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Words for the Wise

T >> T.S. Arthur >> Words for the Wise




"No, no!"--pushing back my hand--"nonsense!"

"Yes; but I must insist upon meeting my share of the expense."

"Not a word more. The bill's settled, and you needn't trouble your
head about it," was his reply; and he seemed half offended when I
still urged upon him to take my portion of the cost.

"What a fine, generous fellow Peyton is!" said one of the party to
me, as we met on the next day.

"Did he also refuse to let you share in the expense of our
excursion?" I asked.

"After what he said to you, I was afraid of offending him by
proposing to do so."

"He certainly is generous--but, I think, to a fault, if I saw a fair
specimen of his generosity yesterday."

"We should be just, as well as generous."

"I never heard that he was not just."

"Nor I. But I think he was not just to himself. And I believe it
will be found to appear in the end, that, if we are not just to
ourselves, we will, somewhere in life, prove unjust to others. I
think that his salary is not over twelve dollars a week. If he bore
the whole expense of our pleasure excursion, it cost him within a
fraction of half his earnings for a week. Had we all shared alike,
it would not have been a serious matter to either of us."

"Oh! as to that, it is no very serious matter to him. He will never
think of it."

"But, if he does so very frequently, he may feel it sooner or
later," I replied.

"I'm sure I don't know any thing about that," was returned. "He is a
generous fellow, and I cannot but like him. Indeed, every one likes
him."

A few evenings afterwards I met Peyton again.

"Come, let us have some oysters," said he.

I did not object. We went to an oyster-house, and ate and drank as
much as our appetites craved. He paid the bill!

Same days afterwards, I fell in with him again, and, in order to
retaliate a little, invited him to go and get some refreshments with
me. He consented. When I put my hand in my pocket to pay for them,
his hand went into his. But I was too quick for him. He seemed
uneasy about it. He could feel pleased while giving, but it
evidently worried him to be the recipient.

From that time, for some years, I was intimate with the young man. I
found that he set no true value upon money. He spent it freely with
every one; and every one spoke well of him. "What a generous,
whole-souled fellow he is!" or, "What a noble heart he has!" were
the expressions constantly made in regard to him. While "Mean
fellow!" "Miserly dog!" and other such epithets, were unsparingly
used in speaking of a quiet, thoughtful young man, named Merwin, who
was clerk with him in the same store. Merwin appeared to set an
undue value upon money. He rarely indulged himself in any way, and
it was with difficulty that he could ever be induced to join in any
pleasures that involved expense. But I always observed that when he
did so, he was exact about paying his proportion.

About two years after my acquaintance with Peyton began, an incident
let me deeper into the character and quality of his generosity. I
called one day at the house of a poor widow woman who washed for me,
to ask her to do up some clothes, extra to the usual weekly washing.
I thought she looked as if she were in trouble about something, and
said so to her.

"It's very hard, at best," she replied, "for a poor woman, with
three or four children to provide for, to get along--especially if,
like me, she has to depend upon washing and ironing for a living.
But when so many neglect to pay her regularly"--

"Neglect to pay their washerwoman!" I said, in a tone of surprise,
interrupting her.

"Oh, yes. Many do that!"

"Who?"

"Dashing young men, who spend their money freely, are too apt to
neglect these little matters, as they call them."

"And do young men, for whom you work, really neglect to pay you?"

"Some do. There are at least fifteen dollars now owed to me, and I
don't know which way to turn to get my last month's rent for my
landlord, who has been after me three times this week already. Mr.
Peyton owes me ten dollars, and I can't"--

"Mr. Peyton? It can't be possible!"

"Yes, it is, though. He used to be one of the most punctual young
men I washed for. But, of late, he never has any money."

"He's a very generous-hearted young man."

"Yes, I know he is," she replied. "But something is wrong with him.
He looks worried whenever I ask him for money; and sometimes speaks
as if half angry with me for troubling him. There's Mr. Merwin--I
wish all were like him. I have never yet taken home his clothes,
that I didn't find the money waiting for me, exact to a cent. He
counts every piece when he lays out his washing for me, and knows
exactly what it will come to: and then, if he happens to be out, the
change is always left with the chambermaid. It's a pleasure to do
any thing for him."

"He isn't liked generally as well as Mr. Peyton is," said I.

"Isn't he? It's strange!" the poor woman returned, innocently.

On the very next day, I saw Peyton riding out with an acquaintance
in a buggy.

"Who paid for your ride, yesterday?" I said to the latter, with whom
I was quite familiar, when next we met.

"Oh, Peyton, of course. He always pays, you know. He's a fine,
generous fellow. I wish there were more like him."

"That you might ride out for nothing a little oftener, hey?"

My friend coloured slightly.

"No, not that," said he. "But you know there is so much selfishness
in the world; we hardly ever meet a man who is willing to make the
slightest sacrifice for the good of others."

"True. And I suppose it is this very selfishness that makes us so
warmly admire a man like Mr. Peyton, who is willing to gratify us at
his own charge. It's a pleasant thing to ride out and see the
country, but we are apt to think twice about the costs before we act
once. But if some friend will only stand the expense, how generous
and whole-souled we think him! It is the same in every thing else.
We like the enjoyments, but can't afford the expense; and he is a
generous, fine-hearted fellow, who will squander his money in order
to gratify us. Isn't that it, my friend?" said I, slapping him on
the shoulder.

He looked half convinced, and a little sheepish, to use an
expressive Saxonism.

On the evening succeeding this day, Peyton sat alone in his room,
his head leaning upon his hand, and his brow contracted. There was a
tap at his door. "Come in." A poorly-clad, middle-aged woman
entered. It was his washerwoman.

The lines on the young man's brow became deeper.

"Can't you let me have some money, Mr. Peyton? My landlord is
pressing hard for his rent, and I cannot pay him until you pay me."

"Really, Mrs. Lee, it is impossible just now; I am entirely out of
money. But my salary will be due in three weeks, and then I will pay
you up the whole. You must make your landlord wait until that time.
I am very sorry to put you to this trouble. But it will never happen
again."

The young man really did feel sorry, and expressed it in his face as
well as in the tone of his voice.

"Can't you let me have one or two dollars, Mr. Peyton? I am entirely
out of money."

"It is impossible--I haven't a shilling left. But try and wait three
weeks, and then it will all come to you in a lump, and do you a
great deal more good than if you had it a dollar at a time."

Mrs. Lee retired slowly, and with a disappointed air. The young man
sighed heavily as she closed the door after her. He had been too
generous, and now he could not be just. The buggy in which he had
driven out with his friend on that day had cost him his last two
dollars--a sum which would have lightened the heart of his poor
washerwoman.

"The fact is, my salary is too small," said he, rising and walking
about his room uneasily. "It is not enough to support me. If the
account were fully made up, tailor's bill, bootmaker's bill, and
all, I dare say I should find myself at least three hundred dollars
in debt."

Merwin received the same salary that he did, and was just three
hundred dollars ahead. He dressed as well, owed no man a dollar, and
was far happier. It is true, he was not called a "fine, generous
fellow," by persons who took good care of their own money, while
they were very willing to enjoy the good things of life at a
friend's expense. But he did not mind this. The want of such a
reputation did not disturb his mind very seriously.

After Mrs. Lee had been gone half an hour, Peyton's door was flung
suddenly open. A young man, bounding in, with extended hand came
bustling up to him.

"Ah, Peyton, my fine fellow! How are you? how are you?" And he shook
Peyton's hand quite vigorously.

"Hearty!--and how are you, Freeman?"

"Oh, gay as a lark. I have come to ask a favour of you."

"Name it."

"I want fifty dollars."

Peyton shrugged his shoulders.

"I must have it, my boy! I never yet knew you to desert a friend,
and I don't believe you will do so now."

"Suppose I haven't fifty dollars?"

"You can borrow it for me. I only want it for a few days. You shall
have it back on next Monday. Try for me--there's a generous fellow!"

"There's a generous fellow," was irresistible. It came home to
Peyton in the right place. He forgot poor Mrs. Lee, his unpaid
tailor's bill, and sundry other troublesome accounts.

"If I can get an advance of fifty dollars on my salary to-morrow,
you shall have it."

"Thank you! thank you! I knew I shouldn't have to ask twice when I
called upon Henry Peyton. It always does me good to grasp the hand
of such a man as you are."

On the next day, an advance of fifty dollars was asked and obtained.
This sum was loaned as promised. In two weeks, the individual who
borrowed it was in New Orleans, from whence he had the best of
reasons for not wishing to return to the north. Of course, the
generous Henry Peyton lost his money.

An increase of salary to a thousand dollars only made him less
careful of his money. Before, he lived as freely as if his income
had been one-third above what it was; now, he increased his expenses
in a like ratio. It was a pleasure to him to spend his money--not
for himself alone, but among his friends.

It is no cause of wonder, that in being so generous to some, he was
forced to be unjust to others. He was still behindhand with his poor
old washer-woman--owed for boarding, clothes, hats, boots, and a
dozen other matters--and was, in consequence, a good deal harassed
with duns. Still, he was called by some of his old cronies, "a fine,
generous fellow." A few were rather colder in their expressions. He
had borrowed money from them, and did not offer to return it; and he
was such a generous-minded young man, that they felt a delicacy
about calling his attention to it.

"Can you raise a couple of thousand dollars?" was asked of him by a
friend, when he was twenty-seven years old. "If you can, I know a
first-rate chance to get into business."

"Indeed! What is the nature of it?"

The friend told him all he knew, and he was satisfied that a better
offering might never present itself. But two thousand dollars were
indispensable.

"Can't you borrow it?" suggested the friend.

"I will try."

"Try your best. You will never again have such an opportunity."

Peyton did try, but in vain. Those who could lend it to him
considered him "too good-hearted a fellow" to trust with money; and
he was forced to see that tide, which if he could have taken it at
the flood, would have led him on to fortune, slowly and steadily
recede.

To Merwin the same offer was made. He had fifteen hundred dollars
laid by, and easily procured the balance. No one was afraid to trust
him with money.

"What a fool I have been!" was the mental exclamation of Peyton,
when he learned that his fellow-clerk had been able, with his own
earnings, on a salary no larger than his own, to save enough to
embrace the golden opportunity which he was forced to pass by. "They
call Merwin _mean_ and _selfish_--and I am called a _generous
fellow_. That means, he has acted like a wise man, and I like a
fool, I suppose. I know him better than they do. He is neither mean
nor selfish, but careful and prudent, as I ought to have been. His
mother is poor, and so is mine. Ah, me!" and the thought of his
mother caused him to clasp both hands against his forehead. "I
believe two dollars of his salary have been sent weekly to his poor
mother. But I have never helped mine a single cent. There is the
mean man, and here is the generous one. Fool! fool! wretch! He has
fifteen hundred dollars ahead, after having sent his mother one
hundred dollars a year for five or six years, and I am over five
hundred dollars in debt. A fine, generous fellow, truly!"

The mind of Peyton was, as it should be, disturbed to its very
centre. His eyes were fairly opened, and he saw just where he stood,
and what he was worth as a generous man.

"They have flattered my weakness," said he, bitterly, "to eat and
drink and ride at my expense. It was easy to say, 'how free-hearted
he is,' so that I could hear them. A cheap way of enjoying the good
things of life, verily! But the end has come to all this. I am just
twenty-seven years old to-day; in five years more I shall be
thirty-two. My salary is one thousand dollars. I pay one hundred and
fifty dollars a year for boarding; one hundred and fifty more shall
clothe me and furnish all my spending-money, which shall be precious
little. One year from to-day, if I live, I will owe no man a dollar.
My kind old mother, whom I have so long neglected, shall hear from
me at once--ten dollars every month I dedicate to her. Come what
will, nothing shall touch that. After I am clear of debt, I will
save all above my necessary expenses, until I get one or two
thousand dollars ahead, which shall be in five years. Then I will
look out for a golden opportunity, such as Mervin has found. This
agreement with myself I solemnly enter into in the sight of heaven,
and nothing shall tempt me to violate it."

"Are you going to ride out this afternoon, Peyton?" inquired a young
friend, breaking in upon him at this moment.

"Yes, if you'll hire the buggy," was promptly returned.

"I can't afford that."

"Nor I either. How much is your salary?"

"Only a thousand."

"Just what mine is. If you can't, I am sure I cannot."

"Of course, you ought to be the best judge. I knew you rode out
almost every afternoon, and liked company."

"Yes, I have done so; but that's past. I have been a 'fine, generous
fellow,' long enough to get in debt and mar my prospects for life,
perhaps; but I am going to assume a new character. No doubt the very
ones who have had so many rides, oyster suppers, and theatre tickets
at my expense, will all at once discover that I am as mean and
selfish as Mervin; but it's no great odds. I only wish I had been as
truly noble and generous in the right quarters as he has been."

"You are in a strange humour to-day."

"I am in a changed humour. That it is so very strange, I do not
see--unless for me to think wisely is strange, and perhaps it is."

"Well, all I have to say is, that I, for one, do not blame you, even
if I do lose a fine ride into the country now and then," was the
frank response.

Peyton went to work in the matter of reform in right good earnest,
but he found it hard work; old habits and inclinations were very
strong. Still he had some strength of mind, and he brought this into
as vigorous exercise as it was possible for him to do, mainly with
success, but sometimes with gentle lapses into self-indulgence.

His mother lived in a neighbouring town, and was in humble
circumstances. She supported herself by keeping a shop for the sale
of various little articles. The old lady sat behind her counter, one
afternoon, sewing, and thinking of her only son.

"Ah, me!" she sighed, letting her hands fall wearily in her lap, "I
thought Henry would have done something for himself long before
this; but he is a wild, free-hearted boy, and I suppose spends every
thing as he goes along, just as his father did. I'm afraid he will
never do any thing for himself. It is a long time since he wrote
home. Ah, me!"

And the mother lifted her work again, and strained her dimmed eyes
over it.

"Here's a letter for you at last, Mother Peyton," said the
well-known voice of the postman, breaking in upon her just at this
moment. "That boy of yours don't write home as often as he used to."

"A letter from Henry! Oh, that is pleasant! Dear boy! he doesn't
forget his mother."

"No, one would think not," muttered the postman, as he walked away,
"considering how often he writes to her."

With trembling hands, Mrs. Peyton broke the seal; a bank-bill
crumpled in her fingers as she opened the letter. A portion of its
contents was:

"DEAR MOTHER--I have had some very serious thoughts of late about my
way of living. You know I never liked to be considered mean; this
led me to be, what seemed to everybody, very generous. Everybody was
pleased to eat, and drink, and ride at my expense; but no one seemed
inclined to let me do the same at his expense. I have been getting a
good salary for six or seven years, and, for a part of that time, as
much as a thousand dollars. I am ashamed to say that I have not a
farthing laid by; nay, what is worse, I owe a good many little
bills. But, dear mother, I think I have come fairly to my senses. I
have come to a resolution not to spend a dollar foolishly; thus far
I have been able to keep my promise to myself, and, by the help of
heaven, I mean to keep it to the end. My first thought, on seeing my
folly, was of my shameful disregard to my mother's condition. In
this letter are ten dollars. Every month you will receive from me a
like sum--more, if you need it. As soon as I can lay by a couple of
thousand dollars, I will look around for some means of entering into
business, and, as soon after as possible, make provision for you,
that your last days may be spent in ease and comfort."

"God bless the dear boy!" exclaimed Mrs. Peyton, dropping the
letter, while the tears gushed from her eyes. The happy mother wept
long for joy. With her trembling hand she wrote a reply, and urged
him, by the tenderest and most sacred considerations, to keep to his
good resolutions.

At the end of a year Peyton examined his affairs, and found himself
freed from debt; but there were nearly one hundred dollars for which
he could not account. He puzzled over it for one or two evenings,
and made out over fifty dollars spent foolishly.

"No doubt the rest of it will have to be passed to that account,"
said he, at last, half angry with himself. "I'll have to watch
closer than this. At the end of the next year, I'll not be in doubt
about where a hundred dollars have gone."

It was but rarely, now, that you would hear the name of Peyton
mentioned. Before, everybody said he was a "fine, generous fellow;"
everybody praised him. Now he seemed to be forgotten, or esteemed of
no consideration. He felt this; but he had started to accomplish a
certain end, and he had sufficient strength of mind not to be driven
from his course.

"Have you seen Peyton of late?" I asked, some two years after this
change in his habits. I spoke to one of his old intimate associates.

"No, not for a month of Sundays," was his lightly-spoken reply.
"What a remarkable change has passed over him! Once, he used to be a
fine, generous fellow--his heart was in his hand; but now he is as
penurious as a miser, and even more selfish: he will neither give
nor take. If you happen to be walking with him, and, after waiting
as long as decency will permit to be asked to step in somewhere for
refreshments, you propose something, he meets you with--'No, I thank
you, I am not dry,' or hungry, as the case may be. It's downright
savage, it is!"

"This is a specimen of the way in which the world estimates men,"
said I to myself, after separating from the individual who
complained thus of Peyton. "The world is wonderfully impartial in
its judgment of men's conduct!"

At the end of five years from the time Peyton reformed his loose
habits, he had saved up and placed out at interest the sum of two
thousand dollars; and this, after having sent to his mother,
regularly, ten dollars every month during the whole period. The fact
that he had saved so much was not suspected by any. It was supposed
that he had laid up some money, but no one thought he had over four
or five hundred dollars.

"I wish you had about three thousand dollars," said Merwin to him,
one day. Merwin's business had turned out well. In five years, he
had cleared over twenty thousand dollars.

"Why?" asked Peyton.

"I know a first-rate chance for you."

"Indeed. Where?"

"There is a very good business that has been fairly established, and
is now languishing for want of a little capital. The man who has
made it will take a partner if he can bring in three thousand
dollars, which would make the whole concern easy, perfectly safe,
and sure of success."

"It's more than I have," returned Peyton, in a voice that was
slightly sad.

"So I supposed," Merwin said.

"Although such needn't have been the case, if I had acted as wisely
as you through life."

"It's never too late to mend our ways, you know."

"True. But a year mis-spent, is a whole year lost. No matter how
hard we strive, we can never make it up. To the day of our death,
there will be one year deficient in the sum of life's account."

"A just remark, no doubt. How much would every man save, if he would
take good care not only of his years, but of his weeks and days! The
sum of life is made up of small aggregations."

"And so the sum of a man's fortune. A dollar mis-spent is a dollar
lost, and never can be regained. You say that it will require three
thousand dollars to admit a partner into the business of which you
just spoke?"

"Yes. Nothing less will do."

"I have but two thousand."

"Have you so much, Peyton?" said Merwin, with a brightening face.

"I have."

"Right glad am I to hear it. I only wish that I could furnish you
with a thousand more. But it is out of my power entirely. Our
business requires the use of every dollar we have; and it would not
be just to my partner to draw out so large a sum for the purpose of
assisting a friend in whom he can feel no interest."

"No, of course not. I neither ask nor expect it. I will wait a
little longer. Something else will offer."

"But nothing so really advantageous as this. Let me see. I think I
might get you five hundred dollars, if you could borrow as much
more."

"That I cannot do. I never asked a favour of any one in my life."

"Though you have dispensed thousands."

"Foolishly perhaps. But no matter. I will wait."

A week afterward, Peyton, who dismissed all thought of embracing the
proposed offer of going in business, paid a visit to his mother. He
had not seen her for a year. She was still cheerful, active, and
retained her usual good health.

"I think it time you gave up this shop, mother," said he to her.
"You are too old now to be working so closely. I've got something
saved up for a rainy day, in case any thing should go wrong with me
for a time. You will give up this shop, won't you?"

"No, Henry; not yet. I am still able to help myself, and so long as
I am able, I wish to do it. If you have saved any thing, you had
better keep it until an opportunity for going into business offers."

"Such a chance has just presented itself. But I hadn't capital
enough."

"How much have you saved?"

"Two thousand dollars."

"So much? How much is required?"

"Three thousand dollars."

"And you have but two?"

"That is all--though a friend did offer to get me five hundred more.
But twenty-five hundred is not sufficient. There must be three
thousand."

Mrs. Peyton made no reply. She sat a few minutes, and then arose and
went up-stairs. In about ten minutes she came down, and approaching
her son, with a warm glow of pleasure upon her face, placed a small
roll in his hands, saying as she did so--

"There is all you need, my son. The money you sent me so regularly
for the last five years, I have kept untouched for some such moment
as this. I did not feel that I needed it. Take it back, and start
fairly in the world. In a few more years I may need rest, as life
draws nearer to a close. Then I trust you will be in circumstances
so good that I needn't feel myself a burden to you."

"A burden? Dear mother! Do not speak of ever being a burden to me,"
said the young man, embracing his parent with tearful emotion.
"No--no," and he pushed back her hand; "I cannot take that money. It
is yours. I will not risk in business the little treasure you have
saved up so carefully. I may not succeed. No--no!" and he still
pushed back his mother's hand--"it is of no use--I cannot--I _will_
not take it!"

The roll of money fell to the floor.

"It is yours, Henry, not mine," urged the mother. "I did not stand
in need of it."

"Your son owed you much more than that. He was wrong that he did not
double the amount to you, in order to make up for former years of
neglect. No--no--I tell you, mother, I cannot take your money.
Nothing would tempt me to do it. I will wait a little longer. Other
opportunities will soon offer."

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