might be used
up in a laundry, and made to earn their own living. Hannah might expend
her energy in flat-ironing, and Josiah could turn the mangle. The idea
conjured up quite a pleasant domestic picture. I recommended the
laundry.

"On the following Monday, Josiah wrote to say that he had bought the
laundry. On Tuesday I read in the _Commercial Intelligence_ that one of
the most remarkable features of the time was the marvellous rise taking
place all over New England in the value of hotel and bar property. On
Thursday, in the list of failures, I came across no less than four
laundry proprietors; and the paper added, in explanation, that the
American washing industry, owing to the rapid growth of Chinese
competition, was practically on its last legs. I went out and got drunk.

"My life became a curse to me. All day long I thought of Josiah. All
night I dreamed of him. Suppose that, not content with being the cause
of his domestic misery, I had now deprived him of the means of earning a
livelihood, and had rendered useless the generosity of that good old sea-
captain. I began to appear to myself as a malignant fiend, ever
following this simple but worthy man to work evil upon him.

"Time passed away, however; I heard nothing from or of him, and my burden
at last fell from me.

"Then at the end of about five years he came again.

"He came behind me as I was opening the door with my latch-key, and laid
an unsteady hand upon my arm. It was a dark night, but a gas-lamp showed
me his face. I recognised it in spite of the red blotches and the bleary
film that hid the eyes. I caught him roughly by the arm, and hurried him
inside and up into my study.

"'Sit down,' I hissed, 'and tell me the worst first.'

"He was about to select his favourite chair. I felt that if I saw him
and that particular chair in association for the third time, I should do
something terrible to both. I snatched it away from him, and he sat down
heavily on the floor, and burst into tears. I let him remain there, and,
thickly, between hiccoughs, he told his tale.

"The laundry had gone from bad to worse. A new railway had come to the
town, altering its whole topography. The business and residential
portion had gradually shifted northward. The spot where the bar--the
particular one which I had rejected for the laundry--had formerly stood
was now the commercial centre of the city. The man who had purchased it
in place of Josiah had