“ Ah, young gentleman,” said Mr Deane, with that tendency to repress youthful hopes which stout and successful men of fifty find one of their easiest duties, “that’s sooner said than done,—sooner said than done.”
“ But didn’t you get on in that way, uncle?” said Tom, a little irritated that Mr Deane did not enter more rapidly into his views. “I mean, didn’t you rise from one place to another through your abilities and good conduct?”
“ Ay, ay, sir,” said Mr Deane, spreading himself in his chair a little, and entering with great readiness into a retrospect of his own career. “But I’ll tell you how I got on. It wasn’t by getting astride a stick and thinking it would turn into a horse if I sat on it long enough. I kept my eyes and ears open, sir, and I wasn’t too fond of my own bac
