least to all
but Rhapsody.

* * * * *

Rhapsody was at breakfast the next morning--a servant announced a
gentleman in the parlor desirous of an interview with Mr. Rhapsody--it
was granted, and soon _Jones_, the _boot-maker_, confronted the Rev. Mr.
So-and-So. Though an inclination to _smile_ played about the pleasant
features of the reverend gentleman, he assumed to be severe upon what he
called the duplicity of Mr. Rhapsody; and that gentleman patiently
hearing the story out, quietly asked:

"Are you, sir, here as an accuser--denouncer, or an ambassador of peace
and good will?"

"The latter, sir, is my self-constituted mission," said the reverend
gentleman.

"Then," said Rhapsody, "I am ready to make all necessary concessions--a
clean breast of it, you may say. I am in a false position--struggling
against public opinion--false pride--falsely, and yet honestly, working
my way through the world. I am no more nor less, nominally, than _Jones,
the boot-maker_. Now," continued Rhapsody, "if a false purpose covers
not a false heart also, I can yet be happy in the affections of Miss
Somebody, and she in mine. For those who can battle as we have, against
the common chances of indigence, upright and alone in our integrity, may
surely yet win greater rewards by mutual consolation and support, our
fortunes joined."

"I have not been mistaken, then, sir," said the reverend gentleman, "in
your character, if I was in your occupation; and you may rely upon my
friendly service in an amicable and definite arrangement of this very
delicate matter."

* * * * *

When General Harrison took the "chair of state," our friend Rhapsody was
reinstated in his place, occupied years before, and by fortuitous
circumstances he got still higher--an appointment of trust connected
with a handsome salary; so that Jones, the boot-maker, was enabled to
re-enter the Somebodies into the gay and fluctuating society at the
national capital, from which they had been so unceremoniously driven by
the death of the husband and father. Mrs. Somebody, that was, however,
is now a much older and much wiser person, the wife of our ministerial
friend, who vouches the difficulty he had in overcoming Mrs. Somebody's
repugnance to leather--and for sundry quibbles--yea, strong arguments
against any blood of hers ever uniting with the fates and fortunes of a
boot-maker; with what _propriety_, her experie