Parenting - “The Miser’s Children”
Parenting is challenging for Sheppard Lee since he conducts it alongside investing: “With the affection for the children of Abram Skinner that took possession of my mind, came also a persuasion, exceedingly painful, that they were a triad of graceless, ungrateful reprobates; and, what was worse, there was something whispered within me that much, if not all, the evil of their lives and natures, was owing to the neglect in which their parent, while engrossed with the high thought of heaping up money, had allowed them to grow up. The consequences of this neglect I felt as if it had been my own act.” Sheppard Lee determines that he nose-dived as a parent based on the adjectives which he employs when labelling the children. Sheppard Lee’s focus on accumulating money is tantamount to disregarding the children. According to Lee’s thought it is problematic for parents to balance between parenting and trailing money. Perhaps, had Lee dedicated some time to nurturing the children, they would have developed into more responsible adults.
Forgery - “The Fate of the Firstborn”
Sheppard Lee writes, “The forger was discovered and arrested—it was the elder brother, Ralph Skinner. Words cannot paint the agony with which I flew to the magistrate's office, and beheld the unfortunate youth in the hands of justice; but what was my horror to discover the extent and multiplicity of his frauds. The number of forgeries he had committed in his parent's name was indeed enormous; and it seems he had committed them with the intention of flying; for many of his guilty gains were found secreted on his person. But even after so much had been recovered, the residue to be refunded was appalling. The thought of making restitution drove me almost to a phrensy, while the idea of seeing him carried to jail, to meet the doom of a felon, was equally distracting.” Ralph Skinner employs falsification with the intent of defrauding Sheppard Lee. He exploits his standing as a Skinner to facilitate the falsification without Sheppard Lee’s familiarity. Had Lee not been informed by a companion, he would have deceptively mislaid a substantial amount of money. Ralph’s fraud demonstrates that he is a hard-core felon who would engage a criminal strategy to steal the money under Sheppard Lee’s custody.
