The Monikins | Page 8

and scamper as if the highway were too narrow for their eccentric
courses, before they are fairly seated in the saddle, but who afterward
drive as directly at their goals as the arrow parting from the bow), most
indulge their sympathies at the commencement of their careers, are the
most apt toward the close to get a proper command of their feelings,
and to reduce them within the bounds of common sense and prudence.
Before five-and-twenty, my father was as exemplary and as constant a
devotee of Plutus as was then to be found between Ratcliffe Highway
and Bridge Street:--I name these places in particular, as all the rest of
the great capital in which he was born is known to be more indifferent
to the subject of money.
My ancestor was just thirty, when his master, who like himself was a
bachelor, very unexpectedly, and a good deal to the scandal of the
neighborhood, introduced a new inmate into his frugal abode, in the
person of an infant female child. It would seem that some one had been
speculating on his stock of weakness too, for this poor, little,
defenceless, and dependent being was thrown upon his care, like Tom
himself, through the vigilance of the parish officers. There were many
good-natured jokes practised on the prosperous fancy-dealer, by the
more witty of his neighbors, at this sudden turn of good fortune, and
not a few ill-natured sneers were given behind his back; most of the
knowing ones of the vicinity finding a stronger likeness between the
little girl and all the other unmarried men of the eight or ten adjoining
streets, than to the worthy housekeeper who had been selected to pay
for her support. I have been much disposed to admit the opinions of
these amiable observers as authority in my own pedigree, since it
would be reaching the obscurity in which all ancient lines take root, a
generation earlier, than by allowing the presumption that little Betsey
was my direct male ancestor's master's daughter; but, on reflection, I
have determined to adhere to the less popular but more simple version
of the affair, because it is connected with the transmission of no small
part of our estate, a circumstance of itself that at once gives dignity and

importance to a genealogy.
Whatever may have been the real opinion of the reputed father touching
his rights to the honors of that respectable title, he soon became as
strongly attached to the child, as if it really owed its existence to
himself. The little girl was carefully nursed, abundantly fed, and throve
accordingly. She had reached her third year, when the fancy-dealer
took the smallpox from his little pet, who was just recovering from the
same disease, and died at the expiration of the tenth day.
This was an unlooked-for and stunning blow to my ancestor, who was
then in his thirty-fifth year and the head shopman of the establishment,
which had continued to grow with the growing follies and vanities of
the age. On examining his master's will, it was found that my father,
who had certainly aided materially of late in the acquisition of the
money, was left the good-will of the shop, the command of all the stock
at cost, and the sole executorship of the estate. He was also intrusted
with the exclusive guardianship of little Betsey, to whom his master
had affectionately devised every farthing of his property. An ordinary
reader may be surprised that a man who had so long practised on the
foibles of his species, should have so much confidence in a mere
shopman, as to leave his whole estate so completely in his power; but,
it must be remembered, that human ingenuity has not yet devised any
means by which we can carry our personal effects into the other world;
that "what cannot be cured must be endured"; that he must of necessity
have confided this important trust to some fellow-creature, and that it
was better to commit the keeping of his money to one who, knowing
the secret by which it had been accumulated, had less inducement to be
dishonest, than one who was exposed to the temptation of covetousness,
without having a knowledge of any direct and legal means of gratifying
his longings. It has been conjectured, therefore, that the testator thought,
by giving up his trade to a man who was as keenly alive as my ancestor
to all its perfections, moral and pecuniary, he provided a sufficient
protection against his falling into the sin of peculation, by so amply
supplying him with simpler means of enriching himself. Besides, it is
fair to presume that the long acquaintance had begotten sufficient
confidence to weaken the effect of that saying which some wit has put

into the mouth of