138 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND. [ut

 

at once be abandoned ; and it was curious to see how
many objections to the trade, which had never been
spoken of in the family before, had all along been
entertained by the various members thereof.

It was a ‘low business altogether,’ said Martha ;
‘terrible wearing at times, remarked Simon himself ;
and even Dolly observed that there were great anxie-
ties connected with the uncertainty of the supply at
times, and the complaints made by some people of the
quality of the article supplied. It turned out that
Simon had never liked it, that Martha had always
thought it a degrading employment, and Dolly had
often wished that her grandfather lived in the country
and had some more agreeable occupation. So from
that morning the old-established firm of Simon
Ricketts and Co. (though the Co. only existed in im-
agination) was summarily dissolved, and the stream of
milk from that quarter ceased to flow.

But although to relinquish one occupation was
comparatively easy, it was a different matter altogether
to select another. Simon had reached a certain age,
at which men cannot learn a new business, and if he
had possessed the greatest talent for doing so, he
would hardly have been able to bring himself to
select one rather than another, being perfectly ignor-
ant of all. There was of course the alternative of re-
maining idle for the rest of his life, and living, as he
expressed it, ‘like a gentleman ;’ but to this he felt
scarcely equal, To a man who had worked all his
life idleness would be anything but agreeable, and of
this fact Simon was quite clever enough to be aware.
So the three talked matters over for some time with-