the advices and hints of his mother, a woman who well knew that her boy's means of living would depend on the manner in which he exerted himself. "If George be honest and steady," she would sometimes observe to her friends, "I do not fear for what may happen to him. He may never be anything else than a workman; but he may be as happy in that condition as in any other, provided he do his duty, and that I hope he always will; at least it shall not be my fault if he do Would that every boy in humble life had so good a

not."

mother!

Let us now leave George for a while, till we give a view of Charles Grinton's outset in life.

When Charles heard that his late schoolfellow, George Macqueen, was turned dyer, and that he was now seen going to and from his work with a coarse blue woollen apron, and that his hands and nails were as dark as indigo could make them, he thought he had done a low thing; though, as his parents were poor, he considered that hardly anything better could have been expected from him. From this time, therefore, a coolness sprung up between the two acquaintances; and as their walk in life was different, they forthwith had no communication with each other. The choice of a profession formed an exceedingly difficult matter of consideration for Charles. His mother frequently importuned him to settle upon some line of life; and at length he decided on becoming a bookseller, which he was informed was a genteel, easy profession. His mother, therefore, made interest with a gentleman in that business to take her son as a junior apprentice, and with him he was immediately installed behind the counter. A few days, however, saw the termination of Charles's career in this profession. He was disgusted with the duty of sweeping out the shop, a thing he had not calculated on, and so threw up his place, and came home once more to his mother. What was now to be done?

Another kind of shop business was thought of. He took a fancy to be an ironmonger, because ironmongers sold gunpowder, and clasp-knives, and other articles that boys are fond of; and also because ironmongers keep shop-porters, who do all the dirtiest and heaviest work. So he was placed with an ironmonger in the High Street, and here he seemed more inclined to remain. But, alas! here he also foundered on his pride or false shame. One day he was ordered by his master to carry home a frying-pan to the house of a customer in George's Square, an order which he could by no means shift from his shoulders, for the porter had gone to dinner; all the other lads were engaged; and there were strict injunctions given that the frying-pan should be home at the customer's by a certain hour now near at hand. Seeing there was no help for this misfortune, Charles plucked up courage, and tucked the culinary utensil under his arm; and to save the risk of meeting with any of his Lawn

market acquaintances, slunk away on his errand by one of the least frequented lanes of the city.

By this precaution, and a degree of good luck, he escaped the observation of any one who knew him till he was within a few yards of the house to which he was proceeding; when, oh horror of horrors! out there poured, from an adjacent pleasure-ground, a long string of young ladies composing a boarding-school, to many of whom he and his family were well known. The approach of a wild beast ready to devour him could not have been more appalling to the poor distressed genteel young apprentice than this band of harmless young women. In an agony of pride and confusion, he hastened to conceal the luckless frying-pan, by thrusting the flat part up between his back and his coat, leaving the long handle to project out below, but in a way he hoped would not be observed, especially as he calculated on sidling along with his face to the ladies as they passed him. Had Charles not shuffled in this ineffectual manner to conceal what he had no reason to be ashamed of, he might have escaped detection-for who heeds an apprentice boy whatever he be carrying? As the case was, his gestures caused some of the ladies to look towards him; and one seeing who he was, stopped with her companions to inquire how his mother was in health, as she heard she had been poorly.

While Charles was mumbling out some sort of answer to this interrogatory, the time had elapsed when the utensil he carried should have been home, and the cookmaid, losing all patience, ran to the head of the area steps to see if she could discover any appearance of its approach. What a blow to Charles's gentility! As he was making a stiff bow to the ladies, the enraged cook came up, and seizing the handle of the frying-pan, which stuck out like a tail behind, flourished it aloft with one hand, while with the other she gave the luckless apprentice a shake which almost deprived him of his senses. At the same time a laugh from the ladies, who were amused with the incident, made him ready to die of shame, and taking to his heels, he fairly fled down one of the walks of the Meadows. So ended Charles's experience as an ironmonger.

No persuasions could cause this infatuated youth to return to what was in every respect an eligible employment. It was in vain that his mother added threats to admonition to move him from his purpose; and as she was, like many mothers, foolishly over-indulgent to her children, and wanted firmness to compel obedience, her son was permitted to grow up without any settled pursuit. By the exertions of a friend of the family, he was taken into the employment of an accountant, who gave him some occupation as a clerk; but this was a precarious means of subsistence, and he had to depend in a great measure on his mother for his clothing, board, and lodging.

It is a true saying that idleness is the mother of all mischief.

It was so in the case of young Grinton. He had too much idle time on his hands, and this he spent chiefly in two ways. During the day he frequented stable-yards and repositories for the sale of horses; in the evening he attended clubs and glee-singing societies. It is instructive to mark his declension from this point. He had long been anxious to make the acquaintanceship of the famous Ralph Petersham, a young gentleman of first-rate abilities as a horse-jockey. Ralph was the only son of a wealthy and respectable clergyman, and, we believe, had been bred to the profession of a writer or attorney; but this was a business not at all to his liking. Nature seemed to have intended him for a groom; and he therefore, at an exceedingly early age, showed his love for horses, saddles, whips, spurs, and all the other furniture of the stable-yard. Instead of applying himself to the legal profession, he devoted nearly the whole of his time to shows and sales of horses, and thus became acquainted with many of the nobility and landed gentry in various parts of the country. Being light in weight, he also used to ride a horse at the annual races, and hence was enrolled one of the most celebrated characters in the sporting world.

Charles's career in folly was pretty hurried after he had been initiated into the craft of jockeyship by the well-skilled Mr Petersham. Even now, however, he was not past being saved from the effects of his behaviour, had he made an effort to free himself from the trammels of his idle associates. This effort he never made; and sinking into intemperate habits, was finally lost to all the decencies of life, notwithstanding the prayers and intreaties of his broken-hearted mother. That mother, alas! did not live to witness the concluding scene in her son's career. Her decease shot a pang through his heart which the deceitful glass could not assuage. His sister having some time previously been established in a distant part of the country as a governess, Charles now found himself not only deprived of the means of consolation, but without the means of support; for, as may be supposed, he had already been dismissed from the situation in which he had latterly earned a pittance of wages.

In this condition, and under the loss of Mr Petersham's friendship, which soon followed, we behold the conceited and impoverished Charles Grinton reduced to a state verging on destitution. To procure employment in Edinburgh was impossible, for his character was known to be bad. No one would trust him, notwithstanding his professions of amendment. Nobody would employ a being who had behaved with such heedlessness, when young men of the best character could be procured. As a last resource, therefore, and on the strength of a small subscription, he was compelled to go forth to seek bread as an emigrant beyond the Atlantic. While he is pursuing his voyage on board of a vessel bound from Greenock to New York, let us take up the history of the industrious youth who

had seven or eight years before been his humble and despised acquaintance.

George Macqueen, in the course of his apprenticeship, was not less distinguished for his laborious exertions than his shrewd intelligence on points connected with his profession. He had the tact to perceive that there are two ways of fulfilling the duties of a workman at the employment in which he was engaged: the first, he observed, consisted in pursuing the business by habitual routine, without a single thought as to principles, and which leads to unvarying manual labour through life; the second, he remarked, consisted in a close attention to the principles upon which the craft is founded, and which, when attended to practically, as well as theoretically, will have the tendency to lead the artisan to superior modes of working, and consequently to honour and profit. He therefore devoted a certain portion of his spare time, during the evenings, to the study of different branches of natural philosophy, and particularly chemistry, often practising experiments at home, in order to render himself perfect in the elementary principles of that exceedingly important science. And how much to be commended were these rational pursuits, in comparison with those of the infatuated Grinton! While the one was gaining a knowledge of some of the grandest operations of nature, the other was most likely engaged in the undignified occupation of worming the tongue of a dog, or trimming a horse's tail.

Whatever was the character of George's studies, it is certain they proved advantageous to him in a pecuniary sense. He acquired the regard and confidence of his master, which in itself was a great point gained; and on the expiry of his seven years' apprenticeship, was considered one of the most expert and valuable workmen in the trade. He had not wrought more than twelve months as a journeyman, cheering the declining years of his parents by his filial attentions to their comfort, when an opening occurred for him of a lucrative description at an extensive dyeing and calico-printing establishment in the neighbourhood of one of the large manufacturing towns in the west of Scotland. Here, by the recommendation of his master, he was installed chief superintendent, a situation which he held for about two years, when a still higher promotion awaited him.

His intelligence and professional skill having been noticed by a gentleman from New York, who was proceeding on a tour through the different manufacturing districts, with the view of picking up a knowledge of some of the principal branches of the cotton and silk trade, and of procuring some good hands, in order to improve the manufacture of these fabrics in his own country, George received from him the handsome offer of being made manager in a large concern in New York, which was already set on foot, and in a flourishing condition. "We only require a few skilful individuals, and the knowledge they would

bring," said Mr Vanderlin to George, "in order to rival British fabrics; and to such men as you we do not hesitate to offer the most liberal terms. Name your price, and we shall endeavour to meet your wishes."

To so gracious an offer, other circumstances concurring, George, or, as we should now call him, Mr Macqueen, gave his willing consent. He sailed from Scotland under auspices the most flattering to his feelings; and what was equally pleasing, was conscious of carrying along with him the respect and esteem of all who knew him. How unlike all this was to the expatriation of the wretched Grinton! How different were the prospects of each, on seeing before them the wide-spread world of waters which intervene betwixt the brown hills of their native land and the fertile shores of the states of New England!

То а

We have not now much to tell of our two heroes; but in the little which remains to be mentioned, lies not the least striking part of the moral which the story unfolds. Mr Macqueen could hardly fail in the enterprise in which he had engaged. thoughtfulness and activity, which few exhibit in combination at his years, he joined a perfect knowledge of his business, both theoretically and practically. He modelled the establishment in which he was placed on the plan of that of the extensive concern he had formerly superintended in Britain; introduced a number of those extraordinary mechanical processes which formerly were almost entirely confined to some of the great Glasgow and Manchester factories; and finally, as we are told, raised the character of the goods produced to very nearly a level with that of the productions of England and Switzerland. For these great services Mr Macqueen was duly rewarded. From being manager, he was elevated to the condition of master, being given a share in the business; while a liberal allowance was still made to him for his continuing to exercise the functions of director.

Thus, from less to more-from being a poor toiling boy at a wage of no more than half-a-crown a-week-did this persevering young man rise, before he was thirty years of age, to be one of the first and most respected men in New York, now one of the most populous and wealthy cities in the world. And you will perceive there was no witchery, no magic, in the manner of his elevation. His success, under the blessing of God, was undeniably owing to his own conduct. Other young men who had started in life at the same period, in the same profession, and who had had precisely similar opportunities, still remained in almost their original condition. They had neither cultivated their moral nor intellectual faculties, nor resisted the petty temptations which on all sides assail the youth on his entrance into the busy scenes of life.

But where was the luckless Charles Grinton, that he did not appear to congratulate his fellow-townsman upon his good fortune? He had, as we have mentioned, sailed for New York in