"Where is South America?" said I.

"You had better let me tell my story," replied Jackson, "and after I
have done, you can ask any questions you like, but if you stop me, it
will take a week to finish it; yesterday we lost the whole day."

"That's very true," replied I, "then I will do so."

"There were two other clerks in the counting-house--the head clerk,
whose name was Manvers, and your father, who was in the counting-house
but a few months before me. Our master, whose name was Evelyn, was
very particular with both your father and myself, scanning our
work daily, and finding fault when we deserved it. This occasioned a
rivalry between us, which made us both very active, and I received
praise quite as often as he did. On Sunday, Mr Evelyn used to ask
your father and me to spend the day. We went to church in the
forenoon and dined with him. He had a daughter a little younger than
we were. She was your mother. Both of us, as we grew up, were very
attentive to her, and anxious to be in her good graces. I cannot say
which was preferred at first, but I rather think that if anything I
was the favourite, during the first two years of our being acquainted
with her. I was more lively and a better companion than your father,
who was inclined to be grave and thoughtful. We had been about four
years in the counting-house, when my mother died--my father had been
dead some time before I went into it--and at her death I found my
share of her property to amount to about L2500. But I was not yet
twenty-one years of age. I could not receive it for another year. Mr
Evelyn, who had till then every reason to be satisfied with my
conduct, used to joke with me, and say that as soon as I was of age,
he would allow me, if I chose it, to put the money in the business,