on. He has recently
come back from Europe, where he has topped off his home training with a
first-class foreign finish. As the Landlady could never have educated
him in this way out of the profits of keeping boarders, I was not
surprised when I was told that she had received a pretty little property
in the form of a bequest from a former boarder, a very kind-hearted,
worthy old gentleman who had been long with her and seen how hard she
worked for food and clothes for herself and this son of hers, Benjamin
Franklin by his baptismal name. Her daughter had also married well, to a
member of what we may call the post-medical profession, that, namely,
which deals with the mortal frame after the practitioners of the healing
art have done with it and taken their leave. So thriving had this
son-in-law of hers been in his business, that his wife drove about in her
own carriage, drawn by a pair of jet-black horses of most dignified
demeanor, whose only fault was a tendency to relapse at once into a walk
after every application of a stimulus that quickened their pace to a
trot; which application always caused them to look round upon the driver
with a surprised and offended air, as if he had been guilty of a grave
indecorum.

The Landlady's daughter had been blessed with a number of children, of
great sobriety of outward aspect, but remarkably cheerful in their inward
habit of mind, more especially on the occasion of the death of a doll,
which was an almost daily occurrence, and gave them immense delight in
getting up a funeral, for which they had a complete miniature outfit.
How happy they were under their solemn aspect! For the head mourner, a
child of remarkable gifts, could actually make the tears run down her
cheeks,--as real ones as if she had been a grown person following a rich
relative, who had not forgotten his connections, to his last unfurnished
lodgings.

So this was a most desirable family connection for the right man to step
into,--a thriving, thrifty mother-in-law, who knew what was good for the
sustenance of the body, and had no doubt taught it to her daughter; a
medical artist at hand in case the luxuries of the table should happen to
disturb the physiological harmonies; and in the worst event, a sweet
consciousness that the last sad offices would be attended to with
affectionate zeal, and probably a large discount from the usual charges.

It seems as if I could hardly be at this table for a year, if I shoul