He became secretary to the military embassy at Vienna and Turin; and at thirty-six he thought himself rich.

These are his own words: "My appointments, with my frugality, had made me reach a fortune which I called independent, though most of my friends were inclined to smile when I said so: in short, I was now master of near a thousand pounds." Every one knows that a thousand pounds, at five per cent., means fifty pounds a year; and Hume considered himself independent with that income.

His friend Adam Smith said of him: "Even in the lowest state of his fortune, his great and necessary frugality never hindered him from exercising, upon proper occasions, acts both of charity and generosity.

It was a frugality founded not on avarice, but upon the love of independency." But one of the most remarkable illustrations of Thrift is to be found in the history of the Rev.Robert Walker--the _Wonderful_ Robert Walker, as he is still called in the district of Cumberland where he resided.

He was curate of Leathwaite during the greater part of last century.