em up; let me see them; let me see them!"

"Certainly, Mister, of course," responded the Pigeon express man,
leaving the presence of the tickled-to-death publisher, who paced his
office as full of effervescence as a jimmyjohn of spruce beer in dog
days.

About this time pigeons were being trained, and in a few cases, now and
then, really did carry messages for lottery ticket venders in Jersey
City, to Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore; but these exploits
rarely paid first cost, and did not amount to much, although some noise
was made about the wonderful performance of certain Carrier Pigeons. But
the _paper_ was to have a new impulse--astonish all creation and the
rest of mankind, by Pigeon Express. The publisher's partner was in New
York, fishing for novelties, and he determined to astonish him, on his
return home, by the _bird business!_ A coop was fixed on the top of the
"bildin'," as the great inventor of the express had suggested. The
wagon was bought, and, with two hundred dollars in for funds, passed
over to the pigeon express man, who, in the course of a few days, takes
the birds into his wagon, to take them out some few miles, throw them
up, and the publisher and a confidential friend were to be on top of the
"bildin'," looking out for them.

They kept looking!--they saw something werry like a whale, but a good
deal like a first-rate bad "_Sell!_" The lapse of a few days was quite
sufficient to convince the publisher that he had been taken in and done
for--regularly _picked up_ and done for,--upon the most approved and
scientific principles. Rather than let the cat out of the bag, he made
up his mind to pocket the _shave_ and keep shady, not even "letting on
to his partner," who in the course of the following week returned from
Gotham, evidently feeling as fine as silk, about something or other.

"Well, what's new in New York--got hold of any thing rich?" was the
first interrogatory.

"Hi-i-i-sh! close the door!" was the reply, indicating something very
important on the _tapis_.

"So; my dear fellow, I've got a concern, now, that will put the
sixpennies to sleep as sound as rocks!"

"No. What have you started in Gotham?"

"Exactly. If you don't own up the corn, that the idea is
grand--immense--I'll knock under."

"Good! I'm glad--particularly glad you've found something new and
startling," responded the other. "Well, what is it?"

"Great!--wonderful!--_Carrier Pigeons!_"

"What! Pigeons?"