ok and Job
Printing."

"Good!" was my muttered exclamation, as I left the Park and crossed
over towards the old building in question--"I'll be a printer! Franklin
was one, and he, like myself, was fond of rolls, because he entered
Philadelphia with one under each arm. Yes, I'll be a printer."

Entering the printing office, I found it to be a very small concern,
containing but one press and a rather limited assortment of type. The
proprietor of the office, whom I shall call Mr. Romaine, was a rather
intellectual looking man, of middle age. Being very industrious, he did
the principal portion of his work himself, occasionally, however, hiring
a journeyman when work was unusually abundant. As I entered he looked up
from his case and inquired, with an air of benevolence--

"Well, my lad, what can I do for _you_ this morning?"

"If you please, sir, I want to learn to be a printer," replied I,
boldly.

"Ah, indeed! Well, I was just thinking of taking an apprentice. But give
an account of yourself--how old are you, and who are you?"

I frankly communicated to Mr. Romaine all that he desired to know
concerning me, and he expressed himself as being perfectly satisfied. He
immediately set me to "learning the boxes" of a case of type; and in
half an hour I had accomplished the task, which was not very difficult,
it being merely an effort of memory.

It having been arranged that I should take up my abode in the house of
Mr. Romaine, I accompanied that gentleman home to dinner. He lived in
William street and his wife kept a fashionable boarding-house for
merchants, professional men, &c. Several of these gentlemen were married
men and had their wives with them. Mrs. Romaine, the wife of my
employer, was one of the finest-looking women I ever saw--tall,
voluptuous, and truly beautiful. She was about twenty-five years of age,
and her manners were peculiarly fascinating and agreeable. She was
always dressed in a style of great elegance, and was admirably adapted
to the station which she filled as landlady of an establishment like
that. I will remark that although she had been the wife of Mr. Romaine
for a number of years, she had not been blessed with offspring, which
was doubtless to her a source of great disappointment, to say nothing of
the _chagrin_ which a married woman naturally feels when she fails in
due time to add to the population of her country.

Accustomed as I had been to the economical scantiness of my uncle's
t