That article must be imported
ready-made from other centres of civilization. When a New Englander has
lost his self-respect as a citizen and as a man, he is demoralized, and
cannot be trusted with the money to pay for a dinner.

It may be supposed, therefore, that this fractional emperor, this
continent-shaper, finds his position awkward when he goes into service,
and that his employer is apt to find it still more embarrassing. It
is always under protest that the hired man does his duty. Every act of
service is subject to the drawback, "I am as good as you are." This is
so common, at least, as almost to be the rule, and partly accounts for
the rapid disappearance of the indigenous "domestic" from the basements
above mentioned. Paleontologists will by and by be examining the floors
of our kitchens for tracks of the extinct native species of serving-man.
The female of the same race is fast dying out; indeed, the time is not
far distant when all the varieties of young woman will have vanished
from New England, as the dodo has perished in the Mauritius. The young
lady is all that we shall have left, and the mop and duster of the last
Ahnira or Loizy will be stared at by generations of Bridgets and Noras
as that famous head and foot of the lost bird are stared at in the
Ashmolean Museum.

Abel Stebbins, the Doctor's man, took the true American view of his
difficult position. He sold his time to the Doctor, and, having sold it,
he took care to fulfil his half of the bargain. The Doctor, on his
part, treated him, not like a gentleman, because one does not order a
gentleman to bring up his horse or run his errands, but he treated him
like a man. Every order was given in courteous terms. His reasonable
privileges were respected as much as if they had been guaranteed under
hand and seal. The Doctor lent him books from his own library, and gave
him all friendly counsel, as if he were a son or a younger brother.

Abel had Revolutionary blood in his veins, and though he saw fit to
"hire out," he could never stand the word "servant," or consider himself
the inferior one of the two high contracting parties. When he came
to live with the Doctor, he made up his mind he would dismiss the old
gentleman, if he did not behave according to his notions of propriety.
But he soon found that the Doctor was one of the right sort, and so
determined to keep him. The Doctor soon found, on his side, that he had
a trustworthy, intelligent fellow, wh