‘Well, Mr. John,’ said a footman, addressing himself to the man whose pocket I had just left, ‘how fare you? Are you pretty hearty? You look well, I am sure.’ ‘Aye, and so I am, replied he. ‘I never was better in all my life; I live comfortably, have a good master and mistress, eat and drink bravely, and what can a man wish for more? For my part I am quite contented, and if I do but continue to enjoy my health, I am sure I shall be very ungrateful not to be so.’ ‘That’s true,’ said the other, ‘but the misfortune of it is, people never know when they are well off, but are apt to fret and wish and wish and fret, for something or other all their lives, and so never have any enjoyment. Now for my own part, I must needs confess, that I cannot help wishing I was a gentleman, and think I should be a deal happier if I was.’ ‘Pshaw!’ replied John, ‘I don’t like now to hear a man say so; it looks as if you are discontented with the state in which you are placed, and depend upon it, you are in the one that is fittest for you, or you would not have been put into it. And as for being happier if you were a gentleman, I don’t know what to say to it. To be sure, to have a little more money in one’s pocket, nobody can deny that it would be very agreeable; and to be at liberty to come in and go out when one pleased, to be sure would be very comfortable. But still, Bob, still you may assure yourself, that no state in this world is free from care, and if we were turned into lords, we should find many causes for uneasiness. So here’s your good health,’ said he, lifting the mug to his mouth, ‘wishing, my lad, you may be contented, cheerful, and good humoured; for without these three requisites, content, cheerfulness, and good humour, no one person upon earth, rich or poor, old or young, can ever feel comfortable or happy; and so here’s to you, I say.’ ‘And here’s the same good wishes to you,’ said a clean decent cook-woman servant, who took up the mug upon John’s putting it down. ‘Content, cheerfulness, and good humour, I think was the toast.’ Then wiping her mouth, as she began her speech, she added, ‘and an excellent one it is: I wish all folks would mind it, and endeavour to acquire three such good qualifications.’ ‘I am sure,’ rejoined another female servant, whose name I heard was Sally, ‘I wish so too: at least I wish Miss Mary would try to gain a little more of the good humour; for I never came near such a cross crab in my life as it is. I declare I hate the sight of the girl, she is such a proud little minx she would not vouchsafe to speak to a poor servant for the world; as if she thought because we are poorer, we were therefore not of the same nature: her sisters, I think are worth ten of her, they always reply so civilly if a body speaks to them, and say, “Yes, if you please, Mrs. Sally, or No, thank you, Mr. Bob;” or “I should be obliged to you if you would do so and so, Mrs. Nelly,” and not plain yes or no, as she