«I FOEGOT.” 
of others, provided they are ignorant of this escapade 
in your life, but that will never compensate for the loss 
of your respect and esteem. Your conscience will be- 
come easy, and you will begin to do many things 
now, that you would not have done before, had you 
made a push and paid that debt. It may not be 
too late yet. Do you owe money to any one, who 
may have considered that you bolted, and neg- 
lected or failed to pay him ? It may be such a long 
time ago that you think he has forgotten the cir- 
cumstances. Disabuse your mind of this vain hope, 
and know, if you never knew before, that a creditor 
never forgets the man who owes him money, and 
it is just the same vice versa, for however muck we 
may hear, or rather however often we may have 
heard (a great deal too often), the debtor exclaim, 
1 forgot,’ ‘I quite forgot’ it is a falsehood. We 
believe, believe firmly, that no more does the debtor 
forget his debt than creditor what is owing 
him, and that this exclamation, ‘I forgot’ is just, 
in plain terms, a lie, and another of the degrading 
results of debt, in making one a liar. ‘I forgot’ 
easily said, simple words, but, if they are untrue, far 
from simple in their after results, insofar that they 
are just an additional brand and scar upon the con- 
science. One lie begets another, and the next one 
will be bigger, and leave a larger scar, and so on, 
all this hardening process originating in the small words 
^I forgot.’ Had you fold the truth, and said, M 
can ’t ’ or ‘ could not ’ or even ‘ would not ’ far 
better than saying ‘ I forgot ’ what a very different man 
you might have been to-day ! If one can ’t pay one 
can always tell the truth, or if it be inexpedient, 
not advisable, or unnecessary to tell the truth, or 
even any portion of it, you cannot be under any 
circumstances called upon, or justified, to tell or 
in telling a lie. Just tell the simple fact, that you 
are unable to pay ; that is ‘quite enough for the 
creditor : depend upon it, it is little or nothing he 
cares for the why or wherefore ; the plain fact is 
quite enough, and perhaps more than enough, that 
you can ’t pay him the coin.” The debtor, however 
bold and manly he may have been, always degener- 
ates into a coward, he can’t look you in the face. 
He lives in f ear ! The tappal-box delivers over no 
welcome letters to him. The tappal cooly presumes 
on his indifference, and always late. What matter ? 
The box only contains bills, begging demands, or 
it may be, at times, a proctor’s letter. “ 111 news 
travels fast.” Late as ever he may be, the tappal 
cooly arrives too soon ! and an observant visitor at 
any of the coffee estates, if sharp in perception, 
