day, has got much out of fashion; and hence the mercantile scale often tends, as if attracted by the loadstone, towards bankruptey and ruin. Old Melchior had, however, left his strong box so well filled, that, for some years, our spendthrift felt no diminution in his yearly income. The number of his voracious table companions, the army of good fellows, gamesters and idlers, in short, all those who profited by the heedlessness of this prodigal son, took great care never to allow him time for reflection, They led him from pleasure to pleasure, and kept him in an eternal round of dissipation, for fear he might, in a single sober moment, awake to reason and the booty escape from their eager grasp.
But, on a sudden, the fountain of wealth ceased to flow. The hidden stores of his father’s strong box were every one of them exhausted. Frank one day commanded a large sum to be paid, his cashier was not in a condition to meet the demand, and returned the bill unpaid. This was a severe blow to the young prodigal, yet his chief feelings were those of displeasure and anger towards the cashier,
