e had not the slightest
connection with the other members of the Peabody family, nor the
remotest interest in the common sitting-room without. Mr. Tiffany
Carrack, with patent shanks to his boots which sprang him into the air
as he walked, corsets to brace his body in, new-fangled straps to keep
him down, a patent collar of a peculiar invention, to hold his head
aloft, moving as it were under the convoy of a company of invisible
influences, deriving all his motions from the shoe-maker, stay-maker,
tailor and linen-draper, who originally wound him up and set him
a-going, for whose sole convenience he lives, having withal, by way of
paint to his ashy countenance, a couple of little conch-shell tufts,
tawny-yellow, (that being the latest to be had at the perfumer's,) on
his upper lip; the representative and embodiment of all the latest new
improvements, patents, and contrivances in apparel, Mr. Tiffany Carrack
followed his excellent mother.

"Why, Tiffany," said old Sylvester, who notwithstanding the immensity of
these people, calmly pursued his old course, "we all thought you were in
California."

The family were gathered around and awaited Mr. Tiffany Carrack's answer
with a good deal of curiosity.

"That was all a delusion, sir," he replied, plucking at his little crop
of yellow tufts,--"a horrible delusion. I had some thought of that kind
in my mind, in fact I had got as far south as New Orleans, when I met a
seedy fellow who told me that the natives had rebelled and wouldn't work
any more; so I found if I would get any of the precious, I must dig with
a shovel with my own dear digits; of course I turned back in disgust,
and here I am as good as new--Jehoshaphat!"

It was well that Mr. Tiffany had a fashion of emphasizing his discourse
with a reference to this ancient person, whom he supposed to have been
an exquisite of the first water, which happily furnished a cover under
which the entire Peabody family exploded with laughter at Mr. Carrack's
announcement of the sudden termination of his grand expedition to the
Gold Region. Without an exception they all went off in an enormous
burst, the Captain, little Sam, and Mopsey leading.

"Every word true, 'pon my honor," repeated Mr. Carrack.

The great burst was renewed.

"It was a capital idea, wasn't it?" he said again, supposing he had made
a great hit.

The explosion for the third time, but softened a little by pity in the
female section of the chorus.

Mrs.