fanned away the smoke of his pipe, that he might get a better view of
me, and soon recognized me with great delight.

'I should get up, sir, to acknowledge such an honour as this visit,'
said he, 'only my limbs are rather out of sorts, and I am wheeled about.
With the exception of my limbs and my breath, howsoever, I am as hearty
as a man can be, I'm thankful to say.'

I congratulated him on his contented looks and his good spirits, and
saw, now, that his easy-chair went on wheels.

'It's an ingenious thing, ain't it?' he inquired, following the
direction of my glance, and polishing the elbow with his arm. 'It runs
as light as a feather, and tracks as true as a mail-coach. Bless you,
my little Minnie--my grand-daughter you know, Minnie's child--puts her
little strength against the back, gives it a shove, and away we go, as
clever and merry as ever you see anything! And I tell you what--it's a
most uncommon chair to smoke a pipe in.'

I never saw such a good old fellow to make the best of a thing, and
find out the enjoyment of it, as Mr. Omer. He was as radiant, as if
his chair, his asthma, and the failure of his limbs, were the various
branches of a great invention for enhancing the luxury of a pipe.

'I see more of the world, I can assure you,' said Mr. Omer, 'in this
chair, than ever I see out of it. You'd be surprised at the number of
people that looks in of a day to have a chat. You really would! There's
twice as much in the newspaper, since I've taken to this chair, as there
used to be. As to general reading, dear me, what a lot of it I do get
through! That's what I feel so strong, you know! If it had been my eyes,
what should I have done? If it had been my ears, what should I have
done? Being my limbs, what does it signify? Why, my limbs only made my
breath shorter when I used 'em. And now, if I want to go out into
the street or down to the sands, I've only got to call Dick, Joram's
youngest 'prentice, and away I go in my own carriage, like the Lord
Mayor of London.'

He half suffocated himself with laughing here.

'Lord bless you!' said Mr. Omer, resuming his pipe, 'a man must take
the fat with the lean; that's what he must make up his mind to, in this
life. Joram does a fine business. Ex-cellent business!'

'I am very glad to hear it,' said I.

'I knew you would be,' said Mr. Omer. 'And Joram and Minnie are like
Valentines. What more can a man expect? What's his limbs to that!'

His supreme contempt f