THE SEHOR PARTNER • : Br ! ! JT, : IT. RIDDELL. Author of. ‘George Geith,!. ‘City. and, r. Suburb,’ ‘‘..The Mystery, in Palace. j <' [ "Gardens,’ &c. ;. „• ,. »ii *•' Continued. ;m ■ V ... ; - CHAPTER 11. ' J KErillflCULLiuatfS - ANTECEDENTS. I ‘-:i Accident Ij had : aiarger share in com passing Mr McCullagh’s worldly pros perity than that, gentleman ' would have cared, toacknowledged , :. t ;> By this it js not meant that he might not have , succeeded, 1 , no, matter in what manner of craft he had , essayed > .to brave the business seas. He. wasscarcely the man to sink in any waters ; but it is’dpen to question whether in-other- lines of life he would have done s 6 well as chanoed. to be th,eidaseathongst jampots andcasks of *sweaties/ ■"! He did not; entfer 'oh the commencal voyage with \ any definite idea—or. any idea, in: faot; ; at! trading in, Scotch goodiu._.Wiien^BtarMJ9i-XLC>ndon_he. had no settled plan" whatever, except to find a certain uncle who had done well for hitaafiit ♦mo»g .-the; Southerners, and no eonvietionr that Greenock was too small 1 for him, and that it was better to begin the~ busines struggle un encumbered by ; the " proximity of needy relations...?::: >■., .11 is.*.o

His father,the aonof a right ionest wearer at Paisley, who had brought up a large family on the slenderest of means, waa :j S shopkeeper in a very amall jray at Greenock; 1 Few things of a - humble sort but‘ f 'W6re' sold ih'that general shop— marbles and meal,candles 'arid‘.comfit*,' pork. and pickles; salt herrings and stationery, butter ,and biscuits, threads, and i tea,,, to say nothing of salt, sugar,, needles,: pins, ..tape, gingerbread, flour, treacle,> andalLthehuUdred items the poor require daily, ;and most of which they can boy in penn’orths. Early and lata both father and mother worked, butallthey- could make barely served to keep the wolf from the door. They had. to give;: credit; or.lose their customers, i and sometimes the customers were‘ dishonest, 1 sometimes unfrrtunate ; therefore, what with bad debts and the keep of .many children, the Greenock dealer found himself unable to get much before the woridt. ‘ r r !V >, t n. 