"I was alone in the world and had nothing to depend upon but my wits and clean reputation;but this was setting my feet on the road to eventual fortune,and I was content."-pls explain this sentence
Answers
The author was a clerk at a mining broker's office. He was expert in doing his work. He was young or at least not old. He was perhaps not married and lived alone still. He did not have family, relations or friends nearby or perhaps he did not maintain relations.
He was not rich. He was totally dependent on the job. For performing the job or for demanding respect from the society, he had only his skills and reputation he had built on earlier. He was making a steady progress. He probably had good relations with co-workers. ALso, he gained a good knowledge of the logistics of the trade.
Still, what he had was good, and positive, so he was very optimistic about his future. He knew he was on his way to earn a fortune in this trade of stocking mined substances. So he was content with his job, living and future prospects. He was proud of his own situation, whatever it was.
Answer:
This is a small extract from Mark Twain's narrative story ''The £ 1,000,000 note''.
This short story by Twain presents his primarily American readership with a sense of what virtues should define them as American. It also challenges them to think of what they might do in the protagonist’s situation. This work begins with the protagonist, Henry Adams (deliberately representative of any "average" American man) being washed out to sea while on a leisurely boat trip. Rescued by a passing British ship, he ends up in London with nothing; the few possessions he had were washed away by the sea. While searching for food, the stranger is spotted by two English brothers of wealthy means, who decide to make a wager on his character. The brothers hand him a million-pound bank note: one of only two ever minted. One brother, Brother A, believes he will do the foolish thing and try and cash it at a bank. This action would lead to investigation and prosecution, given the note’s rarity and the fact that Henry would have no proof of having obtained it honestly. Brother B, on the other hand, believes that Henry will make better use of the note and offers him a job with good pay as a reward for his doing this.