t want to lose him. You don't make trouble,
you don't find fault with your vit--[Dr. Benjamin had schooled his
parent on this point and she altered the word] with your food, and you
know when you 've had enough.

--I really felt proud of this eulogy, which embraces the most desirable
excellences of a human being in the capacity of boarder.

The Landlady began again.--I'm going to lose--at least, I suppose I
shall--one of the best boarders I ever had,--that Lady that's been with
me so long.

--I thought there was something going on between her and the
Register,--I said.

--Something! I should think there was! About three months ago he began
making her acquaintance. I thought there was something particular. I did
n't quite like to watch 'em very close; but I could n't help overbearing
some of the things he said to her, for, you see, he used to follow her
up into the parlor, they talked pretty low, but I could catch a word now
and then. I heard him say something to her one day about "bettering
her condition," and she seemed to be thinking very hard about it, and
turning of it over in her mind, and I said to myself, She does n't want
to take up with him, but she feels dreadful poor, and perhaps he has
been saving and has got money in the bank, and she does n't want to
throw away a chance of bettering herself without thinking it over. But
dear me,--says I to myself,--to think of her walking up the broad aisle
into meeting alongside of such a homely, rusty-looking creatur' as that!
But there 's no telling what folks will do when poverty has got hold of
'em.

--Well, so I thought she was waiting to make up her mind, and he was
hanging on in hopes she'd come round at last, as women do half the time,
for they don't know their own minds and the wind blows both ways at once
with 'em as the smoke blows out of the tall chimlies,--east out of this
one and west out of that,--so it's no use looking at 'em to know what
the weather is.

--But yesterday she comes up to me after breakfast, and asks me to go up
with her into her little room. Now, says I to myself, I shall hear all
about it. I saw she looked as if she'd got some of her trouble off her
mind, and I guessed that it was settled, and so, says I to myself, I
must wish her joy and hope it's all for the best, whatever I think about
it.

--Well, she asked me to set down, and then she begun. She said that she
was expecting to have a change in her condition of life, and had as