ated untold suffering among the poorer
classes of the people. The difference with Mr. Swartz and the great
majority of southern speculators, was the depth to which he descended
for the purpose of making money. No article of trade, however petty,
that he thought himself able to make a few dollars by, was passed
aside unnoticed, while he would sell from the paltry amount of a pound
of flour to the largest quantity of merchandize required. Like all
persons who are suddenly elevated, from comparative dependence, to
wealth, he had become purse proud and ostentatious, as he was humble
and cringing before the war. In this display of the mushroom, could be
easily discovered the vulgar and uneducated favorite of frikle
fortune. Even these displays could have been overlooked and pardoned,
had he shown any charity to the suffering poor. But his heart was as
hard as the flinty rocks against which wash the billows of the
Atlantic. The cry of hunger never reached the inside of his breast. It
was guarded with a covering of iron, impenetrable to the voice of
misery.

And it was to this man that Mrs. Wentworth, in her hour of bitter need
applied. She entered his store and enquired of the clerk for Mr.
Swartz.

"You, will find him in that room," he replied, pointing to a chamber
in the rear of the store.

Mrs. Wentworth entered the room, and found Mr. Swartz seated before a
desk. The office, for it was his private office, was most elegantly
furnished, and exhibited marks of the proprietor's wealth.

Mr. Swartz elevated his brows with surprise, as he looked at the
care-worn expression and needy attire of the woman before him.

"Vot can I do for you my coot voman," he enquired, without even
extending the courtesy of offering her a seat.

Mrs. Wentworth remained for a moment without replying. She was
embarrassed at the uncourteous reception Mr. Swartz gave her. She did
not recollect her altered outward appearance, but thought only of the
fact that she was a lady. Her intention to appeal to him for credit,
wavered for awhile, but the gaunt skeleton, WANT, rose up and
held her two children before her, and she determined to subdue pride,
and ask the obligation.

"I do not know if you recollect me," she replied at last, and then
added, "I am the lady who purchased a lot of furniture from you a few
weeks ago."

"I do not remember," Mr. Swartz observed, with a look of surprise.
"But vot can I to for you dis morning?"

"I am a soldier