Page:Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since.djvu/163

 dence. How frequently does it happen, in our republican government, that a fortune, acquired by the economical agriculturist furnishes the means of vanity and pride to his son; who, removing to the city, and educating his children in indolence, prepares them to squander the inheritance of their ancestors. The next generation, born in poverty, seek an antidote in labour, and find that "tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to fortune."

Many such instances had fallen under the observation of Madam L, and her silent reflections upon them were not interrupted, until her approach to the Turnpike, a few miles from her residence. There she saw an unusual bustle, and heard the tones of the red-faced gatekeeper, elevated like the hoarse croak of a raven. But these were overpowered by the loud brogue of an Irish man of enormous stature, who mounted on a pony ready to sink beneath the weight of the rider, contested the rate of toll:—

"I tell ye, I'll not be paying nine-pence for travelling on such a confounded bog of a road, with the danger of breaking my neck into the bargain."

"Zounds!" roared the sturdy, square shouldered Englishman, lifting up his shoemaker's hammer, by the aid of which, with the profits of his gate, he earned a subsistence for his family, "are ye not able to read the printed board before your face, or d'ye think ye're in Cork, where club law will silence the jailors."