
 Edwin returned from the bank. 
 
 " Not yet," rephed the young man, evasive- 
 
 The broker looked at him for a moment half 
 suspiciously, while the word 
 
 " Strange !" came in a low tone from his 
 lips. 
 
 " What is strange ?" asked Mr. Franklin, who 
 was standing beside the counter, compressing 
 his lips and looking steadily at the man, whose 
 manner fretted him. 
 
 " Strange that such a mistake should be 
 made !" rephed the man, with a smile. 
 
 "It is not the first time mistakes have occur- 
 red in that branch," said Edwin. " We shall 
 have our book settled up immediately, Avhenthe 
 error will appear. I am sorry that it has hap- 
 pened to-day, for it will prevent my returning 
 you the borrowed money. But this will not, I 
 hope, be of much inconvenience to you. To- 
 morrow Mr. Le Grand will be home." 
 
 Edwin spoke in a decided tone. The man 
 said he was sorry, lingered for a short time, and 
 then withdrew. 
 
 ** I don't hke the appearance of this," remark-
 
 ALL LOST. 153 
 
 ed Mr. Franklin, as soon as they were alone, and 
 his face, as well as the expression of his voice, 
 were serious. 
 
 " He could have no use for money in Boston," 
 said Edwin. 
 
 " None of which I can conceive." 
 
 As Mr. Frankhn said this, he stepped to the 
 fire-closet and took out the large pocket-book in 
 which bills and drafts were kept, and commenced 
 searching through it mth nervous haste. The 
 act seemed prompted by a sudden thought. 
 Twice he opened every pocket, and examined 
 every paper contained therein. When the 
 search was completed, he turned with a pale 
 face and a quivering lip to his son, and said in a 
 hoarse whisper, 
 
 " We are betrayed and ruined !" 
 
 " How ? Hovf ?" eagerly asked Ed^in. 
 
 " jSTot one of the notes for that large sale of 
 stock are here !" 
 
 " Impossible !" exclaimed Edwin, catching up 
 the pocket-book which had fallen from his 
 father's hands, and hastily examining its con- 
 tents. 
 
 " Gone as I live !" 
 
 "Perhaps they are in his desk. He may have 
 forgotten to put them in the fire proof," said 
 Mr. Frankhn, clutching at this hope.
 
 lo4 RETIRING- FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 Edwin went to Le Grand's private desk. It 
 was locked, as usual. Without hesitation the 
 young man forced it open. But the notes were 
 not there, nor could they be found in the office. 
 
 '•' Seventy thousand dollars in his possession 1" 
 said Mr. Franklin, " and heaven knows how 
 much more. All is lost. We are betrayed and 
 ruined ! ruined ! ruined !" 
 
 And the father unable to control himself 
 under the sudden shock of a discovery that ar- 
 gued such a sweeping disaster, stood trembhng 
 from head to foot. Edwin was calmer, although 
 he had the most oppressive fears. 
 
 " Let us not betray our alarm to others," said 
 he, seeing how" strongly his father exhibited 
 what he felt. He may return to-morrow, and 
 if so, he can explain all this, and none need be 
 the wiser of it." 
 
 " Explain ! Return ! Edwin ! I tell you all is 
 lost ;" rephed Mr. Franklin, exhibiting terrible 
 agitation. " The English steamer sails to-day 
 at noon, and he goes in her. Oh ! that I should 
 have been so weak — so ruined ! " And he 
 sti-uck his hand against his forehead, like one 
 half beside himself. 
 
 Just at this moment, the broker before men- 
 tioned, whose suspicions, from some cause, had
 
 ALL LOST. 155 
 
 become excited, re-entered the office, and heard 
 Mr. Franklin's closing remark. 
 
 "Without doubt," said he, ''youi' suspicions 
 are correct, for I have just learned that during 
 the last few days he has been a heavy pur- 
 chaser of London and Paris bills of exchange." 
 
 " London and Paris Exchange !" responded 
 Edwin. 
 
 " Yes, sir. Have you had any use for such 
 funds in your regular transactions ?" 
 
 Both the father and son were too much con- 
 founded by this intelhgence to be able to as- 
 sume even a prudent reserve. Edwin acknow- 
 ledged that he was entirely ignorant of the 
 foregoing exchange purchase. 
 
 This was enough for the broker. He retired, 
 and in half an hour it was in every one's mouth 
 in Wall Street, that Le Grand had gone off in 
 the steamer, a defaulter to a very serious 
 amount. The moment this became current, 
 there were dozens to press forward and give in- 
 telhgence of transactions had with him during 
 the preceding four days, which completely ex- 
 tinguished every hngering hope in the mind of 
 Mr. Frankhn and his son. They were, indeed, 
 betrayed and ruined. 
 
 The shock of this disaster was too severe for 
 Mr. Frankhn. The fortune for which he had
 
 156 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 toiled so many years, and upon whicli he had 
 fondly hoped to spend happily, in ease and re- 
 tirement, the remaining days of his hfe, was 
 swept away as a leaf before the blast. It was 
 hopelessly gone ; and now, with age steahng 
 on him, and all the ardent hopes of early man- 
 hood extinguished, he found himself penni- 
 less. He could not bear up under the pres- 
 sure of this calamity ; and there was a time 
 when, in the deep melancholy that succeeded, 
 his family became sincerely alarmed for his 
 reason. 
 
 Edwin was left, unsustained, to meet the 
 shock which followed the certain intelhgence 
 that Le Grand had left the country with his 
 booty. A position so new and trying for one so 
 young, and we might add, for one so weak, 
 developed a strength of character that no one 
 supposed him to possess. Two years of earnest 
 attention to business, had not been lost on him. 
 He was able in the settlement of affairs to pre- 
 sent clear statements, and to show the precise 
 nature and extent of his partner's defalcations, 
 to the satisfaction of all parties. Every one 
 felt commiseration both for himself and his 
 father, and after Edwin had resigned everything 
 in the shape of property in his possession, he 
 urged the creditors to give him a release from
 
 ALL LOST. 157 
 
 tlie heavy balance that remained. 'Nono ob- 
 jected to this, as it was deemed utterly useless 
 to hold a young man like him. 
 
 In order to give every facihty to the business, 
 Mr. Franklin had converted his entire j'roperty, 
 with the e:^eption of the dwelhng he occupied, 
 into cash, and placed at the disposal of the 
 specious villain who was bent on his ruin. 
 He also endorsed the notes of Franklin and Le 
 Grand to a large amoimt. When the crash 
 came, at least thirty thousand dollars of paper 
 was bearing his name. The holders of this 
 seized his dwelling, which was sold for twelve 
 thousand dollars, and he was forced to retire, 
 with his unhappy family, into obscurity, with 
 no visible means of obtaining for them even 
 the absolute necessaries of life. Through the 
 efforts of Edwin, whose mind seemed to grow 
 clearer and more energetic, a release was obtained 
 for his father, after this remnant of his property 
 had been given up. Even the most selfish 
 pitied him, and cancelled the hopeless claims 
 they held against him. 
 
 U
 
 158 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIIl. 
 
 INTO BUSINESS, AND AGAIN USEFUL AND HAPPT. 
 
 Less than five years had elaps^, since Mr. 
 Franklin retired from business, possessing a 
 fortune of over a hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 He was now a poor man, and what was worse, 
 utterly spiritless and despondent. The moment 
 he understood that he was totally ruined in 
 fortune, his hands fell, listlessly, by his side, and 
 there they continued to hang. 
 
 Poor Florence ! With the rest of the family, 
 there had come to her a restoration of confi- 
 dence in Le Grand. He had changed much 
 since business proved successful ; and as her 
 mind matured into womanly strength, it fixed 
 itself with a deeper affection upon him, as her 
 husband. The birth of a child, threw a new 
 and stronger chord around her heart, and bound 
 her to the father of her babe with a purer love 
 than she had ever known. 
 
 And the mother of Florence. She, too, had 
 felt the reviving sunshine. A happier prospect 
 for the children, who had strayed from the right 
 way, was opening. The clouds which had 
 threatened to break in desolation upon their
 
 INTO BUSINESS AGAIN. / 
 
 heads, had passed over, and a boon of promise 
 was in the sky. 
 
 Upon all this love, and hope, and fond antici- 
 pation for the future, came a blasting shock. 
 
 On Florence, who had gro^vn older, and could 
 realize, in its fullest extent, the calamity that 
 had fallen upon them, its effects were of the 
 saddest kind. For a short period, her reason 
 yielded beneath the pressure of grief ; and when 
 her mind grew clearer again, she sunk into a 
 melancholy state, from which no eflforts could 
 for a time arouse her. The mother, too, gave 
 way for a while to despondent feehngs ; but the 
 conduct of Edmn soon brought back her mind 
 to a healthier state, and she nerved herself for 
 the new duties that new circumstances had 
 brought. 
 
 The spectacle that his father presented, after 
 the full extent of the wrong they had suffered 
 from Le Grand was known, touched the heart 
 of Edwin, and filled him with a desire to sustain 
 the family, if possible, by his own unaided 
 efforts. He comprehended to some extent, the 
 terrible disappointment he had suffered in the 
 loss of his property ; and the sight of his 
 drooping form, and fixed, almost passionless 
 face — as if all hope in the world were gone 
 from his heart, afi"ected him deeply.
 
 160 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 After the affiiirs of the late business were 
 settled, one of the creditors, who had observed 
 the young man closely during the progress of 
 the trying scenes through which he was obliged 
 to pass, saw that he possessed not only a good 
 knowledge of money, but was quick and intelli- 
 gent. Being in 'want of just such a person, he 
 offered him a situation in his office at a salary 
 of eight hundred dollars, which Edwin gladly 
 accepted. 
 
 The humbled and spiritless family had retired 
 from their elegant home, into a part of a small 
 house, where it might almost be said, as liter- 
 ally true, they shrunk together in silence and 
 tears. Their only income was Edwin's salary, 
 and this the young man faithfully devoted to 
 their support. To tlie heart of the mother, 
 such a change in her son from what h%had 
 been two years' before, was hke dew to the 
 parched ground, and it strengthened her to bear 
 the many burdens now laid upon her. 
 
 " If tliis were needed to save him," she said 
 to herself, while reflecting on the subject, " then 
 I welcome the reverse as a blessing." 
 
 Such being her feelings, Mrs. Franklin was 
 not long in rising into something hke a cheerful 
 state of mind, though all around her was so 
 sadly changed.
 
 INTO BUSINESS AGAIN. 161 
 
 Six or eight monllis elapsed, before the pros- 
 trate mind of Mr. Franklin began to rally. 
 The burden of supporting the whole family 
 was upon Edwin, and one day when the mother 
 alluded to this fact, Mr. Frankhn said, 
 
 " He is a good boy. But it is'nt right to let 
 all rest upon his shoulders. I can yet do some- 
 thing. My mind is still clear and my health 
 unbroken ; I ought not to be idle. 'No man 
 can be happy in idleness. Oh ! If I had com- 
 prehended this five years ago." 
 
 There was an instant glow in the heart of Mrs. 
 Franklin. Her husband was coming back into 
 a more healthy state, and she felt that all might 
 yet be well with them. 
 
 " If all were to do something, his burden 
 would be lighter," returned Mrs. Franklin. *' One 
 should not be made to sustain the whole." 
 
 Mr.. Franklin said nothing in answer to tliis ; 
 but his thoughts took a new direction. 
 
 A few days afterwards, an old business ac- 
 quaintance met him on the street. Mr. Frank- 
 lin was about passing on, but the man stopped 
 him. 
 
 " What are yeu doing now ?" was almost the 
 first inquiry. 
 
 ** Nothing," rephed Mr. Frankhn. 
 
 ** Nothing !" said the old acquaintance, in a 
 14*
 
 162 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 tone of surprise. " A man who lias nothing to 
 do, cannot be happy." 
 
 " I am not happy," Tvas rephed with more 
 feehng than Mr. Franklin intended to exhibit. 
 
 " You were one of Clarke & Ash well's credi- 
 tors ?" 
 
 " Yes. But they won't pay anything. I 
 joined in the extension and reduction granted 
 them ; but even the first payments under this 
 arrangement, have not been made." 
 
 " Do you still hold their paper ?'* 
 
 " Oh yes. But it is not worth a copper." 
 
 *' I am not so certain of that. I saw Clarke 
 only this morning, and he spoke of you." 
 
 " Of me ? What had he to say of me ?" 
 
 " Why, for one thing, that it was a great 
 pity you, who understood the business so well, 
 and was conducting it so successfully, should 
 ever have given it up." 
 
 " We agree in that view," replied Mr. Frank- 
 lin. " It was the gi-eatest folly I ever commit- 
 ted ; and severely have I been punished there- 
 for.''' 
 
 " He said, moreover, that he and his partner 
 had determined to abandon it; and are now 
 preparing to call another meeting of creditors, 
 in order to resign everything into their hands/' 
 
 ^^Ah?"
 
 INTO BUSINESS AGAIN. 103 
 
 " Yes. And lie said, further, that if you had 
 not parted with your claim against the firm, it 
 was, in his opinion, the best thing the creditors 
 could do to place the whole establishment in 
 your hands, at a fair valuation, and let your 
 claim of ten thousand dollars go cent per cent 
 in part payment ; and I as one of the creditors, 
 fully approve the suggestion. You can restore 
 the business, because you understand it ; and, 
 besides saving your debt of ten thousand dol- 
 lars, pay the other claimants a great deal more 
 than they would otherwise receive." 
 
 A proposition so unexpected, bewildered the 
 mind of Mr. Franklin, v>^hen first made. 
 
 " Are you agreed to such an arrangement ?" 
 said the man. 
 
 " It would be strange if I were not," replied 
 Mr. Franklin. *' But you will not find the other 
 creditors as ready as you to make it." 
 
 " It vfould be strange if they were not," was 
 answered with a smile. " But leave that to me. 
 Just say that you are willing to take hold of the 
 business again upon the best terms that can be 
 made for you, and I vfill push through an ar- 
 rangement that will be satisfactory to all par- 
 ties." 
 
 " You can depend upon me," said Mr. Frank- 
 lin, with a brightening face. " Give me back
 
 164 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 my old establishment, and I will be a happy- 
 man again." 
 
 " And a useful man. Yery well. In a week 
 or two, I hope to see you at work again, and in 
 a fair way of retrie\'ing yom- fallen fortunes." 
 
 " That I have no expectation of doing. A 
 man who, at my age, loses his property, rarely 
 recovers it again. But it will give me the abili- 
 ty to make my family comfortable. Beyond 
 that, ray desires at present, do not go very far." 
 
 Almost like a dream passed the events of the 
 next two or three weeks. The creditors of 
 Clarke & Ash well met, and without a dissenting 
 roice, agreed to the proposition made in regard 
 to Mr. Frankhn. The estabhshment Avas valued 
 at a certain price, and sold to its form.er owner 
 on easy terms, the claim he still had being ad- 
 mitted in part payment. 
 
 How chansred, soon, became everv thine: about 
 Mr. Franklin and his family. Once more en- 
 gaged in a useful employment, the countenance 
 of the former lost in a short time, its drooping, 
 troubled aspect. The returns of his labor were 
 not, at first, very great, for the whole business 
 had been sadly run down, and all the machinery 
 and appliances of the estabhshment were in dis- 
 oixler. Many expenses not anticipated, had to 
 be incurred, which took all the profits that were
 
 INTO BUSINESS AGAIN. 165 
 
 for some time made. But the mind of Mr. 
 Franklin v^as so much interested in what he was 
 doing, and he saw so clearly a prosperous re- 
 sult of his labor, that these draw-backs brought 
 no discouragement. 
 
 At the end of a year, he was able to pay the 
 first instalment of purchase money, as agreed 
 upon, and to remove his family into a more 
 comfortable home. Before the end of another 
 year, the second payment was anticipated, and 
 the business had so grown upon his hands, that 
 he found the service of a clerk necessary, and 
 took his son James, now in his eighteenth 
 year, into the estabhshment. Edwin had given 
 so much satisfaction to his employer, that about 
 the same time he was offered an interest in the 
 business. Under the advice of his father, the 
 offer was accepted. 
 
 Slowly but steadily, the family, through useful 
 industry, rose again into the enjoyment of all 
 the true comforts that w^ealth can bring. Time 
 gradually brought back to Florence that peace 
 of mind to which she had long remained a 
 stranger. As her mind grew calm and clear 
 once more, she was able to extinguish the regard 
 she had once felt for a man whose base heart 
 possessed no quality that a woman could love. 
 Towards her child, a beautiful bov, she turned
 
 166 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 the whole current of her affections, and love 
 here met an adequate return. Le Grand never 
 came back to trouble her. 
 
 Mr. Franklin is still pursuing -^-ith ardor and 
 success his business, which is rapidly growing 
 under his hands. He is once more a useful and 
 happy man ; and while strength of mind and 
 body are given, will never think of retuing. A 
 remembrance of the unhappy period in which 
 he sought rest from labor will ever remain too 
 vivid in his recollection to leave him in danger 
 of again committing that folly.
 
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 " The fifth edition of this work is before ns. Mr. Headley is a brll- 
 iiant writer, and sustains his high reputation in the graphic biographie» 
 j»f tb« < Gr«at Captain ' and his iiluatrioits M.irfitiau. It is almost tov
 
 late for ns to saj' a word in commendation of these volumes ; we only say 
 that if yefc unread by any who desire a liberal view of the character aiid 
 conrse of Napoleon, there is a delightful entertainment before them ot 
 which they should partake as soon as possible. They are amongst the 
 most interesting volumes we have ever read." — N. J. Journal. 
 
 "This work has placed Mr. Headley in a high rank as a strong and 
 clear writer, and a sound thinker. His accounts of IS'apuleou and hia 
 Officers setui to us to be the most faithful ever yet written ; and his 
 descriptions of various battles and exciting events are "remarkably 
 graphic, glowing and picturesque. Mr. Headley is a talented man ; and 
 •we place implicit confidence in his opinion, at the same time that we 
 admire his style." — Cincinnati Chronde. 
 
 " Indeed the work is one of remarkable power, and will add much to 
 the already well earned reputation of the author. It is written in a 
 brilliant and animated style; and the reader ceases to be a critic in ad- 
 miration of the splendid achievements of Napoleon and his 3Iarshals — 
 go graphically and vividly portrayed, that each sentence seems a picture; 
 and the whole book but a magnificent panorama of the battle-fields of 
 Marengo, Austerlitz, Waterloo, etc. 
 
 "No author, observes a contemporary, has a quicker appreciation of 
 the prominent points in the character he is describing, or a happiex 
 faculty of setting them before his readers than Mr. Headley. His 
 sketch of Napoleon, we will venture to say, gives a better defined and 
 truer idea of 'the Man of Destiny.' than any biography in the li^nguage. 
 It relieves Napoleon from the misrepresentations of English writers, 
 and shows that for the long and bloody wars in which he was engaged, 
 E jgland was directly responsible." — Cincinnati Alius. 
 
 " We commend this work to our readers as one of unusual interest, 
 written with force rather than elegance — with honest warmth, rather 
 than cold discrimination. The pictures which it contains are drawn 
 with masculine and startling vigor, aud although pretending to bt de- 
 scriptive of individuals, are connected with vivid accounts of theglorioufl 
 campaigns in which they were the actors." — Pennsylvanian. 
 
 " The abi ity and graphic power which Mr. Headley has evinced in 
 these delineations, will not only not be questioned, but place him in the 
 first rank of descriptive writers. Whether the same deference will be 
 paid to the soundness of his reasoning, or the justuf-ss of his views, is 
 doubtful. His ardent love of freedom, and his generous appreeiatiou of, 
 and sympathy with, whatever is noble in character or action, give a 
 ehann to these volumes and invest them with a good mora) influence 
 The reader will not only find interest and excitement, and considerable 
 additions to the minuteness and accuracy of his historical knowledge, 
 but many of the most elevated sentiments, in the perusal of the work. 
 It is finely executed, and embellished with spirited etchings on steel."— 
 N. Y. Evangelist. 
 
 " We speak of these volumes with great pleasure, because we have not 
 of late met with a work so instructive, which has been so entertaining. — 
 The sketches are but sketches, but with the skilful hand of a painter, 
 the author has presented the most prominent traits in the character of 
 each of his subjects so forcibly, that the man stands boldly forth on the 
 page, and you seem almost to be the companion &f the galhint heroes who 
 Burrounded the ' Man of Destiny.' 
 
 " We cannot undertake to condense these sketches, or extract portions 
 for our columns They should be read, and wherever they are known 
 they will be read. As we have turned the last leaf upon each of the 
 Marshals, we have thought each picture more vivid and beantiful than 
 the last, and we closed the volumes with regret, that the pleasures w« 
 liad enjoyed, could not ag%in return with their original freshness.
 
 " If yon love vivid pictures liy a mastnr hand, it jon would feel tha 
 blood curdle in your veins as you read of maddening charge, and terrible 
 assault; i;eek these volumes, peruse them carefull3', and you will Lr-t 
 close them without musing in iilent admiration of the mighty genius 
 whose pomp and power blazed like a meteor on the world, and sunk in the 
 battle of Waterloo." — Providence Transcript. 
 
 " The book is splendidly written. A seeming effort at fine writing has 
 been considered, by many, a fault of I\ir. Headley's style. We think 
 8uch do not take sufficiently into consideration the subjects upon which 
 he writes. That style of writing is always the best, that enables the 
 reader to see most clearly what passes in the mind of the writer, which 
 Berve' to transfer to the mental canvass of the reader, tne exact ima^e 
 of the picture upon the writer's mind. If this is any test of good wri- 
 ting, no one who read? the work before us. will for a moment doubt that 
 it is well written. Aside from the sketch of the character of Napoleon, 
 the work is made up of comparative short sketches of Napoleon's Mar- 
 shals. Of course, a great p;irt of it must, of necessity, be a description 
 of the movements of armies, either in the bloody splendors of the field 
 of death, or in marches/rofft 07ie sudi field to intotlter. His lano^uage in 
 thes^ "descriptions is always graphic, frequently brilliant and dazzling, 
 and sometimes even gorgeous, but perhaps none too much so to impress 
 with vividness upon the mind of the reader, the scenes he describes. 
 What other language could be properly used, in picturing the history. 
 of Napoleon and Ids Marshals ? But the realit;/ of the scenes described, 
 will not only be vividly impressed upon the mind oi" the reader, but it 
 will be written there with a pen of injn—t/ieij cannot be forgotten.'^ — 
 £lt/ria Courier. 
 
 " The characterof Napoleon is not understood, nor his virtnes acknow 
 ledged. from the fact that his name has been presented in almost every 
 Jamily and school to illustrate the ill effects of ambition. The enemies 
 of this great man have invariably misrepresented him, and the pages of 
 English hi.story have abounded with so many denunciations of his career 
 that the youth of o>ir country could not avoid receiving erroneous im- 
 pressions in regard to his achievements, the motives which impelled him 
 to action, and tlie exigencies into which he was placed. 
 
 " Mr. Headley has wisely studied the character of Bonaparte, the spirit 
 of the times in which he lived, and the great destiny to be wrought out, 
 by the thrilling incidents of his life, and has illustrated each by a faitb- 
 ful biography of the Marshals who were participators in these niemorable 
 scenes. — We are fully impressed with the correctness of the positions as- 
 sumed, and join with all who have read these volumes in expressing our 
 admiration of the graphic and entertaining st3ie in which the author has 
 presented his opinions, and described events of the most interesting 
 character. 
 
 " No Library can be considered complete without a copy of Napoleon 
 and his Maxshals.'^— Teachers Advocate, Syracuse. 
 
 " Mr. Headley is truly eloiinent in his description of character. He 
 presents to you the strong points of the man with a clearness that 
 eeeme to place him before yon as an old acquaintance. But hf. excels 
 most in his description of the battle-field, and it is this that has subjected 
 the Reverend gentleman to much criticism. T.ut could he otherwise 
 give you a proper idea of the characters of which he writes? To kuow 
 McDonald v;e must see him as he stands at the head of his columns at 
 Wagram. To Know Davcust, go with him to the field of Auerstadt. and 
 follow him amid the horrors of the retreat from Russia. It was amid 
 blood and carnage that these men lived, and it is only oy seeing them 
 there that we can get a correct idea of their character 
 
 •• We like Mr. He.'>.diey's book, for it gives us portraits of great me»
 
 We may read them, and imitate that which is good and reject that vrhick 
 ig not worthy of imitation." — Clevelartd Herald. 
 
 "]Mr. Headley has led us away captive by his descriptions of these 
 brave men. It, is almost the best written book that ever came into onr 
 hands, and must stamp its author as one of the best ^rrite^s oi' our 
 country.'' — Madison Advocate, Wisconsin. 
 
 •' A more interesting book cannot be found in the language, than 
 * Napoleon and his Marshals." An .American history of Bonaparte— of 
 the mighty spirits he gathered around him— and of the wars he carried 
 on, cannot fail of enlisting the attention of the American reader." — 
 La Payette Courier, Indiana. 
 
 '• The author has treated his splendid subject most felicitously, hi» 
 eloquent pages shed new lustre upon the reputation of the ' child of 
 destiny ' and his brave lieutenants, while his estimates of character will 
 be cordially approved by the masses everywhere. He has won a high 
 place among American writers, and we trust he will not be content to 
 rest upon his laurels." — Detroit Free Press. 
 
 '■' Mr. Headley has great descriptive talent, as this work thoroughly at- 
 tests. The characters of the Great Captain and his aids are drawn by 
 just enough strokes of the pen, with great cleaness and vigor. In a 
 gallery of miliUiry portraits there must be a similarity which wiU seem 
 like sameness in the narratives, as even the Iliad will attest, and this 
 work does not escape it ; but we know no living man who could have 
 done better. We doubt that either Thiers or Alison could have given 
 better sketches of these heroes in like space."— A'eu* York Tribune. 
 
 " I\Ir. Headley may be emphatically termed a brilliant writer. His 
 description of the fierce and romantic fights of the lieutenants of Na- 
 poleon knows no bounds. We take in through the eye the scenes of 
 conflict themselves. We see the charge of Macdouald at Wagram, of 
 Davoust at Auerstadt, and Lannes at Aspern. We behold, as it were, 
 the death of Desaix in the moment of victory, Augereau on the heights 
 of Castiglione, and SouU on the hills of Pratzen. The only thing we 
 find fault with Mr. Headley for, is the over-brilliancy of hisdescriptiona; 
 they are sometimes too dazzling. Yet with the majority of readers this 
 Will be no fault, but rather an attraction. He is an ardent admirer of 
 Napoleon, worshipping him with almost a poetical fervor, and had he 
 been a follower of the 'great soldier' in the days of his glory, he would 
 have loved him with adoration. Mr. Headley has evidently studied Nar 
 poleon's chief soldiers, and like Livy, the Roman historian, he takes the 
 privilege of putting words into the mouths of the men whose deeds he 
 records, in most cases on the field of battle. We do not find fault with 
 this, on the contrary, but few historians know how to do the thing so 
 •weD, and yet preserve the probability." — The Island City. 
 
 " Napoleon has been the theme of the ablest pens of both continents, 
 for more than a quarter of a century, but this is the first work that has 
 met our observation, ifi which, if we may so speak, Napoleon has been 
 thoroughly Americanized. Mr. Headley has written the work with true 
 American feelings and principles. He gives Napoleon his true position, 
 aa fighting the great battle of the People against Legitimacj\ 
 
 We recommend these volumes, especially to all who have youth under 
 their charge. It will do more than any work with which we are acquainted, 
 to incite a love for historical investigation; while it will furnish them 
 with a key to a proper understanding of European history^ /or tflS 
 nineteenth century. '—Onondaga Democrat, Syracuse.
 
 HEADLEY'S SACRED MOUNTAINS. 
 
 The Sacred Mountains by J. T. Headley, author of Napo- 
 leon and Hjs JNlarshals, &c. 1 Vol. 8vo. ; illustrated 
 with 11 elegant steel engravings of the Mountains of the 
 Holy Land by Burt, and 13 beautiful designs by Lossing. 
 
 "The work consists of a description of the sereral mountains men- 
 tioned in Scripture, and of the wonderful scenes that have been exhibited 
 npon them. Ararat, Moria, Sinai, Hor, Pistrah, Horeb, Cannel. Leba- 
 non, Zion, Tabor, Olivet. Calvary, and the Mount of God are made s *c- 
 eessively to rise up before the eye of the mind, iuvestef^ ^^ith all. that su- 
 perlative interest which they gather from having bee „ce theatre of the 
 most wonderful exhibitions of divine power, wisdoL and goodness. 
 
 " As we have gone through the work, we confer jhat we have felt that 
 the author's power of imagination was well r gU unparalled. Here he 
 moves in the fury of the tempest, and there upon the breathing zephyr; 
 here he paints terror and blood till one's own blood actually curdles, and 
 there illumines his page with some beautiful picture which put in requi- 
 sition all the brightest hues of the rainbow. The book, so far as we 
 know, is entirely unique in its character. It addresses itself to the best 
 feelings of the Christian's heart, chiefly through the medium of the im- 
 magination. Thousands will read it with delight, and will ever after- 
 wards contemplate the scenes which it describes with an interest which 
 they never felt before.-' — Albany Herald. 
 
 " Those who have read Napoleon and his Marshals, wiU find here a 
 ■book marked by the same impetuous, glowing styie, but on subjects 
 more agreeable to a religious taste, we are much gratified ourselves to 
 po.«;ses3 the volume, and we commend it to our readers as a charm- 
 ing gift-book, and a useful companion for quiet hours." — New York 
 Recorder. 
 
 "' The Sacred Mountains^ is the title of a very eleount volume just 
 publishad by Baker and Scribner. It is written by J. T. Hradley, 
 ■whose various volumes, though recently published, have made him one 
 of the most popular living writers in the country. It contains descrip- 
 tive and historical sketches of ail the mountains rendered memorable by 
 having been made the scenes of gre;it events recorded in Scripture. Its 
 design, as the author says, is • to render more familiar and iife-like 
 6ome of the scenes of the Bible.' The sketches are written in the same 
 vigorous and brilliant style which has mainly given to Headley's 
 volumes thtir wide popularity, aud present more impressive and attrac- 
 tive views of these scenes and the events connected with them, than we 
 have ever seen elsewhere. They will be eagerly read by all classes of 
 persons." — N. Y. Courier and JEnquirer. 
 
 " The subject, ' The Sacred Mountains,' is in itself a grand and sublime 
 theme ; and the brilliant and distiT^guished abilities of the author, render 
 the work one of rarest merit. HcHdly writes as no other man ever has 
 written. His style is peculiar; his own, and inimitable. He employs 
 his pen only on subjects of the loftiest gi-andeur and sublimity ; and his 
 powers of description are such, that he awakens and carries with him 
 every .sentiment, passion, and feeling of his reader. 
 
 "Whoever has read 'Napoleon and his Marshals,' can never forget 
 'M'Doneld's charge at Wagram,' or ' Ney's charge at Waterloo.' so life- 
 like and vivid are his descriptions of these terrible battles. But Headley 
 In his description of the Sacred Mountains of Scripture where God in aw- 
 ful majesty displayed himself to man, has more than sustained his repu- 
 tation as the most el'Xjuent and subiime writer of his 9.gQ.^^— Cleveland 
 flain Dealer.
 
 " The Sacred Slcuntains, those places consecrated to every Christia» 
 fteart by occurrences of the most solemn interest, afford most appropriate 
 subjects fur Mr. Headley's vivid powers. He see? them as they appear- 
 ed when they were hallowed by the presence of the [irophets and the 
 apostles of old. His feelings are devout, and he is not only a pilgrim 
 visiting sacred spots, but a (christian whose heart keenly appreciates 
 every event which clothed them with interest in long past centuries. 
 The mechanical execution of the book is in keeping with its subjects 
 and the power exhibited by the author in portraying them." — Loui&vilie 
 Journal. 
 
 " This is indeed a beautiful book. It is, we should judge, one of the 
 gifted author .• "lappiest efforts, as it certainly is one of the most novel. 
 Must literary gc *-iemen ransack old tales and old ballads for themes 
 and suggestions ic their literary efforts ; but Mr. H. has gime to the 
 Scrip'ures, and has g -"^n us a series of iaaed pictures. The author ie 
 an artist. With brush n hand, he goes from scene to scene, and deline- 
 ates with a truthful touch, many of the most thrilling incidents of Scrip- 
 ture history. 
 
 '• The beauty and power of Mr. Headley's writing is in its remarkable 
 vivacity. Evey page is alive with interest. He makes every scene, aa 
 many do not who handle sacred things, one of present reality." — NoT' 
 wick Courier. 
 
 Mr. Headley is well known as one of the most brilliant of our writert, 
 and this volume will amply sustain and extend his reputation. His de* 
 Bcriptions of the "Sacred Mountains" are very graphic and beautiful, 
 condensing within brief compass a great deal of information, conveyed 
 through the medium of a highly ornate, polished and vigorous style. It 
 will be welcome in every family where the Bible is read and studied. 
 The illustrations are finished engravings of ,\iount Ararat, Moria. Sinai, 
 Ilor, Pisgah, Carniel, Lebanon, Zion, Tabor, and the Mount of Olives, ex- 
 ecuted by Burt, fi-om paintings by Turner, Calcot, Harding, Bartlett 
 and others." — Protestant C'hurchnian. 
 
 " This work is alike worthy of public favor, whether we consider the 
 subject to which it relates or the manner in wliich it is executed. The 
 subject is novel and striking, connecting itself v,'ith the Christian's most 
 sublime and hallowed associations. The cicecution is altogether admi- 
 rable — every page bears the impress of a most lotty and powerful insma- 
 gination. a highly cultivated taste and spirit of deep and earnest devo- 
 tion. The author conducts his readers, as by an angel's hand, thi'ough 
 the most awful and glorious scenes which the world has ever witnessed ; 
 and so strong is the light in which everything is presented, that one 
 seenis to be in communion with the actual reality, r; ther than contem- 
 phue the mere description. It is altogether a most extraordinary book, 
 and we "enture to predict that it will not only travel far but live long." 
 — Albany Herald. 
 
 " A pleasanter, more profitable, more graceful and beautiful gift-book 
 than this, it will be hard to find, among all the productions of the season. 
 The sacred sketches it contains are written in Mr. Headley's well-known 
 glowing and energetic style, with pictures of scenery, and accompanying 
 thoughts and feelings, through which many a reader has followed the 
 author with deep interest. Ararat, Moriah, Sinai, Hor, Pisgah, Horeb, 
 Carmel, Lebanon, Zion, Tabor, I\Iount of Olives, JMount Calvary, the 
 Mount of God ! \Vhafc thoughts and associations of gacred solemnitj 
 »nd grandeur
 
 ** Mr. Headley's characteristics as a writer are so well knowa and 
 Sivorably appreciated, that we need not bespeak public attention to 
 anything from his pen. There is about the present volume, howerer, 
 an unusual charm, a peculiar attractiveness, especially to the serious, 
 meditative reader, which wil- seeui-e for it ample audience and lasting 
 popularity. The moral tune is elevated and sustained throughout, the 
 coloring vivid and life-like, and the entire impression upon the reader's 
 heart, not unlike what would be produced by an actual pilgrimage 
 among the scenes it describes. The artistical accessories are in the 
 most finished style of modern excellence. The engravings, eleven in 
 number, are by BvRT."—Christia7i. Parlor Magazine. 
 
 " The desiim in them all is to render more familiar and life-like some 
 of the scenes of the Bible. They are exceedingly interesting and beau- 
 tiful. By filling up from personal observation the outlines presented in 
 the Bible, the author accomplishes the double task of familiarizing the 
 mind with the place of the occurrence, and of giving to the event a 
 •vitality that greatly enhances its interest. The work is illustrated with 
 eleven'beaiitiful engravings, by Burt, from paintings of (Jalcot, Turner, 
 Harding, Bartiett and Boluia.v."—Chriitian Intelligencer. 
 
 "As a descriptive writer, Mr. Headley is surpassingly gifted, as the 
 pages of his popular work on ' Napoleon and his Marshals' abund;int]y 
 testify, and in his sketches of the Sacred Mountains— the theatres of 
 some of the most thrilling scenes in the world's history— his enthusiasm 
 pictures them to the mind's eye with an intense and vivid power, that 
 kindles to sublimity. The book before us comprises thirteen of ihese 
 descriptions, and is embellished with eleven splendid steel engravings 
 of the mountains, which add greatly to its interest and value." — Spring- 
 field Gazette. 
 
 '•' The volume is composed of a number of essays on the principal 
 mountains which fijnre in biblical history. They are elegantly written, 
 and distinguished for a happy blending together of facts and the im- 
 agining of a mind attuned to all that is true and beautiful in the works 
 of nature and the human heart. We feel thankful towards INIr. Headley 
 for his interesting comments upon the Sacred Mountains, aud assure 
 our readers that a perusal of them will improve the mind and reform 
 the feelings of the heart."— iV. Y. Evening Post. 
 
 '•' The theme of this volume is exceeiiingly well calculated to bring 
 out Mr Headley's great powers of rapid picturesque narration, colored 
 all over by the gorgeous glow of a vivid and fertile imagination. The 
 sacred mountains of Ararat, Sinai, Hor, Pisgah, Olives, Zion, Tabor, 
 etc., have been the scenes of such grand and awful events, and are &o 
 associated with all that is most momentous in the world's history or the 
 destiny of man. that even the coldest nature almost would feel some- 
 thing of inspiration in commemorating them. Few could do this so well as 
 Mr. Ksadley. With warm religious feeling he unites an ardent, im- 
 petous character, and the style and mode of treating his subject, that 
 would seem rather exaggerated with other themes, applied to this seem 
 fitting and becoming." — Buffalo Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 " The reader as he peruses these sketches almost imagines himself 
 transported to the sacred spots where, thousands of years ago, the 
 scenes transpired and fancies he can hear the thunderings and light- 
 nings of Mount Sinai while Moses was receiving the Tables of the Law. 
 or. standing with him upon Mount Pisgah, he sees in the distance the 
 land that flowed with milk and honey."— CAnsfian Secretary. 
 Hartford. 
 
 " The aithor has given a glowing description of thirteen of those 
 mountains celebrated in Scripture history, and of the rscsaoraWe erente
 
 wbich make them objects of deep and general interest ta the whols 
 human family. The soul-stirring diction and splendid imagery peculiar 
 to the writings of Mr. Headley, invest these themes with many new 
 charms, and caiiHOt fail to awaken the most pleasurable emotions in the 
 mind of the reader. 
 
 " The work is embellished, not merebj filled, with splendid engravings, 
 which are w«ll calculated to (iimitrate the graphic descriptions of this 
 popular writer. — Teacher's ^ddvorute, Syrucuse. 
 
 "The intention of the author of the Sacred Mountains is to render 
 more vivid and life-like the scenes of the Bible, with which we are all 
 familiar, yet wliich we are apt to look upon as less natural thau the 
 Bcenes of every-day life. No one was better fitted for this work than 
 the author. With an easy, graceful style, a language exceedingly chaste 
 and rich, he portrays to our imagination the scenes to which the Sacred 
 Mountains were witness, and impresses them indelibly upon the mind. 
 — Christian Advocate and Journal. 
 
 "The subjects atford a fine scope for the very graphic descriptive 
 talent of the author, who has never shone to better advantage — especi- 
 ally in the sketch entitled Mount Ararat. The last of the thirteen is 
 very beautiful, though brief. It is entitled the Mount of God, and in 
 the description of it the author has most happily gathered up the great 
 moral trnths which those sky-pointing peaks symbolize, and to which 
 they point the way. 
 
 '' It was a happy idea which lead Mr. Headley, to group together spots 
 rendered immortal by the thrilling and solemn scenes they have wit- 
 nessed. He has thus, by associating his own genius with subjects which 
 must alzoays be the objects of deep and permanent interest to the Bible 
 reader, ensured for his work an enduring reputation." — N. S. Observer. 
 
 " Throughout the entire volume, the writings are of that elevated 
 character which is peculiarly adapted to the subject, and which gives it a 
 value far above any work of the kind that has ever come under our eye. 
 The illustrations are beautiful, being accurate drawings from the moun- 
 tains represented. The engravings are fourteen in number, admirably 
 designed and well executed." — Rochester Daily Advertiser. 
 
 " This is truly ', beautiful volume, in which the printer, engraver 
 paper maker and binder, engage in friendly rivalship to outdo each 
 other. The vignette, representing Bethlehem, is exiiuisite, and the 
 sacred mountains, Ararat, IVTJI'iah, Sinai, Hor, Pisgah, Carmel, Le- 
 banon, Zion, Tabor, and Olives, are beautifully pictured to the eye 
 The descriptions of these sacred spots, and the reflections they awaken 
 are poetically rich and impressive, evincing no smnll power in that 
 Style of nrritiag by whiiA Mr Headley has acquired popularity.' — 
 Pretbyttrian, 
 
 *-^ 
 
 H 
 
 %.
 
 WASHINGTON AND HIS GENERALS. 
 
 By J. T. Headle)^, author of " Napoleon and his Marshals," 
 
 "The Sacred Mountains," &c. In two volumes. 12aio. 
 
 pp. 348. 
 
 "We have read it with an nnwonted de^ee of pleasure and admira- 
 tion. IMaay people complain that American history lacks romance; that 
 it has in it nothing stirring or striking ; and is. therefore, dull and spirit- 
 less, beside the annals of Europe. Mr. Hf.adley has giyen to this 
 objection the most thorough and conclusive refutation it could possibly 
 receive; and itiis not likely to be heard again. He ha^ given to the 
 incidents of our Revolution, by his graphic and spirited descriptions, an 
 intensity of interest not surpassed in the grandest achievments of Na- 
 poleon's troops. Instead of giving simply the naked details of what was 
 done, like most of those who have written upon the same subject, he 
 has breathe! into them tlie breath of life ; — he brings his reader into the 
 immediate presence of the act he describes ; — his words have a burning, 
 rashing power; and you can no more doubt the reality of his pictures, 
 than you could have doubted the reality of the original scenes, had you 
 been in the midst of them." — Courier and Iiujuirer. 
 
 '•' Unlike all the histories of the American Revolution, which aim to 
 give the causes and the results of the war, I\Ir. Headley presents the 
 eventful part i>f that Revolution, and describes the scenes which trans- 
 pired seventy years ago with such nervous precision and a^^'Jurate detail, 
 that the reader fancies himself on the spots where the prncipal battles 
 occurred, and feels that he is living in •' the times that tr^ d men's souls." 
 No author ever possessed the power to present a battle, or any other 
 scene, in the glowing life-like descriptions of Headley."— C/trwiian 
 Secretary. 
 
 " We are much pleased with this book, and question whether any offer- 
 ing could be more acceptable to the American reader. Washington sur- 
 rounded by his heroic band of Generals, and all moving amid the great 
 events of the .American Revolution, is the grandest spectacle in history; 
 and the masterly pen nf Headley has succeeded to admiration in present- 
 ing it in all its own intensi y of interest. — ' Washington and his Gene- 
 rals," like '• Napi)leon and his Marshals," seems to us more like a master 
 piece of painting, than a mere work of letters, so matchless are the de- 
 scriptions of the most e.xciting scenes, so perfect are the delineations ol 
 character-" — Daily Herukl. 
 
 '•'There is no difl&culty in understanding the secret of the great popu- 
 larity which the writings of -Mr. Headley have so rapidly obtained. He 
 speaks heartily, earnestly, truthfully and the warm heart answers to 
 bis voice. In his Washington he has exceeded himself, producing a 
 noble portrait of the noblest man : and weaving such a garland as patri- 
 otism and reverence love to place on the brow of the Father of his Coun- 
 try "- a: Y. Observer 
 
 " Every page has some graphic picture of the stiring scenes in which 
 Washington and his Generals were actors. The characteristics of these 
 Taliant champions — their stern patriotism — their noble sacrifices, and 
 their in lomit ible energv and courage — are portrayed with great beauty, 
 and )iresent the men and their times to th^ re ider with more than pic- 
 torial strength and clearness." — Albany Evening Journal. 
 
 "Th«ugh we are necessarily familiar with much of the historical mat- 
 ter comprised in Mr. Headley's book, yet his admirable style of narra-
 
 ttTe, aud vivid coloring of the more stirring scenes invest these memoirr 
 with a peculiar interest, and give them a freshness that is very accepta- 
 ble. Familiar as we were, with the battle of Bunker Hill, we yet 
 derived a more vivid conception of it from Mr. Hsadley's graphic pen, 
 than we ever before realized, aud this is only one amou^ many occa- 
 sions in the perusal of his work, where we felt the powerful, and we may 
 say, re-sistless influence of his exciting eloquence."— The Courier. 
 
 '•We might particularize instances which have thrilled u.s in the 
 perusal ; but they are scattered over the volumes. Mr. Headley has 
 undertaken a difficult work in the production of these sketches. It is a 
 work only of an artist — a geniu.s ; and to be accornplished only by labo- 
 rious, tedious investigation." — The Ohio Obser-ver. 
 
 No writer has delineated the thrilling scenes and events of the Revo- 
 lutionary struggle with such graphic power. He places one as it were 
 upon the vexy theatre of action and bloody conflict ; the surrounding 
 incidents, under the influence of his magic pen. assuming the reality of 
 visible objects, and impressing themselves upon the mind with the 
 vividness of personal observation. This work fills a place in American 
 Literature occupied by no other. Tt is sui gejieris. And we know of 
 none so likely to beget in the youthful mind a'keen and permfinent relish 
 for the history of his country, as ihis." — Onondugo Democrat. 
 
 "These sketches, or whatever they may be called, are certainly sur- 
 prising productions. We are all of ns more or less familiar with the 
 heroes and the battles of the Revolution History and the faltering 
 tongues of the few decayed survivors of those trying times, have fought 
 over and over our battles for liberty.— They have all been carefully, 
 minutely and accurately described by the most veritable historians of 
 the times. Those thrilling scenes in which our fathers suffered and 
 died, that we miicht live, have been painted in all their lights and shades ; 
 but they wanted a master's hand to linish them. Headley has brought 
 down fire from heaven, and.given life to the whole. We had all the fea- 
 tures before, but comparatively lifeless. Headley has given them ani- 
 mation and soul, and the work now under consideration is equal in point 
 of interest to any other relating to the great moral, civil and political 
 Revolution of 1776." — Saratoga Republican. 
 
 " We welcome Mr. Headly to American ground, and to a work for 
 which he of all our writers is best fitted— the pre.sentation of the im- 
 mortal achievements of our revolution — as they present themselves to 
 the popular heart, and not to the dry historian in his search for details. 
 The various published lives of the generals of '76, though carefully 
 written and filled with interesting facts, have, we venture to say, im- 
 pressed themselves but little on the national mind, and been compara- 
 tively little read — th s because the writer did not become fired with the 
 heat of the times they wrote of, and thus by their imagination reproduce 
 the feeling and recall the tone of the great struggle for freedom and 
 independence. Yet it is morally important that such a work should be 
 written — because thereby the spirit of the great founders of our nation 
 may be made parr of our spirit, and pass into our national life and cha- 
 racter. Mr. Headley has, we think, done this most successfully, and 
 we have read his sketches— as he modestly terms them in his preface, 
 with strung interest and satisfaftion. We should, however, come short 
 of doing him justice, if we should not refer to 'i diflicuity he has had to 
 contend with, and which he uientions— the barrenness i-i persi^nal inci- 
 dents in the accounts of the battles— owing probably to the want of a 
 newspaper press in those times, aud also to the dignity of manner and 
 language that then prevailed which did not encourage a familiar know- 
 ledge of public characters."— Cm. Inquirer.
 
 IRELAND'S WELCOME TO THE STRANGER: 
 
 Or, an Excursion through Ireland in 1844 and 1845, for 
 the purpose of personally investigating the condition of 
 the poor. By A. Nicholson. Baker & Scribner, 
 
 lietter from Hon. 'Wia. H. Seward, to tlie Fubllsliers. 
 
 Auburn; September 30th, 1847. 
 Gentlemkn : 
 
 The book of Mrs. Nicholson which Tou kindly sent to me has 
 been i eceive i. and read with deep interest. 
 
 It has many blemishes, and yet I sincerely believe it to be one of the 
 best Books of Travel ever written. Indeed I neTer read one concern- 
 ing which I co'ild feel assured that it gave the naked truth, and the 
 ■whole of it No one can doubt the scrupulous truthfulness and fulness 
 of Mrs. Nicholson's account of Life in Ireland. As I think no people 
 have been more wrongfully or more severely oppressed in .\Jodern 
 Europe than the Irish, so I know of none who have so just a claim on 
 our syiiij)athy. Mrs. Nicholson's book is an argument for that 
 claim, derived from the very best source, the actual condition of the 
 Irish People. I hope it may find a broad circulation. No one can 
 read it without thinking more justly of the People of Ireland, end 
 without being improved by the perusal. 
 
 With many thanks for your courtesy, I am. 
 
 Gentlemen, your humble servant, 
 
 WILLIAM H. SEW^ARD. 
 
 Messrs. Baker k Scribner. 
 
 " Mrs. Nicholson is a v,'oman of talents, genius, and of most unques- 
 tionable benevolence. — of noble purposes, and never weary in her 
 efforts to achieve them.— a reformer, and wondering that the wheels 
 of reformation move so tar-dily towards the goal. In 1844, she felt 
 called to a mission to Ireland, for the purpose of investigating i)er- 
 sonally the condition of the Irish poor. Of course she went. Some- 
 times in stages, and sometimes in fly-boats, sometimes in the pea- 
 sant's car, and sometimes on foot.— sometimes with money, and 
 sometimes without. — sometimes spurned from the mansions of the 
 great and sheltered in the hut of poverty, and sometimes refused ad 
 mission to the hui, and welcomed to the castle, she traversed Ire 
 land, and here is the record of her wanderings, in 1S44 and iS45. 
 The interest of somo of its passages is intense, —you are move# 
 sometimes to pity, sometimes to indignation.— now vou laugh, ana 
 the ne.xt moment you are moved to tears. "We confess that wehave 
 received new light on the condition of Ireland, and are able to ap. 
 predate now as we were not able to appreciate before, now dread 
 ml must have been the famine of the last winter." — N. Y. Recorder 
 
 " The author is a female of striking peculiarities and eccentricities. 
 Alone she visited Ireland on a tour of exploiation. and mainly rely- 
 ing on her own resources, without the aid of influential friends, 
 and. as it would seem, with a slender purse she tiavels over the 
 greater portion of the Island, sometimes on foot, and sometimes in 
 the Irish jaunting-car. Her mission, whatever might be its definite 
 design, was principally to the poor, and we find her everjwhere in 
 the hovels of poverty jjartaking of the hospitality of those who 
 could offer her no better fare than a potato and a straw bed. Thes*
 
 visits sne describes zn her own peculiar style, and gives the con- 
 versations she had with the wretched and oppressed inhabilAnts. 
 Many of her sketches are highly graphic, sometimes amusing, and 
 often touching. The general picture of the condition of the poor ia 
 gloomy indeed, and bears the marks of truth. Irish character is 
 also well poTtTayed.'-—PTeibyteria7i. 
 
 " Her heart is indeed warm with her theme. She bears you with 
 breathless interest from cabin to cabin, and from mountain top and 
 valley, to mountain top and valley. She makes you a party in 
 everjthing. Her bold and graphic descriptions charm you— her 
 glowing pictures, revealing the secret workings of humanity, live 
 in memory — her simple and touching delineations of the life of Ire- 
 land's poor, melt you to tears, and command your sympathy : and 
 you arise from the perusal of the work, with better views of life, 
 new and deeper feelings for your kind, and with a constrained de- 
 sire to follow her in the walks of Christian travel end benevo- 
 lence." — Albany Spectator. 
 
 " She hag tii/elled among the people, and has seen them in their 
 cottages and hovels, and tells us all she saw with a sprightliness 
 which prevents our interest from flagging. Those who feel an in- 
 terest in this noble but oppressed people, will consider this work of 
 much value."' — Jersey City Telegraph. 
 
 f "As the spirit of benevolence dictated the purpose in which thia 
 book originated, so it breathes through every page of its contents. 
 It is the ]>roduction of one of our countrywomen, who, partly from 
 an admiration of the Irish character, and partly from sympathy with 
 Irish suft'ering, adventured in the heroic enterprise of going single- 
 handed and alone, to ascertain for herself the actual condition of the 
 peasantry of that ill-fated country. She has made a book that 
 speaks well both for her head and heart. Her details of what she 
 witnessed and experienced are exceedingly minute and graphic, 
 and display as much of true Irish character as we have met with 
 inywhere within the same limits." — Albany Argus. 
 
 This work will probably create considerable interest at the pre- 
 sent day. connected as it is with the recent famine and sickness in 
 unhappy Ireland. It is the transcript of views and impressions 
 made upon a disinterested (though not iz«interested1 yet benevolent 
 lady, who went among ihe lowest classes, for the purpose of per- 
 sonally investigating tlieir condition, and relieving it, as far as laid 
 in her power. The narrative is finely written, and the scenes de- 
 picted are both afiecting and amusing. The work presents a scene 
 of human misery almost too painful to read, yet so interspersed with 
 relations characteristic of the Irish, as to present an interesting and 
 instructing hook.''— Christiaji Intelligencer. 
 
 " The heroic fidelity with which this unenviable, but most useful 
 mission, was performed ; the gentle sympathy, the kind advice and 
 assistance which she bestowed ; and moie than all. the faithful but 
 startling picture of Irish poverty which she has brought above 
 ground, tke volume will disclose to the reader. And no one, we 
 are sure, can read it without being agitated with the profoundest 
 pity for the poor, starving, degraded Irish, or without admiration for
 
 the practical, energeuc philanthropy of tns woman who could d 
 all this. The style of the work is straight-forward, simple, truth 
 ful. and therefore eloouent ; and of all the books on that much-be« 
 written country, we have never met one half so interesting, instruc- 
 tive, or suggestive. At the present time, when thousands of Irish- 
 men are coming to claim our compassion, we wish that America* 
 charity might receive the impulse that this book ii so admirably 
 adapted to give." — ..V. Y. Evangelist. 
 
 " The hook will be found deeply interesting. In fact it couli 
 scarcely be expected otherwise, when it is remembered that a lady 
 of refined feelings, blended with deep and ardent piety, and a very 
 graceful writer withal is the author ; and that this lady actually 
 travelled through Ireland, stopping at the low mud cabins,— by the 
 wayside, — and wherever she found an object of charity to whom she 
 could minister consolation. We have never met with a book in 
 which the condition of Ireland appeared to be so faithfully pic- 
 tured." — Christian Secretary. 
 
 ^' Ireland^ s Welcome to a Stranger: is the result of a bold novelty 
 in our travelling annals. A lady of mind, heart and education visit- 
 ed Ireland in tne most unpretending way, and with the intention 
 of searching out the very pith of the ma'tter as she explored the 
 fountain of Irish woes and Irish hopelessness. No visitor she of lordly 
 halls and stately institutions ; her time and sympathies were given to 
 the suffering and down-cast in-dweller in lowly cabins by tiie way 
 side. The story of her wanderings among the 'poor are told in one 
 of the most vivid, earnest, heart-reaching volumes of the day. The 
 writer is a woman in feeling, an American in sentiment, and a true 
 missionary in conduct. Some of the anecjdotes — so simply, yet so 
 effectively told — are worth more than any missionary sermon ever 
 
 fiven from a pulpit, and no one who takes up the book will lay it 
 own willingly before he comes to the end. When he does it will 
 be with a cordial acknowledgment that he has learned much that it 
 is well to know, and that Messrs. Baker & Scribner have given the 
 public a most interesting book in Mrs. Nicholson's recital of •Ire- 
 land's Welcome to the Stranger.' "— iV. Y. Sun. 
 
 ''Over three years ago Mrs. Nicholson set sail for Ireland, deter- 
 mined to make herself thoroughly acquainted with the denizens ol 
 its cabins and hovels, so as to qualify herself to judge what are the 
 true causes of the squalid wretchedness there so prevalent, and ol 
 the practicability and proper means of alleviating it. In this spirit 
 ■he has since travelled over a great part of the unhappy kingdom, 
 mainly on foot and often alone, stopping to rest at the lowliest 
 habitations, and grudging no inconvenience nor rebuff, so that she 
 was enabled to see clearly and report truly the condition of the 
 Irish people. A stern Protestant, she was not likely to be misled 
 by religious sympathy. And she has given us an instructive, 
 plain-spoken, unpretending book, full of facts which will prove 
 useful in the progress of the struggle for the emancipation not oX 
 Ireland's millions only, but of the oppressed and famished every- 
 where. ''-A", y. Tribune,
 
 BAKER AND SCRIBNER 
 
 HAVE RECENTLY PUBLISHED : 
 
 THE czar: his court and people, 
 
 Including a tour in NonA-ay and Sweden. By John S. 
 Maxwell, pp. 368. 1 vol., 12mo 
 
 " A volume of uncommon excellence, upon a region of the earth, 
 hitherto not much treated by Americans Mr. Maxwell's diplomatic 
 position gave him rem.arkable opportunities for observing men and 
 things in Russia ; and his scholarship and sound judgment, have 
 given to these observations a shape which must secure high esteem 
 lor the book. It is full of information, and exempt from every sus- 
 picion of tediousness or egotism The picture of the noble Scandi- 
 navian countries, with which the volume opens, is fascinating to a 
 degree for which, we confess, we were unprepared." — Princeton 
 Review. 
 
 " Seldom have we received a more agreeable or instructive vol- 
 ume of travels. Tlie author visited Russia in a diplomatic capacity. 
 and enjoyed remarkable opportunities for observation. He passed 
 through several of the northern countries of f^urope, and a consi- 
 derable portion of the Russian empire, including .Moscow and 
 Petersburgh ; and the results of his observations are given with re- 
 markable ease and naturalness. His account of the Scandinavian 
 countries is a delightful picture of an orderly, moral people, enjoy- 
 ing the blessings of good government and regulated liberty." - 
 Newark Daily .Mvertiser. 
 
 " The description of the present state of Norway is a delightful 
 and graphic picture of the habits and manners of the people of this 
 primitive country. Nor are the details of Russian Society and per- 
 sonal recollections of Nicholas and his court, less worthy of com- 
 mendation. The style is remarkably free from exaggeration and 
 sickly sentiment—qualifications we consider to be invaluable in a 
 modern tourist." — Tne Albion. 
 
 " The sterling bullion of the book, which we heartily commend 
 to our readers, is very much enhanced by the elegant style in which 
 it is detailed ; and it's merits, in every respect, ought to secure to 
 this volume a place in every library. The whole is exceedingly 
 well-written, and contains a mass of valuable information difficult to 
 be found in any other publication." — Home JourjiaL 
 
 " The writer of this book seems to us to have shown himself intel- 
 ligent, observing, judicious, and impartial ; and these surely are the 
 %iost important reaui.sites for an author of a book of travels. He
 
 has had many predecessors in the same route, who hare chronicled 
 their observations and adventures as he has done ; but there is a 
 freshness and good temper and point in what he has written that will, 
 notwithstanding, deservedly secure to his worlc, a more than com- 
 mon share of public favor." — American Litei-ary Magazine. 
 
 " It is so condensed as not to be tedious, but sufficiently detailed to 
 give a fair view of men. manners, and things in those parts of Europe 
 which have not been written to utter sterility by the travelling 
 book-makers. He has done well ; and we believe that a discerning 
 public will seek his book, and be pleased with it." — The Observer 
 
 '• It is a clever book by an intelligent American tourist, a New 
 Forker, who visited Russia with every advantage for seeing the 
 country and its people, and '• seeing it well." to use a phrase of 
 Madame de Sevigny. His sketches of the social life of the Russians, 
 of the habits of the nobility and their serfs, are well drawn, and his 
 notes of the political and moral condition of Russia are iiistructive." 
 — The Evening Post. 
 
 THE ORATORS OF FRANCE, 
 
 By Cormenin. Illustrated with portraits. 1 vol., 12mo 
 Third edition. 
 
 "Every one, at the present time, is anxious to become acquainted 
 irith the men %vho are figuring in the transactions of the Revolution 
 BOW in progress in France. We commend this book to our readers^ 
 as the best clue which they can possibly take up for the acquiie 
 ment of the knowledge they are desirous to obtain. 
 
 •' This book was written by Cormenin, two years ago ; and the 
 truthfulness of his estimates may be seen in the parts which have 
 since been played by the great men whom he then portrayed. We 
 regard this as a verj- superior production, and have read it with 
 deep interest" — Alliance and Visiter. 
 
 " This work is a translation of the famous ' Oratorical Portraits' of 
 Timon, the publication of which created an enthusiasm in the poli- 
 tical world quite equal to that caused by the famous ' Junius.'— £re- 
 ning Herald. 
 
 " For discriminating views of the characters of the times and the 
 men of which it treats, and for vigor and elegance of style, this work 
 is not surpassed by anything that hais yet appeared." — Daily A^ 
 vcrliser. 
 
 *' Timon wields a masterly pen : terse, graphic, and spirited, he 
 never for a moment suffers our interest to flag , and we close the 
 book with as keen a relish as when we commenced. Though he has 
 devoted but a brief space to each orator, so condensed are his 
 thoughts, so nervous his language, and so clear and distinct his limn- 
 ings, that we obtain a vivid idea of their most striking characteris- 
 tics." — New York Evening Post. 
 
 " Remarkable for rapidity of transition, sudden flashes of brilliant 
 fmagery, bold and direct perception of motives and actions, profound 
 observation, sententious, picturesque and eloquent, the book is all 
 that is requisite for great and deserved popularity."— ^ueniw^ IVan- 
 Jtcript.
 
 THE BETHEL FLAG. 
 
 A StRIES OF SHORT DISCOURSES TO SEAMBK. 
 
 By Gardiner Spring, D.D. 1vol., 12mo; 
 
 •' The name of Dr. Spring were enough of itself to insure the ex- 
 cellence and usefulness of this volume. But no one could read it, 
 with no knowledge of its author, without feeling his soul burn with- 
 in him, as truth after truth, the most sublime and consoling, charged' 
 with blessedness to the spirit, is most eloquently unfolded, and aflec- 
 tionately applied." — The Spectator. 
 
 TALES FOR THE RICH AND POOR. 
 
 By T. S. Arthur. 6 vols., 18mo. 
 
 KEEPING UP APPEARANCES 
 RICHES HAVE WINGS. 
 ■RISING IN THE WORLD. 
 MAKING- HASTE TO BE RICH. 
 DEBTOR AND CREDITOR. 
 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 
 
 THE POWER OF THE PULPIT, 
 
 Or Plain Thoughts addressed to Christian Minis- 
 ters, and those who hear them, on the Influence of 
 a Preached Gospel. 1 vol., 12mo. By Rev. Gar 
 diner Spring, D. D., with a beautiful steel portrait 
 of the author. 
 
 LECTURES ON SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 2 vols., 12mo. By H. N. Hudson. 
 
 LIFE OF OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 1 vol., 12mo. By J. T. Headley, author of "Napoleon 
 and his Marshals," &c., with portrait. (Ready early 
 in May.) 
 
 NAPOLEON AND HIS MARSHALS. 
 
 2 vols., 12mo. By J. T. Headley. Seventeenth edition. 
 
 WASHINGTON AND HIS GENERALS. 
 2 vols., 12mo. By J. T. Headley. Fifteenth edition. 
 
 New York, May lst» 1848.
 
 TEACHING A SCIENCE-THE TEACHER AN ARTIST. 
 
 By Rev. Baynard R. Hall, A.M., author of "Something 
 for Everybody," &c. 1 vol., 12mo. 
 
 •* The author of this work has a strong claim on his readers' at- 
 tention. He speaks from experience, having been engaged in the 
 business of teaching for a quarter of a century. He has been pnn- 
 cipal of schools various in their character ; has taught mathematics, 
 sciences, languages, and the lower and higher branches of the Eng- 
 lish. His pupils have been of different States, nations, sexes, ank 
 ages, thus obliging him to practise different modes of instructing 
 and governing. >or these, and similar reasons, be seems led to sup- 
 pose that the world will give him a favorable hearing ; and we honor 
 his judgment, being persuaded his book will be read with absorbing 
 interest. — Christian Intelligencer. 
 
 " A vigorous pen is employed in the work, in setting forth clearly 
 and eloquently advocating important truths, which all teachers 
 should ponder." — Protestant Chui chman. 
 
 " His perceptions are acute, his mind logical, his judgment sound, 
 his langiiage terse and pointed, and his sarcasms cutting to the root 
 and branch of error. His work before us will live, and perform its 
 mission — TAe Spectator. 
 
 " An army of such teachers as Mr. HaH pictures in this work. 
 ■Tould do more for the advancement of a country in all that is en 
 nobling and exalting in its character, than mere legislation, how- 
 ever wise, or science and art, however extensive, could possibly 
 accomplish." — The Episcopal Recorder. 
 
 THE OWl, CREEK LETTERS, AND OTHER COR- 
 - ~. RESPONDENCE. 
 
 By W. 1 vol., 12mo. 
 
 "They exhibit some masterly traits of authorship, and pre.<!ent 
 truths and sentiments of no little worth in a garb unusually attrac- 
 tive.'" — New York Evangelist. 
 
 "They are written with taste and true feeling, and many of them 
 are of touching beauty." — The Observer. 
 
 "Rural life and scenes, summer adventures and home-bred plea- 
 sures, the sports of the field and the family, the watering-place, and 
 the farmhouse, in our own beloved America, are here exhibited in ft 
 .series of desultory., but charming sketches, characterized by free- 
 dom, grace, and genial feeling." — The Newark Sentinel. 
 
 " Very agreeable and sketchy, picturing to the eye the forest and 
 lake scenery, the excitement of the hunter, and the eager devotion 
 of the fly-fisher, together with little domestic incidents of the plea- 
 sant and mournful kind, with various et ceteras. to which an agree- 
 able letter-writer knows how to impart an interest which attracts 
 the reader." — Presbyterian. 
 
 '• Some passages in this book equal in power of despription any 
 thing we have ever met witli."—77j« Constitution.
 
 UC SOUTHERN Rc^-^,,. 
 
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