"Well, Lloyd," returned Dunbar, "all that I have to say on this subject is, that if you have any fancy for this looking after other people's affairs, I have not. I think I shall find just as much as I can well do in looking after and taking care of my own. My father has set his heart on seeing me rise in the world, and has sacrificed much to that end: he shall not be disappointed, unless the Fates are against me. I mean to rise. If I fail in my purpose, the fault shall not lie at my door."
"And I mean to rise also," said Hudson, in a calm, yet firm voice. "All these severe and prolonged studies which I have entered into and passed through, cannot remain unproductive in my mind. They will give me the power of self-elevation; and that power I intend calling into full requisition. What the particular result will be, I cannot tell, nor am I in any concern about it. That all will come out right, both in regard to myself and others, I do not doubt."
[CHAPTER II.]
BEGINNING TO RISE.
LAW was finally decided upon as the profession for Lawrence Dunbar, and he was placed in the office of an attorney named Harker. At the same time, Hudson commenced the study of medicine. To sustain these young men for two or three years longer, required sacrifices to be made at home. The father of Dunbar had already unjustly deprived his daughters of many advantages, in order to provide for the elevation of the family through the eminence to be acquired by the son; and now he proposed that they should learn trades, in order to support themselves, and relieve him of the burden of their maintenance.
Ellen, who was a year older than Lawrence, and Mary, who was two years younger, accordingly went to learn trades soon after the son entered upon his legal studies. The one became a mantua-maker, and the other a tailoress. Six months of apprenticeship proved sufficient to qualify Ellen and Mary to take care of themselves. After that time, they went out into families to sew, and were rarely at home except on Sundays. Although not fairly dealt by, the two girls did not murmur, nor was their affection for their brother at all diminished. In fact, the common purpose of the family was one in which Ellen and Mary took their appropriate share, and felt their allotted interest. To Lawrence was committed the task of elevating and giving to the family a name, and it was their duty, as well as pleasure, to aid in all ways possible. So they felt, and so they acted. The acquiring of a trade, and the maintenance of themselves, in order that the expense of supporting Lawrence, until able to support himself, might be the more easily borne, were not matters of necessity, so much as they were matters of choice, after the suggestion as to what would be best for them to do, had been made by their father. That is, Mr. Dunbar did not say that they must learn trades and support themselves; but merely suggested it, as a relief to himself, more heavily burdened with expenses than he could well bear. He well knew that a hint would be sufficient. Had he not, a command would have done what a word accomplished.
It did not take more than a year for Lawrence to rise high enough to feel superior to all his family—father, mother, and sisters; and to allude to the former as the "old man" and the "old woman." His fine talents and superior education made him a favorite with his legal preceptor, who took pleasure in introducing him to persons moving in a much higher sphere, and into families where there was a degree of elegance and refinement far beyond what he had been used to seeing. He next began to be ashamed of Ellen and Mary, who were without any polite accomplishments, and degraded to the position of mere sempstresses; and this, too, when they generously supplied him with pocket-money out of their hard earnings!
At twenty-two, Lawrence Dunbar was admitted to practice. The attorney under whom his studies had been conducted, saw what was in him.
"We shall hear of that young man yet," he said, in allusion to his student, while conversing with a member of the profession on the day Lawrence was admitted to the bar. "He has got it in him, if ever a young lawyer had. Shrewd, acute, ardent, and ambitious; there is nothing in the way of his rising in the world. Ten years from this, and he will be on the Bench, or in the Halls of Legislation."
"If not too scrupulous about the means necessary to be used."