“He lied though.  He thought, as you were well off, that he must ask you a good stiff price, or you wouldn’t buy.”

“The scoundrel!”

“He got ahead of you, certainly.”

“But it’s the last time,” said I, angrily.

And so things went on.  Scarcely a day passed in which my fame as a wealthy citizen did not subject me to some kind of experiment from people in want of money.  If I employed a porter for any service and asked what was to pay, after the work was done, ten chances to one that he didn’t touch his hat and reply,

“Anything that you please, sir,” in the hope that I, being a rich man, would be ashamed to offer him less than about four times his regular price.  Poor people in abundance called upon me for aid; and all sorts of applications to give or lend money met me at every turn.  And when I, in self-defence, begged off as politely as possible, hints gentle or broad, according to the characters or feelings of those who came, touching the hardening and perverting influence of wealth, were thrown out for my especial edification.

And still the annoyance continues.  Nobody but myself doubts the fact that I am worth from seventy to a hundred thousand dollars, and I am, therefore, considered allowable game for all who are too idle or prodigal to succeed in the world; or as Nature’s almoner to all who are suffering from misfortunes.

Soon after the publication to which I have alluded was foisted upon our community as a veritable document, I found myself a secular dignitary in the church militant.  Previously I had been only a pew-holder, and an unambitious attendant upon the Sabbath ministrations of the Rev. Mr——.  But a new field suddenly opened before me; I was a man of weight and influence, and must be used for what I was worth.  It is no joke, I can assure the reader, when I tell them that the way my pocket suffered was truly alarming.  I don’t know, but I have seriously thought, sometimes, that if I hadn’t kicked loose from my dignity, I would have been gazetted as a bankrupt long before this time.

Soon after sending in my resignation as vestryman or deacon, I will not say which, I met the Rev. Mr——­, and the way he talked to me about the earth being the “Lord’s and the fullness thereof;” about our having the poor always with us; about the duties of charity, and the laying up of treasure in heaven, made me ashamed to go to church for a month to come.  I really began to fear that I was a doomed man and that the reputation of being a “wealthy citizen” was going to sink me into everlasting perdition.  But I am getting over that feeling now.  My cash-book, ledger, and bill-book set me right again; and I can button up my coat and draw my purse-strings, when guided by the dictates of my own judgment, without a fear of the threatened final consequences before my eyes.  Still, I am the subject of perpetual annoyance from all sorts of people, who will persist in believing that I am made of money;