One’s fortune.
1741.
| Rash mortals, ere you take a wife, | |
| Contrive your pile to last for life. | |
B. Franklin, ‘Poor Richard’s Almanack’ (Bartlett). |
1853. He found Frank Aikin, who had run through his “pile,” and a few kindred spirits of the fast young men’s school, enacting the part of “gentlemen in difficulties.”—Durivage, ‘Life Scenes,’ p. 263.
1855. Wal, arter four years Ben came back with a “pocketfull of rocks”; he’d made his pile.—Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, Kas., May 26.
1861. The trapper who had labored and suffered to procure peltries, betook himself to the fort whenever the size of his ‘pile’ warranted a visit.—Knick. Mag., lviii. 119 (Aug.).
1869. See STATES, THE.
1870. He was known by the nickname of ‘Slim Jim,’ that he had crossed the plains when quite a youth, had ‘made his pile’ by lucky hits at mining.—Rae, ‘Westward by Rail,’ p. 337 (Lond.).
