? Can't a
man want to furnish both ends of his house at once?"

"I have heard of a man in his sleep getting himself turned
about with his head in the place of his feet. I thought he was
dreaming."

"You may have your five dollars again, if you think them ill-
bestowed," said the other putting his hand in his pocket; --
"There they are! -- I don't want them -- I will find a way to
stand on my own legs -- with boots or without, as the case may
be."

"I don't know who has better legs," said Winthrop. "I can't
pity you."

"But seriously, Winthrop," said Rufus, smiling in spite of
himself, -- "a man may go empty-headed, but he cannot go bare-
footed into a library, nor into society."

"Did you go much into society at Asphodel?" asked Winthrop.

"Not near so much as I shall -- and that's the very thing. I
_can't do_ without these things, you see. They are necessary to
me. Even at Asphodel -- but that was nothing. Asphodel will be
a very good place for you to go to in the first instance. You
won't find yourself a stranger."

"Will you be ready for college next year?"

"Hum -- don't know -- it depends. I am not anxious about it -- I
shall be all the better prepared if I wait longer, and I
should like to have you with me. It will make no difference in
the end, for I can enter higher, and that will save expense.
Seriously Winthrop, you _must_ get away."

"I _must_ catch that fish," said Winthrop, -- "if I can --"

"You won't --"

"I've got him."

"There's one place at Asphodel where I've been a good deal --
Mr. Haye's -- he's an old friend of my father's and thinks a
world of him. You'll like him -- he's been very kind to me."

"What shall I like him for -- besides that?" said Winthrop.

"O he's a man of great wealth, and has a beautiful place
there, and keeps a very fine house, and he's very hospitable.
He's always very glad to see me; and it's rather a pleasant
change from Glanbally's _vis-a-vis_ and underdone apple-pies. He
is one of the rich, rich Mannahatta merchants, but he has a
taste for better things too. Father knows him -- they met some
years ago in the Legislature, and father has done him some
service or other since. He has no family -- except one or two
children not grown up -- his wife is dead -- so I suppose he was
glad of somebody to help him eat his fine dinners. He said
some very handsome things to encourage me. He might have
offered me the use of his library -- but he did not."

"Perhaps