PETER GOLDTHWAITE 'S TREASURE . `` And so , Peter , you wo n't even consider of the business ? '' said Mr. John Brown , buttoning his surtout over the snug rotundity of his person and drawing on his gloves . `` You positively refuse to let me have this crazy old house , and the land under and adjoining , at the price named ? '' `` Neither at that , nor treble the sum , '' responded the gaunt , grizzled and threadbare Peter Goldthwaite . `` The fact is , Mr. Brown , you must find another site for your brick block and be content to leave my estate with the present owner . Next summer I intend to put a splendid new mansion over the cellar of the old house . '' `` Pho , Peter ! '' cried Mr. Brown as he opened the kitchen door ; `` content yourself with building castles in the air , where house-lots are cheaper than on earth , to say nothing of the cost of bricks and mortar . Such foundations are solid enough for your edifices , while this underneath us is just the thing for mine ; and so we may both be suited . What say you , again ? '' `` Precisely what I said before , Mr. Brown , '' answered Peter Goldthwaite . `` And , as for castles in the air , mine may not be as magnificent as that sort of architecture , but perhaps as substantial , Mr. Brown , as the very respectable brick block with dry-goods stores , tailors ' shops and banking-rooms on the lower floor , and lawyers ' offices in the second story , which you are so anxious to substitute . '' `` And the cost , Peter ? Eh ? '' said Mr. Brown as he withdrew in something of a pet . `` That , I suppose , will be provided for off-hand by drawing a check on Bubble Bank ? '' John Brown and Peter Goldthwaite had been jointly known to the commercial world between twenty and thirty years before under the firm of Goldthwaite & Brown ; which copartnership , however , was speedily dissolved by the natural incongruity of its constituent parts . Since that event , John Brown , with exactly the qualities of a thousand other John Browns , and by just such plodding methods as they used , had prospered wonderfully and become one of the wealthiest John Browns on earth . Peter Goldthwaite , on the contrary , after innumerable schemes which ought to have collected all the coin and paper currency of the country into his coffers , was as needy a gentleman as ever wore a patch upon his elbow .
The contrast XXXXX him and his former partner may be briefly marked , for Brown never reckoned upon luck , yet always had it , while Peter made luck the main condition of his projects , and always missed it .
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