a Venter vivus,
or, as we may say, a lively appetite. But the Landlady welcomed the
new-comer very heartily.

--Why! how--do--you--do Johnny?! with the notes of interrogation and of
admiration both together, as here represented.

Johnny signified that he was doing about as well as could be expected
under the circumstances, having just had a little difference with a
young person whom he spoke of as "Pewter-jaw" (I suppose he had worn a
dentist's tooth-straightening contrivance during his second dentition),
which youth he had finished off, as he said, in good shape, but at
the expense of a slight epistaxis, we will translate his vernacular
expression.

--The three ladies all looked sympathetic, but there did not seem to be
any great occasion for it, as the boy had come out all right, and seemed
to be in the best of spirits.

--And how is your father and your mother? asked the Landlady.

--Oh, the Governor and the Head Centre? A 1, both of 'em. Prime order
for shipping,--warranted to stand any climate. The Governor says he
weighs a hunderd and seventy-five pounds. Got a chin-tuft just like
Ed'in Forrest. D'd y' ever see Ed'in Forrest play Metamora? Bully, I
tell you! My old gentleman means to be Mayor or Governor or President or
something or other before he goes off the handle, you'd better b'lieve.
He's smart,--and I've heard folks say I take after him.

--Somehow or other I felt as if I had seen this boy before, or known
something about him. Where did he get those expressions "A 1" and
"prime" and so on? They must have come from somebody who has been in the
retail dry-goods business, or something of that nature. I have certain
vague reminiscences that carry me back to the early times of this
boardinghouse.--Johnny.--Landlady knows his father well.

--Boarded with her, no doubt.--There was somebody by the name of John,
I remember perfectly well, lived with her. I remember both my friends
mentioned him, one of them very often. I wonder if this boy isn't a son
of his! I asked the Landlady after breakfast whether this was not, as I
had suspected, the son of that former boarder.

--To be sure he is,--she answered,--and jest such a good-natur'd sort of
creatur' as his father was. I always liked John, as we used to call his
father. He did love fun, but he was a good soul, and stood by me when I
was in trouble, always. He went into business on his own account after a
while, and got merried, and settled down into a fami