A WEALTHY manufacturer, in the midland counties, said to his confidential clerk one Saturday night, “We cannot settle our accounts tonight, but must do so early in the morning.” On the Lord’s Day morning, therefore, they resumed their work, which occupied them until three in the afternoon, when dinner was announced.
“ ‘Let us eat and drink,’” said Mr. D―, “ ‘for tomorrow we die,’―not,” he added, “that I have any thought of dying for some years to come.” The next morning, when at breakfast with his family, a friend called and said―
“Mr. D―, have you heard of the death of Brown?”
“No,” said he; “is he dead? It is very different with me; for my part I am so engaged in business that I could not find time to die.”
Uttering these words, as he rose from the table, he went into the kitchen, and while putting on his boots, fell on the floor a corpse.
A Scotch minister, upon his deathbed, was asked if he thought himself dying. “Really, friend,” he replied, “I care not whether I am or not; for if I die, I shall be with God―and if I live, He will be with me.”
Reader, which of these two men are you most like?
J. M. H.