ty-nine
francs. "Little Saint Thomas," of the Rue du Bac, has 90,000 French
linos, 1000 "Jacquettes gentleman," 500 Zouaves, and 1000 dozen
cravats--all at extraordinary low prices. Poor Jacques draws public
attention to the "incomparable cheapness" of his immense operations:
while Little St. Thomas declares that his assortment of goods is of
"exceptional importance," and that he is selling his goods at a
cheapness _hors ligne_. For a nation that has twitted the English with
being a race of shop-keepers, our friends the Parisians who keep shops
are not wanting in devotion to their own commercial interests. Indeed,
there is a strong commercial sense in thousands of Parisians who have no
shutters to take down. Take for instance the poetical M. Alphonse Karr,
whose name has passed all over Europe as the charming author of A
Journey round my Garden. Nothing can be more engaging than the manner in
which M. Karr leads his readers about with him among his flowers and the
parasites of his garden. He falls into raptures over the petals of the
rose, and his eye brightens tenderly over the June fly. One would think
that this garden-traveller was a very ethereal personage, and that milk
and honey and a few sweet roots would satisfy his simple wants, and that
he had no more idea of trafficking in a market than a hard man of
business has in spending hours watching a beetle upon a leaf. But let
not the reader continue to labour under this grievous mistake.

M. Karr is quite up to the market value of every bud that breaks within
the charmed circle of his garden at Nice.

He cultivates the poetry for his books, but he does not neglect his
ledger. In the spring, when, according to Mr. Tennyson, "a fuller
crimson comes upon the robin's breast," and "young men's fancy lightly
turns to thoughts of love," M. Alphonse Karr, poet and florist, opens
his flower-shop.

Carrie had taken up the newspaper which had moved the enthusiasm of her
elder sisters. Her eyes fell on the following advertisement:--

"By an arrangement agreed upon,
M. ALPHONSE KARR, of Nice,

sends direct, gratuitously, and post free, either a box containing
Herbes aux Turguoises, or a magnificent bouquet of Parma Violets,
to every person who, before the end of March, shall become a
subscriber to the monthly review entitled Life in the Country. A
specimen number will be sent on receipt of fifteen sous in p