I am an Englishman, and my name is John Smith. I was born in London, in the year 1816, and am now consequently in my thirty-fifth year. My father was a merchant, but he died when I was only six years old, so that the care of my education fell to my mother. She sent me to a private school, where I learned to read and write, and became acquainted with the first rules of arithmetic. At the age of fourteen, I was taken from school, and employed in my mother’s shop, which was that of a soft ironmonger. Here I continued until I was mature in years, and became thoroughly conversant with the details of the business. My mother then thought fit to set up an establishment of her own, and I was accordingly sent
