upon the peg, the perilous insolence of Lutestring
occurred to him; and he deposited such a prodigious, but half-suppressed
execration upon that gentleman's name, as must have sunk a far more
buoyant sinner many fathoms deeper than usual into a certain hot and
deep place that shall be nameless.

Mrs. and Miss Tag-rag were sitting in the front parlor, intending to
take tea as soon as Mr. Tag-rag should have arrived. It was not a large
room, but sweetly furnished, according to the taste of the owners. There
was only one window, and it had a flaunting white summer curtain. The
walls were ornamented with three pictures, in ponderous gilt frames,
being portraits of Mr., Mrs., and Miss Tag-rag; and I do not feel
disposed to say more concerning these pictures, than that in each of
them the _dress_ was done with elaborate exactness--the _faces_ seeming
to have been painted in, for the purpose of setting off and completing
the picture of the dress. The skinny little Miss Tag-rag sat at the
worn-out, jingling pianoforte, causing it to utter--oh, horrid and
doleful sound!--"_The Battle of Prague_." Mrs. Tag-rag, a fat, showily
dressed woman of about fifty, her cap having a prodigious number of
artificial flowers in it, sat reading a profitable volume, entitled
"_Groans from the Bottomless Pit to Awaken Sleeping Sinners_," by (as he
was pleased to dignify himself) _the Rev._ DISMAL HORROR--a very rousing
young dissenting preacher lately come into that neighborhood, and who
had almost frightened into fits half the women and children, and one or
two old men, of his congregation; giving out, among several similarly
cheering intimations, that they must all necessarily be damned unless
they immediately set about making themselves as miserable as possible in
this world. Only the Sunday before, he had pointed out, with awful force
and distinctness, how cards and novels were the devil's traps to catch
souls; and balls and theatres short and easy cuts to----!

He had proved to his trembling female hearers, in effect, that there was
only one way to heaven, _i. e._ through his chapel; that the only safe
mode of spending their time on earth was reading such blessed works as
that which he had just published, and going daily to prayer-meetings.
When, however, a Sunday or two before, he had the assurance to preach a
funeral sermon, to "improve the death"--such being his impressive
phrase--of a Miss Snooks, (who had kept a circulating library in t