Half-Past Seven Stories
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION--"THE TOP O' THE MORNING" I. THE LITTLE LOST FOX II. THE BIG BOBSLED III. THE JOLLY ROGER IV. THE BLUE CROAKER, THE BRIGHT AGATE, AND THE LITTLE GRAY MIG V. THE OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED ON THE CANAL VI. TWO O' CAT VII. THE FAIRY LAMP VIII. THE ANIMALS' BIRTHDAY PARTY IX. DR. PHILEMON PIPP, THE PATENT MEDICINE MAN X. WHEN JEHOSOPHAT FORGOT HIS PIECE XI. OLE MAN PUMPKIN XII. THE NORWAY SPRUCE XIII. WHEN THE DOOR OPENED XIV. THE HOLE THAT RAN TO CHINA XV. THE PEPPERMINT PAGODA XVI. HE THAT TOOK THE CITY
into it. The man who (being single) does not save money on six
dollars a week, will not be apt to on sixty; and he who does not lay
up something in his first year of independent exertion, will be
pretty likely to wear a poor man's hair into his grave.
"No man who has the natural use of his faculties and his muscles,
has any right to tax others with the cost of his support, as this
class of non-financial gentlemen habitually do. It is their common
mistake to fancy that if a debt is only paid at last, the obligation
of the debtor is fulfilled; but the fact is not so. A man who sells
his property for another's promise to pay next week or next month,
and is compelled to wear out a pair of boots in running after his
due, which he finally gets after a year or two, is never really
paid. Very often, he has lost half the face of his demand, by not
having the money when he needed it, beside the cost and vexation of
running after it. There is just one way to pay an obligation in
full, and that is to pay it when due. He who keeps up a running
fight with bills and loans through life, is continually living on
other men's means, is a serious burden and a detriment to those who
deal with him, although his estate should finally pay every dollar
of his legal obligations.
"Inordinate expenditure is the cause of a great share of the crime
and consequent misery which devastate the world. The clerk who
spends more than he earns, is fast qualifying himself for a gambler
and a thief; the trader or mechanic who overruns his income, is very
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION--"THE TOP O' THE MORNING" I. THE LITTLE LOST FOX II. THE BIG BOBSLED III. THE JOLLY ROGER IV. THE BLUE CROAKER, THE BRIGHT AGATE, AND THE LITTLE GRAY MIG V. THE OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED ON THE CANAL VI. TWO O' CAT VII. THE FAIRY LAMP VIII. THE ANIMALS' BIRTHDAY PARTY IX. DR. PHILEMON PIPP, THE PATENT MEDICINE MAN X. WHEN JEHOSOPHAT FORGOT HIS PIECE XI. OLE MAN PUMPKIN XII. THE NORWAY SPRUCE XIII. WHEN THE DOOR OPENED XIV. THE HOLE THAT RAN TO CHINA XV. THE PEPPERMINT PAGODA XVI. HE THAT TOOK THE CITY