CHAP. XV.[ToC]
THE WINDING UP.
If I should undertake to tell my readers what lessons this story teaches, I am not sure but they would laugh at me. I fancy I see their bright eyes twinkle, as I begin to talk about these lessons, and I almost hear them say to one another, that Uncle Frank might as well carry a lantern in broad daylight, as to spend his time in telling us what this story teaches. Some of them wonder, perhaps, if Uncle Frank really takes his readers for a set of little dunces.
Well, then, my shrewd little boy, what does the story teach?
"Why it teaches that the Peddler's Boy set out to be somebody, and he was somebody."
Very well. Anything else, little girl? I must catechise you a little. What do you learn from it?
"That anybody can do anything he sets out to do, and that he can be anything he sets out to be."
Bravo! that is pretty well, only a little too strong. And what else? Why didn't Frederick get along in the world as well as Samuel?
"Because he was a coward."