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Page 38
'ALL IS NOT GOLD THAT GLITTERS.'"
* * * * *
THERE IS NO HURRY.
CHAPTER I.
I do not tell you whether the village of Repton, where the two
brothers, John and Charles Adams, originally resided, is near or far
from London: it is a pretty village to this day; and when John Adams,
some five-and-thirty years ago, stood on the top of Repton Hill and
looked down upon the houses--the little church, whose simple gate was
flanked by two noble yew trees, beneath whose branches he had often
sat--the murmuring river in which he had often fished--the cherry
orchards, where the ripe fruit hung like balls of coral; when he
looked down upon all these dear domestic sights--for so every native
of Repton considered them--John Adams might have been supposed to
question if he had acted wisely in selling to his brother Charles the
share of the well-cultivated farm, which had been equally divided at
their father's death. It extended to the left of the spot on which he
was standing, almost within a ring fence; the meadows, fresh shorn
of their produce, and fragrant with the perfume of new hay--the crops
full of promise, and the lazy cattle laving themselves in the standing
pond of the abundant farmyard; in a paddock, set apart for his
especial use, was the old blind horse his father had bestrode during
the last fifteen years of his life; it leant its sightless head
upon the gate, half up-turned, he fancied, to where he stood. It
is wonderful what small things will sometimes stir up the hearts of
strong men, ay, and what is still more difficult, even of ambitious
men. Yet he did not feel at that moment a regret for the fair acres he
had parted with; he was full of the importance which the possession
of a considerable sum of money gives a young man, who has been fagging
almost unsuccessfully in an arduous profession, and one which requires
a certain appearance of success to command success--for John Adams
even then placed M.D. after his plain name; yet still, despite the
absence of sorrow, and the consciousness of increased power, he
continued to look at poor old Ball until his eyes swam in tears.
With the presence of his father, which the sight of the old horse had
conjured up, came the remembrance of his peculiarities, his habits,
his expressions; and he wondered, as they passed in review before him,
how he could ever have thought the dear old man testy or tedious;
even his frequent quotations from "Poor Richard" appeared to him,
for the first time, the results of common prudence; and his rude but
wise rhyme, when, in the joy of his heart, he told his father he had
absolutely received five guineas as one fee from an ancient dame who
had three middle-aged daughters (he had not, however, acquainted his
father with _that_ fact,) came more forcibly to his memory than it had
ever done to his ear--
"For want and age save while you may,
No morning sun shines all the day."
He repeated the last line over and over again, as his father had done;
but as his "morning sun" was at that moment shining, it is not matter
of astonishment that the remembrance was evanescent, and that it did
not make the impression upon him his father had desired _long_ before.
A young, unmarried, handsome physician, with about three thousand
pounds in his pocket, and "good expectations," might be excused for
building "des chateaux en Espagne." A very wise old lady said once
to me--"Those who have none on earth may be forgiven for building
them in the air; but those who have them on earth should be content
therewith." Not so, however, was John Adams; he built and built, and
then by degrees descended to the realities of his position. What power
would not that three thousand pounds give him! He wondered if Dr. Lee
would turn his back upon him now when they met in consultation; and
Mr. Chubb, the county apothecary, would he laugh and ask him if he
could read his own prescriptions? Then he recurred to a dream--for
it was so vague at that time as to be little more--whether it would
not be better to abandon altogether country practice, and establish
himself in the metropolis--London. A thousand pounds, advantageously
spent, with a few introductions, would do a great deal in London, and
that was not a third of what he had. And this great idea banished all
remembrance of the past, all sense of the present--the young aspirant
thought only of the future.
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