he great
emolument of their proud dad. Even if these profitable babies
should not be natural necromancers, with the power of second
sight, and any quantity of "natural gifts," they must surely be
spirit-rappers of the most lucrative "sphere," capable of
organizing "circles," and instructing "mediums," and otherwise
bringing into the family fund large piles of that circulating
medium so much to be desired. Or, even failing this popular
gift, they _must_ all be born with some strong instincts of
money-making vagabondism. If the girls failed in fortune-telling
they would certainly have a genius for the tight-rope, or a
decided talent for the female circus and negro-minstrel business;
and the boys would be brought into the world with the power of
throwing a miraculous number of consecutive flip-flaps--of putting
cocked hats on their juvenile heads while turning somersets over
long rows of Arab steeds of the desert--of poising their infant
bodies on pyramids of bottles, and drinking glasses of molasses
and water, under the contemptible subterfuge of wine, to the
health of the terror-stricken beholders--or of climbing to the
tops of very tall poles without soiling their spangled dresses,
and there displaying their anatomy for the admiration of the
gazing multitude, in divers attitudes, for the most part
extraordinarily wrong side up with very particular care--or, at
least, they would be born with the astounding gift of tying their
young legs in double bow-knots across the backs of their
adolescent necks, and while in that graceful position kissing
their little fingers to the bewildered audience.

Under the constant influence of such comfortable and ennobling
thoughts, it is not in the elastic nature of the human mind to
remain long dejected. In the contemplation of the future glories
of his might-be wife and possible family, the "Individual"
recovered somewhat of his former gaiety. Remembering that "Care
killed a cat," he resolved that he would not be chronicled as a
second victim, so he kicked Care out of doors, so to speak, and
warned Despair and Discouragement off the premises.

He attired him in his best, and appeared once more before the
world in the joyful garb of a man with Hope in his heart and
money in his pantaloons. In fact, so radiant did he appear, that
he might have been set down for a person who had just had a new
main of joy laid on in his heart, and had turned the cocks of all
the pipes, and let on the f