"It is a dreadful thing to be poor, isn't it, Nat?"
"It is bad enough, but not the worst thing in the world," answered Nat. "Dr. Franklin said it was worse to be mean."
"I shan't dispute with him on that point," replied Charlie, "for there is only one side to that question. But I was thinking how poor boys are obliged to work instead of going to school, and of the many hard things they are obliged to meet."
"I think of it often," added Nat, "but then I remember that almost all the men whose lives I have read, were poor boys, and this shows that poverty is not so bad as some other things. But I don't quite believe Dr. Franklin's remark about the ease of becoming rich."
"What was his remark?" inquired Charlie.
"'The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market,'" answered Nat; "and if that isn't plain enough, I should like to know how it could be made plainer."
"Well, I don't believe that," said Charlie. "If men could become rich as easily as they can go to market, there would be precious few poor people in the world. But is that really what he means?"
"Certainly; only industry and frugality, he says, must be practised in order to get it."
"That alters the case," answered Charlie, "but even then I can't quite believe it. Are all industrious and frugal people wealthy?"
"No," replied Nat; "and that is the reason I doubt the truth of Dr. Franklin's remark. Some of the most industrious and frugal people in the world are poor."