lO THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
happiness than any other course that is open 
to me just now.” 
“ Well, well, Charley! you have got it bad,” 
said Rudolph. “On what did they feed you 
last term ? Indigo and salt pork ? Why, man, 
you have the bluest fit of dyspeptic hypo- 
chrondria that I have seen in many a long 
day. Rouse up and shake off the spectre, or 
blue mass won’t save you.” 
“ I may be dyspeptic. Lew,” was the reply, 
“ a little crazy, or something worse, but that I 
am downright serious is most certain. I would 
not give a dry fig for life; it has nothing to 
promise worthy of the pain and fret of attain¬ 
ment : 
‘ It is to live and wish that I were not, 
To feel the ills of life, and then to lie 
In drear oblivion in the grave, and rot.’ 
To live just to amass wealth is a contempt¬ 
ible existence; the more so, as all your faults 
and weaknesses are sure to be dragged forth to 
public scorn by the quarrels of your heirs. You 
know that several cases of late have occurred in 
which millionaires and railroad kings have had 
their memories blackened in that way when 
