82 SEEKING EMPLOYMENT 



religious duty. The first carries him into the region of 

 extravagance and folly, the other commits him to the 

 lowest pit of despondency and despair. • 



I was silently and gloomily lamenting my sad fate, 

 Avhen one of the book-keepers at the establishment where 

 I had so repeatedly sought employment, and who had 

 been in my father's service, sent to "say he wished to 

 speak to me. I hurried to the office. He told me he had 

 just heard that a certain person who drove out of the 

 yard was about to leave. Upon my doubting the truth 

 of his information, he assured me that the man had taken 

 an inn on the road ; and consequently, to make use of a 

 hackneyed term, must vacate his seat on or before a 

 certain day then fast aj^proaching. Seats of another 

 kind are frequently vacated, and as eagerly sought for 

 by hungry applicants. 



There were four proprietors on this road, each possess- 

 ing an equal right to the appointment ; but the London 

 man was considered the one whose sanction or interest it 

 was most desirous to obtain ; therefore, to him T went in 

 the morning and stated my business. He had not heard 

 anything about the man leaving, and said that he could 

 not, or should not, trouble himself in the matter. I then 

 waited the arrival of the coach in the evening, and asked 

 the driver himself, as he and I had been acquainted some 

 little time. He decidedly told me that it was not his 

 intention to leave. I told this to the book-keeper, who 

 smiled and replied, " He will leave," and hinted to me the 

 reason for his denying it. Thus was I bandied about, 

 from one to the other, without any satisfactory arrange- 

 ment. At last I went to my old friend the wine-merchant. 



