ther her proper vocation is tending babies or revealing the
decrees of the fates at twenty-five cents a head, and when her
visitors made their appearance she was puzzled to know whether
their business was baby or black art.

Her exertions in either profession have not as yet gained her a
very large fortune, judging from the surroundings of her eligible
residence.

The domicile of this chrysalis enchantress is a low frame house
of two stories, standing back from the street, directly in the
rear of another row of more pretentious mansions, as if it had
been sent into the back yard in disgrace and never permitted to
show itself in good society again. It seems conscious of its
humiliation, and wears an air of architectural dejection that is
quite touching. A troop of dirty-faced children was in the yard,
and in the corner was a pile of other household incumbrances,
consisting principally of mops and washtubs.

Johannes critically examined this interesting collection, but the
wished-for broomstick was not there. A modest rap brought to the
door a large ill-favored man with a red nose and a ponderous pair
of boots, whose speciality seemed to be drinking whatever
spirituous liquors were consumed about the establishment.

Having passed this shirt-sleeved sentinel without damage, though
not without fear, the Cash Customer sat down to take an
observation.

The wooden courser was not to be seen at first glance. The room
was a small irregularly-shaped one, with an intrusive chimney
jutting out into the floor from one side, as if it were a sturdy
brick-and-mortar poor relation of the premises come a visiting
and not to be got rid of at any price. A small cooking-stove was
in the fireplace, with an attendant on either side in the shape
of a battered coal-scuttle, and a small saucepan full of
charcoal; the floor was covered with a dirty rag carpet that had
long since outlived its beauty and its usefulness, and was now in
the last extremity of a tattered old age; half-a-dozen chairs of
different patterns, all much shattered in health and enfeebled by
long years of labor, and a decrepit lounge in the last stages of
a decline, were the seats reserved for visitors; the other
furniture of the room was an antique chest of drawers of a most
curious and complicated pattern--it seemed as if the mechanic had
been uncertain whether he was to construct a bureau or a
cow-shed, and had accordingly satisfied his conscience by making
half-a-