you writed tose
vertes, alreatty, t'ey voot a little tifferendt pin."

"Well, sir, why don't you tell it?"

Reisen smiled. "Tat iss teh ectsectly vot I am coing to too. I yoost
taught I'll trop in undt tell you, Toctor, tat I heffent het Mr. Richlun
in my etsteplitchmendt a veek undtil I findte owdt tat he's
a--berfect--tressure."

Doctor Sevier started half up from his chair, dropped into it again,
wheeled half away, and back again with the blood surging into his face
and exclaimed:--

"Why, what do you mean by such drivelling nonsense, sir? You've given me
a positive fright!" He frowned the blacker as the baker smiled from ear
to ear.

"Vy, Toctor, I hope you ugscooce me! I yoost taught you voot like to
herr udt. Undt Missis Reisen sayce, 'Reisen, you yoost co undt tell um.'
I taught udt voot pe blessant to you to know tatt you hett sendt me teh
fynust pissness mayn I effer het apowdt me. Undt uff he iss onnust he
iss a berfect tressure, undt uff he aint a berfect tressure,"--he smiled
anew and tendered his capacious hat to his listener,--"you yoost kin
take tiss, Toctor, undt kip udt undt vare udt! Toctor, I vish you a
merrah Chris'mus!"

CHAPTER XXXIII.

BEES, WASPS, AND BUTTERFLIES.

The merry day went by. The new year, 1858, set in. Everything gathered
momentum. There was a panic and a crash. The brother-in-law of sister
Jane--he whom Dr. Sevier met at that quiet dinner-party--struck an
impediment, stumbled, staggered, fell under the feet of the racers, and
crawled away minus not money and credit only, but all his philosophy
about helping the poor, maimed in spirit, his pride swollen with
bruises, his heart and his speech soured beyond all sweetening.

Many were the wrecks. But over their debris, Mercury and Venus--the busy
season and the gay season--ran lightly, hand in hand. Men getting money
and women squandering it. Whole nights in the ball-room. Gold pouring in
at the hopper and out at the spout,--Carondelet street emptying like a
yellow river into Canal street. Thousands for vanity; thousands for
pride; thousands for influence and for station; thousands for hidden
sins; a slender fraction for the wants of the body; a slenderer for the
cravings of the soul. Lazarus paid to stay away from the gate. John the
Baptist, in raiment of broadcloth, a circlet of white linen about his
neck, and his meat strawberries and ice-cream. The lower classes
mentioned mincingly; awkward silences or visible w