Seba Smith

“ Mr. Sharp colored a good deal, but kept on carving. Mrs. Sharp stared very wildly, first at Peter and then at her husband.
"What in the world does this mean?" said she. "Mr. Sharp, I did n't know we were to have company to dinner."
"We are not," said the husband. "This young man has the impudence to take his seat at the table unasked, and says he is going to board out the amount of the bill."
"Well, really, this is a pretty piece of politeness," said Mrs. Sharp, looking very hard at Peter.
"Madam," said Peter, "hunger will drive a man through a stone wall. I must have my board somewhere." ”

“ Sharp himself, who was at his accustomed seat at the desk where Peter had before so often seen him. Peter thought, as he had got fairly into the store, he would not back out; so he stepped up to Mr. Sharp without a look of recognition, and asked if he would not like to subscribe for some magazines. Mr. Sharp, who either did not recognize Peter, or chose not to appear to recognize him, took the magazines and looked at them, and found a couple he said he would like to take, and inquired the terms. They were each three dollars a year in advance. ”

“ That is, he would receive a quantity of magazines from a distant publisher, at a discount, and get up his own list of subscribers about the city, and serve them through the year at the regular subscription price, which would leave the amount of the said discount a clear profit in his pocket, or rather a compensation for his time and labor. There are many persons in this city who obtain a livelihood in the same way.
Peter's commissions being small, and his capital still smaller, he was obliged to transact his business with great care and circumspection, in order to make both ends meet. ”

“ He adopted a rule, therefore, to make all his subscribers pay their year's subscription in advance. Such things could be done in those days when business was brisk, and the people were strangers to "hard times." In canvassing for subscribers, one day, through the lower part of the city, and in the principal business streets, he observed a store which had the air of doing a heavy business, and read upon the sign over the door, "Solomon Sharp, Importer." The field looked inviting, and in Peter went with his samples under his arm, and inquired for Mr. Sharp. ”

“ Sharp's door, where he regularly delivered to the servant girl the two magazines. Two or three months after this, when he called one day on his usual round, the girl told him that Mr. Sharp wanted to see him, and desired he would call at the store. Peter felt not a little curious to know what Mr. Sharp might have to say to him; so in the course of the same day he called at Mr. Sharp's store.
"Good morning," said Mr. Sharp as Peter entered; "come, take a chair, and sit down here."
Peter, with a "good morning, sir," did as he was desired.
"Ain't you the young man," said Mr. ”

“ I can't conceive how there could be any mistake about it, though it is possible there may be. There could n't be any mistake on my part, for I'm sure I understood him. Maybe he thought she had money at the house when she had n't. I guess it will all come out right enough in the end. ”