| | 1 | Author: | Neal
Joseph C.
(Joseph Clay)
1807-1847 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Peter Ploddy, and other oddities  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Let no one be unjust to Ploddy—to Peter Ploddy,
once “young man” to Mr. Figgs, the grocer, and now
junior partner of the flourishing firm of Figgs and
Ploddy. Though addicted a little to complaint, and apt
to institute comparisons unfavourable to himself, it would
be a harsh judgment to set him down as ever having
been envious, in the worst sense of the word. It is true,
no doubt, that at the period of his life concerning which
we are now called upon to speak, a certain degree of
discontent with his own position occasionally embittered
his reflections; but he had no wish to deprive others of
the advantage they possessed, nor did he hate them on
the score of their supposed superiority. It was not his
inclination to drag men down, let them be situated as
loftily as they might; and whatever of vexation or perplexity
he experienced in contemplating their elevation, arose
altogether from the fact that he could not clearly understand
why he should not be up there too. It was not
productive of pleasurable sensations to Ploddy, to see
folks splashed who were more elegantly attired than himself.
He never laughed from a window over the disastrous
results of a sudden shower; nor could he find it in
his heart to hope it would rain when his neighbours set
gayly forth on a rural excursion. It is a question, indeed,
whether it had been a source of satisfaction to him to see
any one's name on a list of bankrupts. The sheriff's advertisements
of property “seized and taken in execution,”
were never conned over with delight by Peter Ploddy;
and when the entertainments given in his section of the
town were as splendid as luxury and profusion could
make them, it was yet possible for Peter to turn in his bed
at the sound of the music and of the merriment, without
a snarl about “there you go,” and without a hint that
there are headaches in store for the gentlemen, with a
sufficient variety of coughs and colds for the ladies. He
never said, because an invitation had not been addressed
to Ploddy, that affairs of this sort make work for the
doctors. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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