Chapter I
IT is no uncommon thing to hear children say, "how happy they should be if they were but rich." They seem to think people must be happy who live in grand houses and "fare sumptuously every day." Many a little boy, as he opens a common-gate to let a fine carriage pass through, has secretly envied those who were riding in it, and has thought what a good thing it must be to be borne about from place to place in a beautiful carriage, as easy as a bird and as grand as a prince.
Ah! Little boy, if you could have known what the lady in the carriage was thinking as she looked at your healthy, ruddy cheeks, and your merry countenance, you might have felt very differently on the subject. It is very likely that, weary with all the "pomp and vanities" of the empty world of fashion, something very like a sigh escaped from her as she thought, "How pleasant to have lived like that child amongst the blossoming May trees on the wild common, and never to have known the falsehoods of fashion and the evil ways of the world."
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