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would have done, in the same circumstances, give me a scolding or a thrashing; but what was far better, he gave me an advice; and among other things calmly said, "Now Willie, this loss o' yer bawbee should be a lesson to ye a' yer days, that honesty is the best policy, and that siller that disna come richt never gangs richt." Since that time I never see pottedhead but I recollect my first commercial transaction—my bankruptcy, caused by trying to stand on my head, and my father's lecture, and I have hitherto endeavoured, so far as a mercantile man can, to walk up to the principles laid down in that lecture,
Moral Reflection.
Many a man who considered himself rich in the world's goods, and wise in his day and generation, has fallen from his high estate by attempting, like me, to stand on his head.
