little cracked.

He was a very inquisitive body, and when not in his room was continually
poking about town, hearing all the news, and prying into everything that
was going on; this was particularly the case about election time, when he
did nothing but bustle about him from poll to poll, attending all ward
meetings and committee-rooms; though I could never find that he took part
with either side of the question. On the contrary, he would come home and
rail at both parties with great wrath--and plainly proved one day to the
satisfaction of my wife, and three old ladies who were drinking tea with
her, that the two parties were like two rogues, each tugging at the skirt
of the nation; and that in the end they would tear the very coat off its
back, and expose its nakedness. Indeed, he was an oracle among the
neighbors, who would collect around him to hear him talk of an afternoon,
as he smoked his pipe on the bench before the door; and I really believe
he would have brought over the whole neighborhood to his own side of the
question, if they could ever have found out what it was.

He was very much given to argue, or, as he called it, philosophize, about
the most trifling matter, and to do him justice, I never knew anybody that
was a match for him, except it was a grave-looking old gentleman who
called now and then to see him, and often posed him in an argument. But
this is nothing surprising, as I have since found out this stranger is the
city librarian; and, of course, must be a man of great learning; and I
have my doubts if he had not some hand in the following history.

As our lodger had been a long time with us, and we had never received any
pay, my wife began to be somewhat uneasy, and curious to find out who and
what he was. She accordingly made bold to put the question to his friend
the librarian, who replied, in his dry way, that he was one of the
_Literati_; which she supposed to mean some new party in politics. I scorn
to push a lodger for his pay, so I let day after day pass on without
dunning the old gentleman for a farthing; but my wife, who always takes
these matters on herself, and is, as I said, a shrewd kind of a woman, at
last got out of patience, and hinted, that she thought it high time "some
people should have a sight of some people's money." To which the old
gentleman replied in a mighty touchy manner, that she need not make
herself uneasy, for that he had a treasure there (pointing to his
saddle-bags