“‘But we are keeping our young friend too long, my dear brother,’ said Charles. ‘His poor mother and sister will be anxious for his return. So good by for the present. Good by. No, not a word now. Good by.’ And the brothers hurried him out, shaking hands with him all the way, and affecting, very unsuccessfully (for they were poor hands at deception), to be wholly unconscious of the feelings that mastered him.
“The next day, he was appointed to the vacant stool in the counting-house of Cheeryble Brothers, with a salary of one hundred and twenty pounds a year. ‘And I think, my dear brother,’ said Charles, ‘that if we were to let them that little cottage at Bow, something under the usual rent—Eh, brother Ned?’
“‘For nothing at all,’ said his brother, ‘We are rich, and should be ashamed to touch the rent under such circumstances as these. For nothing at all, my dear brother.’
“‘Perhaps it would be better to say something,’ suggested the other, mildly. ‘We might say fifteen or twenty pound; and if it was punctually paid, make it up to them in some other way. It would help to preserve habits of frugality, you know, and remove any painful sense of overwhelming obligation. And I might secretly advance a small loan toward a little furniture; and you might secretly advance another small loan, brother Ned. And if we find them doing well we can change the loans into gifts; carefully, and by degrees, without pressing upon them too much. What do you say now, brother?’
“Brother Ned gave his hand upon it, and not only said it should be done, but had it done. And in one short week, Nicholas took possession of his stool, and his mother and sister took possession of the house; and all was hope, bustle, and lightheartedness.”
There are Cheeryble old bachelors in real life; genial souls, and genuine benefactors to mankind.
When they are so, I think they deserve more credit
than married men of similar characters; for the
genial virtues are fostered by kindly
domestic influences, as fruit is
matured and sweetened by
the sunshine.
The dog in the kennel growls at his fleas; the dog that is busy hunting does not feel them.
Chinese Proverb.