e sentiments you hear, whose
opinions you learn, whose judgments you record; one eagerly sought
after in society, revered in private, honored in the Senate; and what
have you derived from these unparalleled advantages? What can you say
has been the benefit from these relations?"

"It's hard to say," muttered Joe, "except, maybe, it's made me a
philosopher."

"A philosopher!--you a philosopher!"

"Ay; isn't it philosophy to live without wages, and work without pay?
'Tis from yourself I heerd that the finest thing of all is to despise
money."

"So it is,--so it would be, I mean, if society had not built up that
flimsy card edifice it calls civilization. Put out my blue pelisse with
the Astrachan collar, and my braided vest; I shall want to go over
to the Villa this morning. But, first of all, take this to the
telegraph-office: 'The O'Shea accepts.'"

"Tear and ages! what is it we've got?" asked Joe, eagerly.

"'The O'Shea accepts,'--four words if they charge for the 'O.' Let me
know the cost at once."

"But why don't you tell me where we're going? Is it Jamaica or
Jerusalem?"

"Call your philosophy to your aid, and be anxious for nothing," said
O'Shea, pompously. "Away, lose no more time."

If Joe had been the exponent of his feelings, as he left the room, he
would probably have employed his favorite phrase, and confessed himself
"humiliated." He certainly did feel acutely the indignity that had been
passed upon him. To live on a precarious diet and no pay was bad enough,
but it was unendurable that his master should cease to consult with and
confide in him. Amongst the shipwrecked sufferers on a raft, gradations
of rank soon cease to be remembered, and of all equalizers there is
none like misery! Now, Mr. O'Shea and his man Joe had, so to say, passed
years of life upon a raft. They had been storm-tossed and cast away for
many a day. Indeed, to push the analogy further, they had more than
once drawn lots who should be first devoured; that is to say, they had
tossed up whose watch was to go first to the pawnbroker. Now, was it
fair or reasonable, if his master discovered a sail in the distance, or
a headland on the horizon, that he should conceal the consoling fact,
and leave his fellow-sufferer to mourn on in misery? Joe was deeply
wounded; he was insulted and outraged.

From the pain of his personal wrongs he was suddenly aroused by the
telegraph clerk's demand for thirty francs.

"Thirty francs for four w