tener.

IV.

I OBTAIN A LISTENER.

The writing of my advertisement cost me a great deal of trouble. At
first I thought of stating that I desired a respectable and intelligent
person, who would devote a few hours each day to the services of a
literary man; but on reflection I saw that this would bring me a vast
number of answers from persons who were willing to act as secretaries,
proof-readers, or anything of the sort, and I should have no means of
finding out from their letters whether they were good listeners or not.

Therefore I determined to be very straightforward and definite, and to
state plainly what it was I wanted. The following is the advertisement
which I caused to be inserted in several of the city papers:--

"Wanted.--A respectable and intelligent person, willing to
devote several hours a day to listening to the recitals of a
traveler. Address, stating compensation expected, Oral."

I mentioned my purpose to no one, not even to my grandmother, for I
should merely make myself the object of the ridicule of my friends, and
my dear relative's soul would be filled with grief that she had not been
considered competent to do for me so slight a service. If I succeeded in
obtaining a listener, he could come to me in my library, where no one
would know he was not a stenographer to whom I was dictating literary
matter, or a teacher of languages who came to instruct me in Arabic.

I received a dozen or more answers to my advertisement, some of which
were very amusing, and others very unsatisfactory. Not one of the
writers understood what sort of services I desired, but all expressed
their belief that they were fully competent to give them, whatever they
might be.

After a good deal of correspondence and some interviewing, I selected at
last a person who I believed would prove himself a satisfactory
listener. He was an elderly man, of genteel appearance, and apparently
of a quiet and accommodating disposition. He assured me that he had once
been a merchant, engaged in the importation of gunny-bags, and, having
failed in business, had since depended on the occasional assistance
given him by a widowed daughter-in-law. This man I engaged, and arranged
that he should lodge at the village inn, and come to me every evening.

I was truly delighted that so far I had succeeded in my plan. Now,
instead of depending upon the whims, fancies, or occasional good-natured
compliance of any one, I was m