His sole companion and friend was his son Daniel, who, being a chip of the old block, faithfully imitated his father's lazy, useless mode of life.

Mrs.
Evans and the younger son, David, were the only members of the family who worked.

They never lost an opportunity to turn an honest penny, and there were times when Godfrey and Dan would have gone supperless to bed if it had not been for these two faithful toilers.
Godfrey disliked this aimless, joyless existence as much as he disliked work, and even Dan at times longed for something better.
They both wanted to be rich.

Godfrey wanted to see his fine plantation, which was now abandoned to briers and cane, cultivated as it used to be; while it was Dan's ambition to have two or three painted boats in the lake, to have a pointer following at his heels, and to do his shooting with a double-barrel gun that "broke in two in the middle." He wanted to take his morning's exercise on a spotted pony--a circus horse, he called it; and to wear a broadcloth suit, a Panama hat and patent leather boots, when he went to church on Sundays.

Don and Bert Gordon had all these aids to happiness, and they were the jolliest fellows he had ever seen--always laughing, singing or whistling.