PHILOSOPHY.
Mr. George and Rollo held a long conversation on the subject of the lost
money while they were at breakfast the morning after the robbery
occurred, in the course of which Mr. George taught our hero a good deal
of philosophy in respect to the proper mode of bearing such losses.
Before this conversation, however, Rollo's mind had been somewhat
exercised, while he was dressing himself in his own room, with the
question, whether or not his father would make up this loss to him, as
one occasioned by an accident. You will recollect that the arrangement
which Mr. Holiday had made with Mr. George was, that he was to pay Rollo
a certain sum for travelling expenses, and that Rollo was to have all
that he could save of this amount for spending money. Rollo was to pay
all his expenses of every kind out of his allowance, except that, in
case of any accident, the extra expense which the occurrence of the
accident should occasion was to be reimbursed to him by his father--or
rather by Mr. George, on his father's account.
Now, while Rollo was dressing himself on the morning after his loss, the
question arose to his mind, whether this was to be considered as an
accident in the sense referred to in the above-named arrangement. He
concluded that Mr. George thought it was not.
"Because," said he to himself, "if he had thought that this was a loss
which was to come upon father, and not upon me, he would have told me so
last night."
When the breakfast had been brought up, and our two travellers were
seated at the table eating it, Rollo introduced the conversation by
expressing his regret that he had not bought the gold watch chain that
he had seen in the Strand.
"How unlucky it was," said he, "that I did not buy that chain, instead
of saving the money to have it stolen away from me! I am _so_ sorry that
I did not buy it!"
"No," replied Mr. George, "you ought not to be sorry at all. You decided
to postpone buying it for good and sufficient reasons of a prudential
character. It was very wise for you to decide as you did; and now you
ought not to regret it. To wish that you had been guilty of an act of
folly, in order to have saved a sovereign by it, is to put gold before
wisdom. But Solomon says, you know, that wisdom is better than gold;
yea, than much _fine_ gold."
Rollo laughed.
"Well," said Rollo, "at any rate, I have learned one lesson from it."
"What lesson is that?" said Mr. George.
"Why, to be more careful after this about my money."
"No," replied Mr. George, "I don't think that you have that lesson to
learn. I think you are careful enough now, not only of your money, but
of all your other property. Indeed, I think you are a very careful boy;
and any greater degree of care and concern than you usually exercise
about your things would be excessive. The fact is, that in all the
pursuits and occupations of life we are exposed to accidents,
misfortunes, and losses. The most extreme and constant solicitude and
care will never prevent such losses, but will only prevent our enjoying
what we do not lose. It is as foolish, therefore, to be too careful as
it is not to be careful enough.
"Indeed," continued Mr. George, "I think the best way is for travellers
to do as merchants do. They know that it is inevitable that they should
meet with some losses in their business; and so they make a regular
allowance for losses in all their calculations."
"How much do they allow?" said Rollo.
"I believe it is usually about five per cent.," said Mr. George. "They
calculate that, for every one hundred dollars that they trust out in
business, they must lose five. Sometimes small losses come along quite
frequently. At other times there will be a long period without any loss,
and then some great one will occur; so that, in one way or the other,
they are pretty sure in the long run to lose about their regular
average. So they make their calculations accordingly; and when the
losses come they consider them matters of course, like any of their
ordinary expenses."
"That is a good plan," said Rollo.
"I think it is eminently a good plan," said Mr. George, "for travellers.
In planning a journey, we ought always to include this item in our
calculations. We ought to allow so much for conveyance, so much for
hotel bills, and so much for losses, and then calculate on the losses
just as much as we do on the payment of the railroad fares and hotel
bills. That is the philosophy of it.
"However," continued Mr. George, "though we ought not to allow any loss
that we may meet with to make us anxious or over-careful afterwards,
still we may sometimes learn something by it. For instance, I think it
is generally not best to take a watch, or money, or any thing else of
special value in our pockets when we go out among a crowd."
"Yes," said Rollo; "if I had only thought to have put my purse in my
trunk when I went out, it would have been safe."
"No," replied Mr. George; "it would not have been _safe_--that is, not
perfectly safe--even then; for a thief might have crept into the house,
and gone into your room, and opened the lock, and got out the money
while you were away."
"But the front door is kept locked," said Rollo.
"True," said Mr. George; "that is a general rule, I know; but it might
have been left open a few minutes by accident, so that the thief could
get in--such things do happen very frequently; or one of the servants of
the house might have got the trunk open. So that the money is not
absolutely safe if you leave it in the trunk. In fact, I think that in
all ordinary cases it is safer for me to carry my money in my pocket
than to leave it in my trunk in my room. It is only when we are going
among crowds that it is safer to leave it in our rooms; but there is no
absolute and perfect safety for it any where."
"I don't see," said Rollo, "how they can possibly get the money out so
from a deep pocket without our knowing it."
"It is very strange," said Mr. George; "but I believe the London
pickpockets are the most skilful in the world. Sometimes they go in
gangs, and they contrive to make a special pressure in the crowd, in a
narrow passage, or at a corner, and then some of them jam against the
gentleman they are going to rob, pretending that they are jammed by
others behind them, and thus push and squeeze him so hard on every side
that he does not feel any little touch about his pocket; or, by the time
he does feel and notice it, the purse is gone."
"Yes," said Rollo, "that is exactly the way it was with me.
"But there is one thing I could have done," said Rollo. "If I had put my
purse in my inside jacket pocket, and buttoned up the jacket tight, then
they could not possibly have got it."
"Yes," said Mr. George, "they have a way of cutting through the cloth
with the little sharp point of the knife which they have in a ring on
one of their fingers. With this they can cut through the cloth any where
if they feel a purse underneath, and take it out without your knowing
any thing about it till you get home."
"I declare!" said Rollo. "Then I don't see what I could do."
"No," replied Mr. George, "there is nothing that we can do to guard
absolutely against the possibility of losing our property when we are
travelling--or in any other case, in fact. There is a certain degree of
risk that we must incur, and various losses in one way or another will
come. All we have to do is to exercise the right degree of precaution,
neither too much nor too little, and then submit good naturedly to
whatever comes."
* * * * *
This is the end of the story of Rollo's being robbed, except that, the
next morning after the conversation above described was held, Rollo
found on his table, when he got up and began to dress himself, a small
package folded up in paper, with a little note by the side of it. He
opened the note and read as follows:--
DEAR ROLLO: From the moment that your loss was ascertained, I
determined that I would refund the amount to you, under the
authority which I received from your father to pay all expenses
which you might incur through unexpected casualties. This robbery I
consider as coming under that head; and so I refund you the
amount, and have charged it to your father.
I did not tell you what my design was in this respect at once,
because I thought I would see how you would bear the loss on the
supposition that it was to be your own. I also wished to avail
myself of the opportunity to teach you a little of the philosophy
of the subject. And now, inasmuch as, in learning the lesson, you
have shown yourself an excellent pupil, and as you also evince a
disposition to bear the loss like a man, there is no longer any
reason for postponement; and so I replace the amount that was taken
from you by a little package which accompanies this note.
Your affectionate uncle,
G. H.
[Illustration: THE LOSS MADE GOOD.]
On opening the package, which was lying on the table by the side of his
note, Rollo found within a new wallet very much like the one which he
had lost; and in this wallet were two sovereigns, two pennies, and a new
due bill from his uncle George for four shillings.