, hopes Sister Swiggs did not lend an ear to their false
pleadings, nor distribute charity among the vile wretches. "Such would
be like scattering chaff to the winds," a dozen voices chime in.
"Indeed!" Lady Swiggs ejaculates, giving her head a toss, in token of
her satisfaction, "not a shilling, except to the miserable wretch who
showed me the way out. And he seemed harmless enough. I never met a more
melancholy object, never!" Brother Spyke raises his eyes imploringly,
and says he harbors no ill-will against these vile people, but
melancholy is an art with them--they make it a study. They affect it
while picking one's pocket.

The body now resolves itself into working order. Brother Spyke offers up
a prayer. He thanks kind Providence for the happy escape of Sister
Swiggs--this generous woman whose kindness of heart has brought her
here--from among the hardened wretches who inhabit that slough of
despair, so terrible in all its aspects, and so disgraceful to a great
and prosperous city. He thanks Him who blessed him with the light of
learning--who endowed him with vigor and resolution--and told him to go
forth in armor, beating down Satan, and raising up the heathen world. A
mustering of spectacles follows. Sister Slocum draws from her bosom a
copy of the report the wise man in the spectacles rises to read. A
fashionable gold chain and gold-framed eye-glass is called to her aid;
and with a massive pencil of gold, she dots and points certain items of
dollars and cents her keen eye rests upon every now and then.

The wise man in the spectacles rises, having exchanged glances with
Sister Slocum, and commences reading a very long, and in nowise lean
report. The anxious gentlemen draw up their chairs, and turn attentive
ears. For nearly an hour, he buzzes and bores the contents of this
report into their ears, takes sundry sips of water, and informs those
present, and the world in general, that nearly forty thousand dollars
have recently been consumed for missionary labor. The school at Corsica,
the missions at Canton, Ningpo, Pu-kong, Cassaba, Abheokuta, and sundry
other places, the names of which could not, by any possibility, aid the
reader in discovering their location--all, were doing as well as could
be expected, _under the circumstances_. After many years labor, and a
considerable expenditure of money, they were encouraged to go forward,
inasmuch as the children of the school at Corsica were beginning to
learn to rea