Hal and Benjamin, Mr. Gresham’s nephews, were about ten years old. They had been educated very differently. Hal was the son of the elder branch of the family. His father was a gentleman, who spent rather more than he could afford; and Hal, from the example of the servants in his father’s family, with whom he had passed the first years of his childhood, learned to waste more of everything than he used. He had been told that “gentlemen should be above being careful and saving”: and he had unfortunately imbibed a notion that extravagance was the sign of a generous disposition, and economy of an avaricious one. Benjamin, on the contrary, had been taught habits of care and foresight. His father had but a very small fortune, and was anxious that his son should early learn that economy ensures independence, and sometimes puts it in the power of those who are not very rich to be very generous. The morning after these two boys arrived at their uncle’s they were eager to see all the rooms in the house. Mr. Gresham accompanied them, and attended to their remarks and exclamations. “Oh! what an excellent motto!” exclaimed Ben, when he read the following words, which were written in large characters over the chimney-piece, in his uncle’s spacious kitchen— “WASTE NOT, WANT NOT.” “‘Waste not, want not!’” repeated his cousin Hal, in rather a contemptuous tone; “I think it looks stingy to servants; and no gentleman’s servants, cooks especially, would like to have such a mean motto always staring them in the face.” Ben, who was not so conversant as his cousin in the ways of cooks and gentlemen’s servants, made no reply to these observations. Mr. Gresham was called away whilst his nephews were looking at the other rooms in the house. Some time afterwards, he heard their voices in the hall. “Boys,” said he, “what are you doing there?” “Nothing, sir,” said Hal; “you were called away from us and we did not know which way to go.” “And have you nothing to do?” said Mr. Gresham. “No, sir, nothing,” answered Hal, in a careless tone, like one who was well content with the state of habitual idleness. “No, sir, nothing!” replied Ben, in a voice of lamentation. “Come,” said Mr. Gresham, “if you have nothing to do, lads, will you unpack those two parcels for me?” The two parcels were exactly alike, both of them well tied up with good whip cord. Ben took his parcel to a table, and, after breaking off the sealing wax, began carefully to examine the knot, and then to untie it. Hal stood still, exactly in the spot where the parcel was put into his hands, and tried first at one corner, and then at another, to pull the string off by force. “I wish these people wouldn’t tie up their parcels so tight, as if they were never to be undone,” cried he, as he tugged at the cord; and he pulled the knot closer instead of loosening it.