e necessity, and it
seemed as though the storm-king with his fiercest aspect, and armed
with all his terrors, had made a conquest of the city.--Wheelwright's
left arm was in a sling, and his tattered garments afforded but a sorry
protection against the rude peltings of the pitiless storm, of which I
have given a very inadequate description.

After the ordinary and reciprocal inquiries as to health, &c. had been
interchanged, he sat several minutes with averted eyes, and without
uttering a syllable. I saw that he was embarrassed, poor fellow!--and
turned to the window--viewing the clouds of snow that were high
upborne, like a canopy over the city, or playing in fantastic wreaths
as the wind whistled around the cornices of the contiguous
buildings--that he might collect himself. At length he broke silence
nearly as follows:--

"I'm afeard you will think I have come on rather curious
business-like--for me."

"How so? What is the case, Mr. Wheelwright?"

"Why, I've had a hard life on't, since I seen you, when my school was
broke up; and I've called to see--I was too proud once to come of such
an arrant--but I thought 'twas likely you would not see a poor family
suffering in such a storm as this."

"Surely not--if it is in my power to render assistance."

"Well, I thought as much--and I've called to see if you have not some
second-hand clothes, and a little something to eat, that you can give
us--or any thing else that you can spare--for we are in very great
distress."

"Indeed--in actual want--of food and clothes, did you say? What has
brought----

"O, don't ask--that woman there--I little thought I should ever come to
this."

"Why have you not informed me of it before? Pray what is the matter
with your hand, doctor?"

"I accidentally run a gouge through it, and hain't been able to do any
work since. We had nothing to live upon. My hands were my only
resources from day to day;--my working tools, and every article of
furniture in the house, to the last blanket, the last shirt, and my
wife's last shawl, have been pawned at the broker's, to enable us to
keep the breath of life in us. We have now neither a stick of wood to
burn, nor a morsel to eat!"

"Can it be possible, my dear sir, that you are reduced to a condition
so deplorable? Why have you not been to see me sooner?"

"I was ashamed."

"But you need not have been. You should not have been left to suffer
deprivations like these."

"I knew that, very