over her fair, full
shoulders with her right hand, then motioning Mr. Gusher to be seated
"Nyack is a very dull place, though. I am sure you will not find much in
it to interest you. My mother tells me you are to make but a very short
stay. I don't wonder you are anxious to get back, sir--"

Mrs. Chapman was at this time in a state of great alarm lest Mattie
should say something not strictly within the rules of propriety. She
shook her head and cast a significant glance at Mattie, then raised the
fore-finger of her right hand to her lips, admonishingly.

"My daughter has not heard of the great enterprise yourself and my dear
husband are engaged in--"

[Illustration: "I am so glad to make you my compliments!" said Mr.
Gusher, making one of his best bows. Page 128.]

"Why, yes, mother, I have," interrupted Mattie; "did'nt Mr. Toodleburg
and father go up the river to buy up all the vegetables for the New York
market?"

"Oh, horrors! horrors! Why, my daughter, what put such a strange thought
in your head? Think of it. Your intellectual father going into the
vegetable business--and with a common old Dutchman! Oh, horrors, my
daughter! What could have put such a thought in your head?" The fat,
fussy woman affected to be overcome, and raised her hands in the very
agony of distress.

"My daughter, Mr. Gusher, has a way of talking so at times. A little
satirical, you know--inherits it from her father."

"My mother has spoken of you frequently, Mr. Gusher. I almost felt
acquainted with you before you arrived. You do business in the city, she
says. The weather is so very bad, I am sure you will not enjoy such a
dull place as this," said Mattie, turning to Mr. Gusher and resuming the
conversation, cold and emotionless.

"No, no, miss," rejoined Mr. Gusher, smiling; "I am zure I shall be so
happy wiz you. Wiz you to zay so many good zings to me, my heart shall
be in ze paradise." Here Mr. Gusher made a bow, and pressed his hand to
his heart. "Wiz you for ze bird of zat paradise, oh, I shall be so
happy."

"Then you and father are going into business, Mr. Gusher? I do hope you
will be successful. If you can only get father to stick to business,"
resumed Mattie. "He is smart at inventing new religions, and other
things. Mother, (here she turned to her mother, who was in a state of
great alarm,) how many new religions has father invented? I know how
many churches he has built--"

"My daughter, my daughter!" exclaimed the