hopes, some five or ten years hence, and your fall, so low, that to
rise again will be almost impossible."

This well-meant, but plainly uttered advice, more than half offended
Lawrence. He replied, coldly, that he thought he knew what he was
about, and would try, at least, to "steer clear of the
penitentiary."

With shrewdness, tact, untiring industry, and a spirit that knew no
discouragement, the young man pressed forward in business. The
warning of the merchant, if it did not repress his desire to get
rich in haste, caused him to look more closely than he would
otherwise have done into every transaction he was about to make.
This saved him from many serious losses.

The want of more capital soon began to be felt. He saw good
operations every day, that might be made if he had capital enough to
enter into them.

"A man deserves no credit for getting rich, if he have capital
enough to work with," was a favourite remark. "There is plenty of
business to be done, and ways of making money in abundance, if the
means are only at hand."

One week, if he had only been in the possession of means, he would
have purchased a cotton-factory; the next week become possessor of a
ship, and entered into the East India trade; and, the next week
after that, purchased an interest in a lead-mine on the Upper
Mississippi.