health an' happiness. No cure, no pay. An'
look here, keep that 'ere card I gev ye continooally on hand, an'
peroose it day an' night. I tell ye it'll be the makin' on ye. An' don't
forgit the golden rule:--Don't tech, don't g' nigh the p'is'n upus-tree
of gravy; beware o' the dorg called hot biscuits; take keer o' the
grease, an' the stomach'll take keer of itself. Ef you're in want o'
bran-bread at any time, let me know, an' I'm your man,--Rink by name,
an' Rink by natur'. An' ef so be you ever come within ten mile o' where
I hang out, jest tie right up on the spot, without the slightest
ceremony or delayance, an' take things puffickly free an' easy like.
Wal, my hearty, I see ye're on the skedaddle. Take keer o'
yerself,--yourn till death, N. Rink."

THE TWENTIETH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

The country is now on the eve of an election the importance of which it
would be impossible to overrate. Yet a few days, and it will be decided
whether the people of the United States shall condemn their own conduct,
by cashiering an Administration which they called upon to make war on
the rebellious slaveholders of the South, or support that Administration
in the strenuous endeavors which it is making to effect the
reconstruction of the Republic, and the destruction of Slavery. It is to
insult the intelligence and patriotism of the American people to
entertain any serious doubt as to the issue of the contest. It can have
but one issue, unless the country has lost its senses,--and never has it
given better evidence of its sobriety, firmness, and rectitude of
purpose than it now daily affords. Were the contest one relating to the
conduct of the war, and had the Democratic party assumed a position of
unquestionable loyalty, there would be some room for doubting who is to
be our next President. It is impossible that a contest of proportions so
vast should not have afforded ground for some complaint, on the score of
its management. To suppose that the action of Government has been on all
occasions exactly what it should have been is to suppose something so
utterly out of the nature of things that it presents itself to no mind.
Errors are unavoidable even in the ordinary affairs of common life, and
their number and their magnitude increase with the importance of the
business, and the greatness of the stage on which it is transacted. We
have never claimed perfection for the Federal Administration, though we
have ever been ready to