tuated.

The rooms occupied by Paul and his mother were three in number. The
largest one was about fourteen feet square, and was lighted by two
windows. It was covered with a neat, though well-worn, carpet; a few
cane-bottomed chairs were ranged at the windows, and on each side of the
table. There was a French clock on the mantel, a rocking chair for his
mother, and a few inexpensive engravings hung upon the walls. There was
a hanging bookcase containing two shelves, filled with books, partly
school books, supplemented by a few miscellaneous books, such as
"Robinson Crusoe," "Pilgrim's Progress," a volume of "Poetical
Selections," an odd volume of Scott, and several others. Out of the main
room opened two narrow chambers, both together of about the same area as
the main room. One of these was occupied by Paul and Jimmy, the other by
his mother.

Those who are familiar with the construction of a New York
tenement-house will readily understand the appearance of the rooms into
which we have introduced them. It must, however, be explained that few
similar apartments are found so well furnished. Carpets are not very
common in tenement-houses, and if there are any pictures, they are
usually the cheapest prints. Wooden chairs, and generally every object
of the cheapest, are to be met with in the dwellings of the New York
poor. If we find something better in the present instance, it is not
because Paul and his mother are any better off than their neighbors. On
the contrary, there are few whose income is so small. But they have seen
better days, and the furniture we see has been saved from the time of
their comparative prosperity.

As Paul is still at his estimate, let us improve the opportunity by
giving a little of their early history.

Mr. Hoffman, the father of Paul, was born in Germany, but came to New
York when a boy of twelve, and there he grew up and married, his wife
being an American. He was a cabinetmaker, and, being a skillful workman,
earned very good wages, so that he was able to maintain his family in
comfort. They occupied a neat little cottage in Harlem, and lived very
happily, for Mr. Hoffman was temperate and kind, when an unfortunate
accident clouded their happiness, and brought an end to their
prosperity. In crossing Broadway at its most crowded part, the husband
and father was run over by a loaded dray, and so seriously injured that
he lived but a few hours. Then the precarious nature of their prosperit