The Colonel had made money in trade,
and also by matrimony. He had married Sarah, daughter and heiress of
the late Tekel Jordan, Esq., an old miser, who gave the town clock,
which carries his name to posterity in large gilt letters as a generous
benefactor of his native place. In due time the Colonel reaped the
reward of well-placed affections. When his wife's inheritance fell in,
he thought he had money enough to give up trade, and therefore sold out
his "store," called in some dialects of the English language _shop_,
and his business.
Life became pretty hard work to him, of course, as soon as he had
nothing particular to do. Country people with money enough not to have
to work are in much more danger than city people in the same condition.
They get a specific look and character, which are the same in all the
villages where one studies them. They very commonly fall into a
routine, the basis of which is going to some lounging-place or other, a
bar-room, a reading-room, or something of the kind. They grow slovenly
in dress, and wear the same hat forever. They have a feeble curiosity
for news perhaps, which they take daily as a man takes his bitters, and
then fall silent and think they are thinking.
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