If old West came home and said he'd take all the
patients for a week, and give me a holiday, I should only set on and
pound. Look here," pointing to the array on the counter, "I have done
more work in two hours than Cheese gets through in a week."
Lionel could not help smiling. Jan went on--
"I don't work for the sake of accumulating money, but because work is
life's business, and I like work for its own sake. If I got no money by
it, I should work. Don't think about the money, Lionel. While it lay in
that bank where was the use of it? Better for my mother to have it, than
for me to be hoarding it."
"Jan, did it never strike you that it might be well to make some
provision for contingencies? Old age, say; or sudden deprivation of
strength, through accident or other cause? If you give away all you
might save for yourself, what should you do were the evil day to come?"
Jan looked at his arms. "I am tolerably strong," said he; "feel me. My
head's all right, and my limbs are all right. If I should be deprived of
strength before my time, I dare say, God, in taking it, would find some
means just to keep me from want.
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