A WAY TO BE HAPPY. 151

 

understand. Perhaps there is a difference,
but we must leave others to define it—we
cannot. :

A grocer Mr. Parker became instead of a
hatter. Of the former business he was en-
tirely ignorant; of the latter he was perfect
master. But he would be a grocer—a mer-
chant. He commenced in the retail line,
with the determination, after he got pretty
well acquainted with the business, to be-
come a wholesale dealer. That idea pleased
his fancy. For two years he kept a retail
grocery-store, and then sold out, glad to get
rid of it. The loss was about one-third of
all he was worth. To make things worse,
there was a great depression in trade, and
real estate fell almost one-half in value. In
consequence of this, Mr. Parker’s income
from rents, after being forced to sacrifice a
very handsome piece of property to make
up the deficit that was called for in wind-
ing up his grocery business, did not give
him gifficient to meet his current family
expenses.