Connecticut western news., 1880-12-01
UNAVAILABLE TALENTS.

My wife and looked at each other in blank despair. We are such lively people that it is very seldom we are both blue at once, but this time VIC had good and sufficient reason. We had come to our last dollar. We had no certainty of getting any more money, and we were too honest to wish to be in debt This was an extraordinary posi- tion for us, as we were considered by all who knew us to be such "uncom- monly talented people. was always told in college that if I would apply myself I might easily stand first in my class, though in point of fact I stood somewhere in the twenties, I believe. Ihave since sometimes wondered if ap- plication may not be itself separate talent instead of being within the reach of all, as is often supposed. My wife was always the life of any company. She was as pretty and trim a woman as you would wish to see, and she sang ballads with really wonderful expression. never saw D woman who appreciated @ joke so quickly, and in amateur theat- ricals she was irresistible. Her talents went even farther than this. She read poetry so beautifully that everybody cried; and on the other hand, she was so fond of mathematics that she studied conlc sections one winter by herself, ''for fIln." We were both versatile, we were both lively, we were both mercu- rial.
 Now, however, we had TO monc,-, and very little flour in the house. My wife had made Q nice johnny-cake for the delectation of the children at supper, and they had gone to bed content, and were now peacefully sleeping. Mean time it became absolutely necessary for us to face our fate. was lawyer. l chose that profession, not from any in- nate sympathy with it, but because l could not be clergyman, and would not be physician Of course began to practice in the city; for though there seemed to be no opening there, I liked to live in the city. You know the thea. tre, and music, and books, and pictures and society can hardly be had in the country. If I had been less talented amere clod. .hopper-I could have gone without the refinements of life and been happy. As it was, it did not once oc cur to me that I could live in the coun try. l need not say my practice amounted to nothing. Those who have tried the same experiment know that some years elapse before maintenance can be counted upon. However, lived meanwhile on Q modest legacy which had descended to me from an aunt, and married wife. Florence had no money and no experience of housekeeping; but l hope l should not marry as I woulc select servant. We got on beautifully in spite of the quicksands which already I present themselves to tho reader. mind. In the first place we had no enc of good times together, so our life wa. a success so far, and know we were SC happy that we made everybody around us happy too. And we lived within oul means, small as they were. We would have liked a million, and I really thinl we could have spent it profitably; stil we were not extravagant, and both o us were honorable and conscientious We were at peace with all the world, ant considered ourselves noble in character and talented in mind.
 Unfortunately the failure of the banl in which my legacy was invested changed the aspect of things. We smiled a first, because we thought we shoul' respect ourselves more if we were brave And our friends said we bore it charm
 ngly. "But of course it is not as i you had not your practice" This wa very well. but privately we knew tha the practice would hardly keep us il boots and shoes; and then had prac ticed long enough to find out hated it I was not meant for lawyer, and, t