Page:The Poor Rich Man, and the Rich Poor Man.djvu/79

Rh, I determined to stop short, and not, as many do, put off the evil day, plunging deeper and deeper, making enemies, and making plenty of work for repentance. When our affairs were settled up I had a hundred dollars in my pocket, and no one to look me in the face and say I owed him a shilling, or had wronged him of one. The next thing was to determine on what business I should follow. You know my breast was much weakened by sitting over my lapstone when I was growing fast. It is a bad trade to put a growing boy to. I could not return to it. A farm in one of the free western states seemed to me the happiest lot in the world for a poor man; but there were hardships in the beginning, and, though you and I would not have minded them, your father and Lottie could not have stood them. A farm at Essex I dared not think of: a man must have some capital and knowledge, practice and skill, to go ahead in New-England on a farm, and I had none of these. While I was deliberating, my good friend Mr. Loomis, the carman, determined to move to Ohio. He advised me to take up his business, and offered to sell me his horse and cart on very reasonable terms, and to recommend me to his employers. There were many reasons to decide me to take his advice. I find exercise in the open air the best medicine for the pain in my breast. Carting is a sure and regular business. I have observed that the carmen in this city, those whose carts are never seen standing before groceries, are a healthy, cheerful-looking class of men. They go slowly but surely ahead. They can generally manage to take their meals with their families, and to spend all their evenings