d
bottles required for my Furniture and Piano Polish.

I then returned home, and after explaining to my mother that it would
take till the next day to prepare it, asked her if she would care if I
staid at her house one more night.

She laughed, and said she guessed she could stand it that long.

I then said:

"By gracious, you will have to give me money enough to get to the next
town, for I won't dare commence peddling polish where I am acquainted."

"Indeed I'll not give you a penny, even though you have to commence at
our next-door neighbor's," she answered.

The next day, when my bottles were filled ready for a start, I
discovered that I had no valise.

My mother said I could have that old carpet-bag that I took to New York
when I was a boy, and which had been expressed back to me with my old
clothes. I told her I thought it would be about what I needed, but if
she had the slightest idea she could sell it, or would ever need it to
make me a visit in the far west when I got rich, that I might possibly
get along without it.

She said I could rest assured that she wasn't quite so hard up as to be
obliged to sell it, and if she had to wait for me to get rich before
using it, she probably would never have occasion to do so.

I then visited the garret, where my mother said I would find the old
bag.

As I entered the dark, gloomy place, my vision encountered innumerable
relics of my past life, in the shape of toys, books, papers, skates
cart-wheels, pieces of hobby-horses, and remnants of garments made by my
mother and worn by me years before.

I thought of the days gone by, and the many pleasant hours I had spent
at the old farm house. While I was occupied with play and enjoyment, my
mother busying herself with family cares, and endeavoring to draw from
me my ideas of the business or profession I would adopt when I reached
manhood.

There flitted through my mind the many kind things she had said and done
for me, in trying to gratify my desires and boyish whims. I was reminded
that although she had often opposed me in my ideas of "hus'ling," and
was at that very time refusing to aid me, she had always been a devoted
mother, with a kind and forgiving disposition, and had never ceased to
show her anxiety for my welfare.

I realized that there must be a reason, best known to herself, for
withholding aid from me at this time.

I then began rummaging about for the old carpet-bag, which I found
hanging in a rem