d not grow as flimsy and flaccid as the proselyte's
moistened shirt-collar, with a quarter of an hour's active labor under
a July sun.

But the person now at hand had not at all the air of one of these
amiable visionaries. He was an elderly man, dressed rather shabbily,
yet decently enough, in a gray frock-coat, faded towards a brown hue,
and wore a broad-brimmed white hat, of the fashion of several years
gone by. His hair was perfect silver, without a dark thread in the
whole of it; his nose, though it had a scarlet tip, by no means
indicated the jollity of which a red nose is the generally admitted
symbol. He was a subdued, undemonstrative old man, who would doubtless
drink a glass of liquor, now and then, and probably more than was good
for him,--not, however, with a purpose of undue exhilaration, but in
the hope of bringing his spirits up to the ordinary level of the
world's cheerfulness. Drawing nearer, there was a shy look about him,
as if he were ashamed of his poverty, or, at any rate, for some reason
or other, would rather have us glance at him sidelong than take a full
front view. He had a queer appearance of hiding himself behind the
patch on his left eye.

"I know this old gentleman," said I to Hollingsworth, as we sat
observing him; "that is, I have met him a hundred times in town, and
have often amused my fancy with wondering what he was before he came to
be what he is. He haunts restaurants and such places, and has an odd
way of lurking in corners or getting behind a door whenever
practicable, and holding out his hand with some little article in it
which he wishes you to buy. The eye of the world seems to trouble him,
although he necessarily lives so much in it. I never expected to see
him in an open field."

"Have you learned anything of his history?" asked Hollingsworth.

"Not a circumstance," I answered; "but there must be something curious
in it. I take him to be a harmless sort of a person, and a tolerably
honest one; but his manners, being so furtive, remind me of those of a
rat,--a rat without the mischief, the fierce eye, the teeth to bite
with, or the desire to bite. See, now! He means to skulk along that
fringe of bushes, and approach us on the other side of our clump of
maples."

We soon heard the old man's velvet tread on the grass, indicating that
he had arrived within a few feet of where we Sat.

"Good-morning, Mr. Moodie," said Hollingsworth, addressing the stranger
as an