THE STORY OF PICK FORD AND CO. 135 



of Punctuality : A disorderly man is always in 

 a hurry ; lie lias no time to speak to you, because 

 he is i^oing- elscnvliere ; and when he gets there, 

 he is too late for his business ; or he luust hurry 

 away to another before he can finish it. Punc- 

 tuality gives weight to Character. " Such a man 

 has made an Api^ointment : — then I know he 

 will keep it." And this generates punctuality in 

 you ; for, like other Virtues, it propagates itself. 

 Servants and Children must be j^^mctual, ^\'liere 

 their Leader is so. Appointments, indeed, become 

 Debts. I oAve you Pnnctuality, if I have made 

 an Ajipointment with you : and have no right to 

 throw away your time, if I do my own. 



Of course, this good advice and insistence upon 

 its being followed would have been of little avail 

 had the author of it not been continually alert 

 to see that his instructions took root. Ile^ at any 

 rate, practised what he preached, and rose early, 

 was diligent all day, and went late to bed. As a 

 business man whose business was conducted over 

 a large stretch of country — extending chiefly in a 

 diagonal line two hundred miles long, between 

 London and Liverpool — he knew that only by 

 personal supervision and by great and unwearied 

 exertions in travelling could his subordinates be 

 kept in a state of efficiency ; and he accordingly 

 was always travelling. By post-chaise or by 

 private carriage he flew, day and night, along 

 the great roads between London and Holyhead, 

 and London, Derby, Manchester and Liverpool ; 



