vation.

Mrs. Grommer had, up to this time, been engaged in making a
public example of certain ones of her grandchildren, who had been
trespassing on the currant bushes of a neighbor, and had been
caught in the act. Their indulgent grandmother, being scandalized
by this exhibition of youthful depravity, with a regard for the
demands of strict justice that did her infinite credit, had
inflicted on several of the delinquents that mild punishment
known as "spanking." The novelty of the sight had drawn together
quite a collection of the neighbors, who signified their approval
of the deed by encouraging cheers.

Meantime the Individual had ample time to contemplate the inside
beauties of the mansion of the sable prophet. Mrs. Grommer soon
finished her athletic exercise out-doors, and came into the house
to rearrange her dress and receive her company.

The reception-room was about 10 by 12, and so low that a tall man
could not yawn in it without rapping his head against the
ceiling. In places the plaster had been displaced and the bare
lath showed through, reminding one of skeletons. The floor was
dingily carpeted; a double bed occupied one side of the room, a
small cooking-stove stood in the middle of the floor and had a
disproportionately slim pipe issuing out of the corner, like a
straw in a mint-julep; seven chairs of varied patterns, a small
round table, on which lay a pack of cards covered with a cloth,
and a tumble-down chest of drawers completed the necessary
furniture of the apartment. The ornaments are quickly enumerated.
A black wooden cross hung by the windows, a few cheap and gaudy
Scriptural prints were fastened against the wall, a chemist's
bottle, of large dimensions, and filled with a blue liquid,
reposed on the chest of drawers, side by side with a few
miniature casts of lambs and dogs; and on a little shelf stood a
quarter-size plaster bust of some unknown worthy, of which the
head had been knocked off and its place significantly supplied
with a goose-egg.

In a short time Mrs. Grommer emerged from an unlooked-for apartment
and entered the room. She is a negress and a grandmother--her age is
65, and a brood of children, together with a swarm of the
aforesaid grandchildren, reside near at hand and keep the old
lady's mansion constantly besieged.

As to size--she is large, apparently solid, and would struggle
severely with a 200 pound weight before she would acknowledge
herself conquered. She was nea