Other liars and humbugs were painting out o' doors indoors, and eating mutton instead of thistles for drenched stinging-nettles, yclept trees; for block-tin clouds; for butlers' pantry seas, and garret-conceived lakes; for molten sugar-candy rivers; for airless atmosphere and sunless air; for carpet nature, and cold, dead fragments of an earth all soul and living glory to every cultivated eye but a routine painter's.

Yet the man of many such mediocrities could not keep the pot boiling.

We suspect that, to those who would rise in life, even strong versatility is a very doubtful good, and weak versatility ruination.
At last, the bitter, weary month was gone, and Triplet's eye brightened gloriously.

He donned his best suit; and, while tying his cravat, lectured his family.

First, he complimented them upon their deportment in adversity; hinted that moralists, not experience, had informed him prosperity was far more trying to the character.