DOLLARS AND DIMES.
“Yes; and don’t you presume to show yourself anywhere until you get it filled.” “Not among good people?” No, my dear Simplicity, not among “good people.” They will receive you with a galvanic ghost of a smile, seared up by an indistinct recollection of the “ten commandments;” but it will be as short-lived as their stay with you. You are not welcome—that’s the amount of it. They are all in a perspiration lest you should be delivered of a request for their assistance before they can get rid of you. They are “very busy,” and, what’s more, they always will be busy when you call, until you get to the top of fortune’s ladder.
Climb, man! climb! Get to the top of the ladder, though adverse circumstances and false friends break every round in it! and see what a glorious and extensive prospect of human nature you’ll get when you arrive at the summit! Your gloves will be worn out shaking hands with the very people who didn’t recognize your existence two months ago. “You must come and make me a long visit;” “you must step in at any time;” “you’ll always be welcome;” it is such a long time since they had the pleasure of a visit from you, that they begin to fear you never intended to come; and they’ll cap the climax by inquiring, with an injured air, “if you are near-sighted, or why you have so often passed them in the street without speaking.”
Of course, you will feel very much like laughing in their faces, and so you can. You can’t do anything wrong, now that your “pocket is full.” At the most, it will only be “an eccentricity.” You can use anybody’s neck for a footstool, bridle anybody’s mouth with a silver bit, and have as many “golden opinions” as you like. You won’t see a frown again between this and your tombstone!