CHAPTER XV.
ERASTUS TARBOX, OF NEWARK Erastus Tarbox kept a dry-goods store in the city of Newark, New Jersey.
He was well to do, not so much because of his enterprise and skill as a merchant as because of his extreme poverty.

Some people called it parsimony.

He only employed two clerks to assist him in his store, and they, as well as the boy who carried out parcels and ran the errands, were paid scarcely more than two-thirds the rates paid in neighboring stores.
Mr.Tarbox prided himself upon his relationship to the Courtneys.

They were rich, and riches, in his eyes were a great merit.

He often sighed to think that there was no chance for him to benefit by a share of the large property owned by his cousins.