denial to yourself and family of all those little luxuries and
recreations which both so much need, and then say how deeply dyed
would be that dishonesty which would cause you, in a moment of
darker and deeper discouragement than usual, to throw the crushing
weight from your shoulders, and resolve to bear it no longer? You
must leave a man some hope in life if you would keep him active and
industrious in his sphere."

Mr. Petron said nothing in reply to this; but he looked sober. His
friend soon after left.

The merchant, as the reader may infer from his own acknowledgment,
was one of those men whose tendency to regard only their own
interests has become so confirmed a habit, that they can see nothing
beyond the narrow circle of self. Upon debtors he had never looked
with a particle of sympathy; and had, in all cases, exacted his own
as rigidly as if his debtor had not been a creature of human wants
and feelings. What had just been said, however, awakened a new
thought in his mind; and, as he reflected upon the subject, he saw
that there was some reason in what had been said, and felt half
ashamed of his allusion to the interest of the tailor's fifty-dollar
debt.

Not long after, a person came into his store, and from some cause
mentioned the name of Moale.

"He's an honest man--that I am ready to say of him," remarked Mr.
Petron.

"Honest, but very poor," was replied.