The drinking, smoking, and other expensive habits,
which the clerks usually indulged in, he carefully avoided.
Being fond of poetry, he turned his attention to literature.
Johnson's "Lives of the Poets," the writings of Dryden, Addison,
Pope, Clarendon, and other authors of celebrity, he read with
attention. The knowledge which he thus picked up during his
leisure hours gave him a great advantage over the other clerks,
and caused his employers to respect him far more than any other in
their establishment. So eager was he to improve the time that he
determined to see how much he could read during the unemployed
time of night and morning, and his success was beyond his
expectations.
CHAPTER XXX
NEW FRIENDS.
BROKEN down in health, after ten years of close confinement in his
situation, Jerome resolved to give it up, and thereby release
himself from an employment which seemed calculated to send him to
a premature grave.
It was on a beautiful morning in summer that he started for
Scotland, having made up his mind to travel for his health. After
visiting Edinburgh and Glasgow, he concluded to spend a few days
in the old town of Perth, with a friend whose acquaintance he had
made in Manchester. During the second day of his stay in Perth,
while crossing the main street, Jerome saw a pony-chaise coming
toward him with great speed. A lady, who appeared to be the only
occupant of the vehicle, was using her utmost strength to stop the
frightened horses.
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