Again, the ship which North Wind had sunk that very night belonged to Mr.Coleman.
Nor will my readers understand what a heavy loss this was to him until I have informed them that he had been getting poorer and poorer for some time.

He was not so successful in his speculations as he had been, for he speculated a great deal more than was right, and it was time he should be pulled up.

It is a hard thing for a rich man to grow poor; but it is an awful thing for him to grow dishonest, and some kinds of speculation lead a man deep into dishonesty before he thinks what he is about.

Poverty will not make a man worthless--he may be worth a great deal more when he is poor than he was when he was rich; but dishonesty goes very far indeed to make a man of no value--a thing to be thrown out in the dust-hole of the creation, like a bit of a broken basin, or a dirty rag.

So North Wind had to look after Mr.Coleman, and try to make an honest man of him.