Page:The Poor Rich Man, and the Rich Poor Man.djvu/31

Rh five or six thousand dollars, and on this he had his dozen children to feed and clothe, and fit to fill honourable places in society—to be farmers, mechanics, doctors, ministers, and so on. In such a family, well regulated, there are excellent lessons in the economy of human life, and well learned were they by the Aikins, and afterward well applied.

Morris Finley was the son of the only man in Essex who had not any regular business. He was what our rustics call a schemer and a jockey;in a larger sphere he would have been a speculator. Money, not as a means, but as an end, seemed to him the chief good; and he had always a plan for getting a little more of it than his neighbours. He was keen-sighted and quick-witted; of course he often succeeded, but sometimes failed; and, distrusted and disliked through life, at the end of it he was not richer in worldly goods than his neighbours, and poor indeed was he in all other respects. He had, however, infused his ruling passion into his son Morris, and he, being better educated than his father, and regularly trained to business, had a far better chance of ultimate success.