ld Bowling
Green people. She had read of a lady in her carriage driving right into
society and forcing a surrender.

Unfortunately the fools were not so plenty as formerly, the demand for
Kidd Discovery stock had greatly diminished, and the expense of keeping
up appearances in the city had far exceeded Chapman's calculations.
Indeed, he had already begun to talk of the necessity of economy. Topman
was already drawing heavily on the income of the firm to keep up
appearances, and the future must not be overlooked. The lady had,
therefore, to content herself with a one-horse turn-out, an
establishment not very popular in Bowling Green even at that day.
Although the lady had to accept the necessity, there was no getting
along without a coachman, and Mr. Napoleon Bowles was engaged to wear a
livery and wait on the lady in that capacity. Now Bowles stood about
five feet four inches in his boots, was very fat and very short-legged,
and very black, for he was a person of African descent and established
color. Bowles weighed at least two hundred and fifty solid, so that when
he drove his mistress out for an airing of an afternoon the whole
establishment made so shabby and yet so comical an appearance as to
afford the whole neighborhood a subject for amusement. Nor was there a
more self-important person in all Bowling Green than Bowles--except,
perhaps, it might be his mistress. But it was only when he got himself
into those tight-fitting drab trousers, and that bright blue coat with
double rows of brass buttons, and mounted that small, tall hat with the
huge buckle in front, that he fancied himself seen to advantage.

Bowles not only became a feature in Bowling Green society, but indeed
considered himself necessary to the dignity of the family he was
serving, and in duty bound to fight any coachman who would make the
slightest insinuations against it. This got him into numerous
difficulties, for there was not a coachman in the neighborhood that did
not set him down as a fair subject for unpleasant remarks. One called
him a dumpling-stomached darkey; while another said he must have been
brought up in the family and fed on puddings.

"Can't be much of a family," a third would say, "to have such a
short-legged shadow as you for coachman, and only one horse. And such a
livery as that! Why don't your mistress dress you like a man?"

Mr. Bowles had several times found himself measuring the pavement and
his hat in the gutter, as a