gator again commenced,--

"Was you ever blind, sir?"

"No, sir."

"Did you marry a widow, sir?"

"No, sir."

Another lapse of silence.

"Did I understand you to say, sir, that you had a wife and six children
living in New York, and had never seen one of them?"

"Yes, sir; I so stated it."

Another and a longer pause of silence. Then the interrogator again
inquired,--

"How can it be, sir, that you never saw one of them?"

"Why," was the response, "_one of them_ was born after I left."

A gentleman in America, riding in an eastern railroad car, which was
rather sparsely supplied with passengers, observed, in a seat before
him, a lean, slab-sided Yankee; every feature of his face seemed to ask
a question, and a little circumstance soon proved that he possessed a
more "inquiring mind." Before him, occupying an entire seat, sat a lady
dressed in deep black, and after shifting his position several times,
and manoeuvring to get an opportunity to look into her face, he at
length caught her eye.

"In affliction?"

"Yes, sir," responded the lady.

"Parent?--father or mother?"

"No, sir."

"Child, perhaps?--a boy or a girl?"

"No, sir, not a child; I have no children."

"Husband, then, I expect?"

"Yes," was the curt answer.

"Hum! cholery? A tradin' man may be?"

"My husband was a seafaring man, the captain of a vessel; he didn't die
of cholera; he was drowned."

"O, drowned, eh?" pursued the inquisitor, hesitating for a brief
instant. "Save his _chist_?"

"Yes; the vessel was saved, and my husband's effects," said the widow.

"_Was_ they?" asked the Yankee, his eyes brightening up. "_Pious_ man?"

"He was a member of the Methodist Church."

The next question was a little delayed, but it came.

"Don't you think that you have great cause to be thankful that he was a
pious man, and saved his _chist_?"

"I do," said the widow abruptly, and turned her head to look out of the
window.

The indefatigable "pump" changed his position, held the widow by his
glittering eye once more, and propounded one more query, in a lower
tone, with his head slightly inclined forward, over the back of the
seat,--

"Was you calculating to get married again?"

"Sir," said the widow, indignantly, "you are impertinent!" And she left
her seat and took another on the other side of the car.

"'Pears to be a little huffy?" said the ineffable bore. Turning to our
narrator behind him, "What did they make you pay for th