ke those of the New York papers on a
balloon marriage, as, The last affinity item! A raid among the
magnetisms! or, Hifalutin among prunes! However, in some subtile way,
one soon divines on entering a store whether she is to be well served
there, and must follow with tact the undercurrent in the shop as well as
in the _salon_. If it be not the right encounter, ask for something
there is not, and pass on to the next. Thus, "my grocer" apologizes for
keeping honey, because I do not eat sweets, and proposes to open the
butter trade because it is so annoying to go about for butter; "my
stoveman" descends from the stilts of the firm, looking after these
chimney affairs himself; "my carpenter" says, "Shure, an' ye don't owe
_me_ onything; I'd work for ye grat-tis if I could"; "my cabinet-dealer"
sends tables and wardrobes at midnight if desired, and takes them back
and sells them over the next day; even the washerwoman is an affinity,
exclaiming, "Shure, an' ye naid n't think I'll be chargin' ye with all
the collars an' ruffles ye put in,--shure, an' I'll not."

Perhaps it sounds a little egotistic to say "my grocer," &c., but is not
this the way that heads of families talk, and am I not head and family
too? At least the solitary may soothe themselves with the family sounds.
Indeed, it soon appears that all these faithful servers are like to
become so radical a part of the my and mine of existence, as to make it
really alarming. When one's comfort is thus bound up in fire-boy and
washerwoman, alas! what will become of the grand philosophy of
Epictetus?

To begin housekeeping proper, one will need at least a bread-knife and
tumbler, a gridiron and individual salt,--cost eighty-four cents. My
list also includes for kitchen and table use:--

Tin saucepan .40
" baking-pan .23
" oyster pail .25
2 breakfast plates .20
4 tea plates .32
Cup (and cover to mimic sugar-bowl) .15
Mixing spoon .15
Pint bowl .20
Butter jar .35
2 knives and forks .45
2 saucers .14
2 minute platters .18
1 " vegetable-dish .10
3 individual butter-plates .18
----