142 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND. [11.

 

as he could; looking through old accounts, contemp-
tuously throwing aside unpaid bills of doubtful cus-
tomers whom it would never be worth his while to
dun now, and wondering to himself how he could
ever have taken the trouble with his trade which but
a few hours ago had appeared so necessary and had
indeed produced to him such good results.

For, had not Simon been an industrious and hard-
working man, he would never have saved up money
enough to justify his relaxing his efforts in the after-
noon of life; had not those efforts been relaxed he
would have had no time for roving about, and now and
then attending sales by auction; and had he not so
attended, he would never have fallen in with the old
piece of furniture, never heard of the Silver Fairy, and,
worse than all, as a natural consequence, this veracious
story would never have been written. The labour of
his past life, however, seemed to Simon to have been
somewhat useless, seeing that in a moment of good
fortune he had apparently stumbled upon a means of
amassing wealth far more easily, and in fact without
any labour at all.

And such is the perversity of human nature, that
instead of being filled with gratitude at the luck
which had befallen him and the happy prospect before
him, Iam afraid that Simon cast back thoughts of
regret to the long years of life spent in toil and labour,
and felt injured because he had not discovered the Silver
Fairy at an earlier period of existence, when he had
youth and vigour to enjoy her bounties in a greater
degree and for a longer time than he could nowhope for,
He passed, as I say, a good part of that day in look-