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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 edition. Excerpt:...and business suffered a check, and the distress was very great. Indeed, there happened a kind of panic, and many of our neighbours were unable to stand their ground, and had to close their shops and become bankrupt. These dark, sad days made me tremble; and they brought my master, in some degree, to his senses. The company, and the fine dressing within doors, ceased. My master grew thoughtful and depressed. Indeed, he might well do so, for but few customers came to the shop, and but few orders were sent in. As the year advanced, the panic in trade did not pass away. Things grew worse rather than better. We were obliged to dismiss the workmen. There was already more stock than we hoped to get rid of, and we could not afford to pay money out when none was coming in. Those of our men who had been saving and thrifty suffered the least. They had some little hoard to fall back upon for a rainy day. Others had lived freely and saved nothing; on these the blow fell heavily indeed. We did all we could to soften it, for my master was thoroughly kind-hearted, but the shoe was beginning to pinch ourselves. Nearer and nearer came the grim shadow that we dreaded to look at. It crept into the home; daily we saw symptoms of want in the empty till and the bare cupboard, and the disappearance of first one article and then another. "You had better leave the ship, Harry, before she goes down," said my master to me one day; "we never can outride this storm!" But I could not find it in my heart to do so. I clung to them in their distress; I had saved a little money, and the old business might right itself. It would never have been at this low ebb but for matters beyond my control. Carelessness and indolence had made the vessel leaky, even...