"Why so, Master Frank?"

"Are there not always plenty of poor and helpless human beings upon
whom to bestow their love? are there not orphans and homeless
creatures whom they might adopt?"

"There are; but it requires wealth for such benevolences, and the
goddess Fortune is very capricious; whilst one must be very poor
indeed that cannot spare a few crumbs of bread once a day. Besides,
admitting that this mania is blamable when carried to excess, still it
must be respected, for it behoves us to reverence age even in its
foibles."

Frank, whose nature was so very susceptible, that a single grain of
good seed soon ripened into a complete virtue, bent his head in token
of acquiescence.

"Now the old lady loved these gold-fish as the apples of her eyes, and
her astonishment and grief, in beholding the state they were in, was
indescribable."

"And yet it was a loss that might have been easily repaired."

"Ah, you think so, Jack, do you? If you were to lose Knips, would the
first monkey that came in your way replace him in your affections?"

"That is a very different thing--I brought Knips up."

"No; it is precisely the same thing. She had the fish when they were