1856.] SometJiing Advantageous', or, a Family Fracas, 31 



SOMETHING ADVANTAGEOUS; 



OR, A FAMILY FRACAS- 



I ONCE attended a very poor old man of the name of Jordan, in his last 

 illness. I call him poor, but yet he was not in want, and had about him 

 the comforts of life. When he was near his end, he said to mc — 



' Doctor, I want to know the truth from you. I am not in the habit of 

 being flattered by the world. There was a time, indeed, when it 'fooled 

 me to the top of my bent;' but that was long ago. Do you not flatter 

 me, but tell me your real opinion. Shall I soon die, or shall I linger on 

 a brief career, in a world I am quite willing to be done with ?' 



' You desire mc,' replied I, 'to be candid with you, and I will. You 

 are on your death bed.' 



' How soon shall I be immortal ?' 



' That I can not say. But your hours, so far as human experience can 

 teach me to predict, are numbered.' 



He was silent for a few moments, and a slight spasm passed across his 

 face. 



'Well,' he said, 'it is the lot of all. I have lived long enough.' 



' Is there no friend or relation, Mr. Jordan,' said I, 'to whom you would 

 wish to send ? You are here, as you have often told me, quite alone in 

 lodgings. Perhaps you would like to revive some old recollections before 

 you leave the world.' 



' Not one,' he said. 



' Are you so completely isolated ? 



• Most completely. I have tried all relations, and found them wanting. 

 But still I have remembered them, and made my will. It is now between 

 the mattress and sacking of this bed, and Mr. Shaw, the only honest at- 

 torney I ever met with, and who resides in Lincoln's Inn Fields, will 

 carry my intentions into effect. I was rich once in early life. How dark 

 a day.' 



'What day?' 



' To-day. How dark and misty it has come over, doctor.' 



His sight was going fast, and I felt certain that it would require but 

 little patience, and a small sacrifice of time to see the last of Mr. Jordan. 



'Yes,' he continued, speaking in an odd, spasmodic fashion. 'Y^es, 1 

 was rich, and had many a crawling sycophant about me, many smiling 



