starting to their feet, and putting on their hats.

The clerk explained it, clear as mud; the trio "spudged up" the amount,
looked very sober, and walked out.

"Come, boys," said Smith, "let's go to the theatre."

"Guess not," says "the boys." "B'lieve we'll go home for to-night, Mr.
Smith." And they made for their lodgings.

If those country gents were asked, when they got home, any particulars
about the "elephant," they'd probably hint something about getting a
glimpse of him at the Astor House.

The Advertisement.

Sit down for a moment, we will not detain you long, our story will
interest you, we are sure, for it is most commendable, brief,
and--singularly true.

A poor widow, in the city of Philadelphia, was the mother of three
pretty children, orphans of a ship-builder, who lost his life in the
corvette Kensington, a naval vessel, built in Kensington for one of the
South American republics, and launched in 1826. The South Americans
being short of funds, the Kensington, after years of delay, was sold to
the emperor of all the Russias, and sailed for Constradt in 1830. Some
forty of the carpenters, who had built the vessel, went out in her; she
had immense, but symmetrical spars--carried vast clouds of canvass--was
caught off Cape Henlopen in a squall--her spars came thundering to the
deck, and poor Glenn, the ship builder, was among the slain.

The widow was allowed but a brief time to mourn for the departed;
pinching poverty was at her door; upon her own exertions now devolved
the care and toil of rearing her three children. Cynthia, the eldest,
was a pretty brunette, of thirteen; the neighbors thought Cynthia could
"go out to work;" the next eldest, Martin, a fine, sturdy and
intelligent boy, could go to a trade; and the youngest, Rosa, one of the
most beautiful, blue-eyed, blonde little girls of seven years, poetical
fancy ever realized, "the neighbors thought," ought to be _given_ to
somebody, to raise. The mother was but a feeble woman; it would be a
task for her to obtain her own living, they thought; and so, kind,
generous souls, with that peculiar readiness with which disinterested
friends console or advise the unfortunate, "the neighbors" became very
eloquent and argumentative. But though the mother's hands were weak, her
heart was strong, and her love for her children still stronger.

It is rather a singular trait in the human character, it appears to us,
that people possessing the ordi