Rich Enough, by Hannah Farnham Sawyer Lee

Transcribed from the 1837 Whipple and Damrell edition by David Price, email [email protected]

RICH ENOUGH;
A TALE OF THE TIMES

by the author of
“THREE EXPERIMENTS OF LIVING.”

And while they were eating and drinking, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon them.

Third Edition.

BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY WHIPPLE & DAMRELL,
No. 9 Cornhill.

new york:—samuel colman,
No. 114 Fulton Street.

1837.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, by
Whipple and Damrell,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.

CHAPTER I.

“Welcome,” said Mr. Draper, the rich merchant, to his brother, who entered his counting-room one fine spring morning.  “I am truly glad to see you—but what has brought you to the city, at this busy country season, when ploughing and planting are its life and sinews?”

“A motive,” said Howard, smiling, “that I am sure will need no apology with you—business!  I have acquired a few hundreds, which I wish to invest safely, and I want your advice.”

“When you say safely, I presume you mean to include profitably.”

“Ay, profitably and safely.”

“I am just fitting out a ship for Canton; what do you think of investing the sum in articles of foreign merchandise?”

“I confess,” said Howard, “I have great distrust of winds and waves.”

“Suppose you invest it in Eastern lands? many have made fortunes in this way.”

“I am not seeking to make a fortune,” said Howard, quietly;—“my object is to secure something for my family in case of accident, and I only want to invest what I do not require for present use in a manner that will bring compound interest.  I hope not to be obliged to take up the interest for many years, but to be adding it to the principal, with such sums as I may be able to spare from our daily exertions.”

“I perceive, brother,” replied Mr. Draper, a little scornfully, “you have not increased in worldly wisdom.”

“I have not been much in the way of it,” said Howard.—“Mine is a still, peaceful life—I study the changes of the atmosphere more than the science of worldly wisdom.”

“We can get along, however, but poorly without it,” replied Mr. Draper; “the harmlessness of the dove is no match for the cunning of the serpent.”

“True,” said Howard; “but if you mean me by the dove, there is no necessity for my venturing into the nest of serpents.  I am well aware that my habits of thinking and modes of life are tame and dull, compared to your projects and success;—but we are differently constituted, and while I honor your spirit and enterprise, and do justice to the honest and intelligent business men of your city, I am contented with my own lot, which is that of a farmer, whose object is to earn a competency from his native soil, or, in other words, from ploughing and planting.  I have no desire for speculation, no courage for it; neither do I think, with a family like mine, I have a right to risk my property.”

“There you are wrong; every body has a right to do as he pleases with his own property.”

“To be honest, then,” replied Howard, “I have none that I call exclusively my own. 

Property is given to us for the benefit of others; every man is accountable for his stewardship.”

“But can you do better than to double and treble it every year, or, by some fortunate speculation, convert ten thousand dollars into ten times ten thousand?”

“I should say,” replied Howard, “if this were a certainty, it would cease to be speculation, and I should feel bound to do it, within honest means.  But as the guardian of my family, I feel that I have no right to venture my little capital in a lottery.”

“It is lucky all men are not of your mind,” said Mr. Draper, rather impatiently, and taking up his pen, which he had laid down;—“but really, brother, I am full of engagements, and though I am rejoiced to see you, I must defer further conversation till we meet at dinner; then we shall have time to talk over your affairs; just now, I am wholly engaged.”

Near the dinner hour Howard went to his brother’s house.  It was large, and elegantly furnished, and, what in the city is rather uncommon, surrounded by trees and pleasure-grounds,

a fine yard in front, and a large garden in the rear.  Mr. Draper purchased the place when real estate was low, and it had since risen to more than double its original value.  Howard was conducted to the dining-room, where he found his sister-in-law, Mrs. Draper.  They met with much cordiality—but he perceived that she was thinner and paler than when they last met.

“You are not well, I fear,” said Howard, anxiously.

“I have a cold,” replied she; and with that nervous affection which often follows inquiries after the health, she gave a half-suppressed cough.  “Have you seen my husband?” she asked.

“Yes, I left the stage at the corner of State Street, and went directly to his counting-room; but I found him engrossed by business, and verily believe I should not have obtained a moment’s conversation after the brotherly welcome that his heart gave me in spite of teas, silks, hides, stocks, and per centage, if I had not had a little business of my own,—a little money to invest.”

“Are you, too, growing rich?” said Mrs. Draper, with a languid smile.

“O no,” replied Howard; “we farmers have not much prospect of growing rich.  If we earn a comfortable living, and lay by a little at the end of the year, we call ourselves thriving, and that is the most we can expect.”

“You have advantages,” said Mrs. Draper, “that do not belong to those who are striving to grow rich; you have wealth that money seldom can buy,—time.”

“We have our seasons of leisure,” returned Howard, “and yet, I assure you, we have employment enough to prize those periods.  You would be surprised to find how much constant occupation every season demands.  Spring is the great storehouse of our wealth, but we must toil to open its treasures; they are hid in the bowels of the earth.”

“You remind me,” said Mrs. Draper, “of the story of the farmer who had two sons.  To one he left a large sum of gold; to the other his farm, informing him he would find an equivalent portion hid in the earth.  The one invested his money in merchandise, and

made ‘haste to grow rich;’ the other dug every year with renewed hope of finding the gold, and continued planting and sowing as his father had done before him.  At the end of fifteen years, they met on the