d his MS. to
the devil in waiting, and then, walking leisurely home, retired, with
ineffable dignity to bed.

Meantime the devil, to whom the copy was entrusted, ran up stairs to his
'case,' in an unutterable hurry, and forthwith made a commencement at
'setting' the MS. 'up.'

In the first place, of course,--as the opening word was 'So,'--he made a
plunge into the capital S hole and came out in triumph with a capital S.
Elated by this success, he immediately threw himself upon the little-o
box with a blindfold impetuosity--but who shall describe his horror when
his fingers came up without the anticipated letter in their clutch? who
shall paint his astonishment and rage at perceiving, as he rubbed his
knuckles, that he had been only thumping them to no purpose, against the
bottom of an empty box. Not a single little-o was in the little-o hole;
and, glancing fearfully at the capital-O partition, he found that to his
extreme terror, in a precisely similar predicament. Awe--stricken, his
first impulse was to rush to the foreman.

'Sir!' said he, gasping for breath, 'I can't never set up nothing
without no o's.'

'What do you mean by that?' growled the foreman, who was in a very ill
humor at being kept so late.

'Why, sir, there beant an o in the office, neither a big un nor a little
un!'

'What--what the d-l has become of all that were in the case?'

'I don't know, sir,' said the boy, 'but one of them ere "G'zette" devils
is bin prowling 'bout here all night, and I spect he's gone and cabbaged
'em every one.'

'Dod rot him! I haven't a doubt of it,' replied the foreman, getting
purple with rage 'but I tell you what you do, Bob, that's a good
boy--you go over the first chance you get and hook every one of their
i's and (d----n them!) their izzards.'

'Jist so,' replied Bob, with a wink and a frown--'I'll be into 'em, I'll
let 'em know a thing or two; but in de meantime, that ere paragrab? Mus
go in to-night, you know--else there'll be the d-l to pay, and-'

'And not a bit of pitch hot,' interrupted the foreman, with a deep sigh,
and an emphasis on the 'bit.' 'Is it a long paragraph, Bob?'

'Shouldn't call it a wery long paragrab,' said Bob.

'Ah, well, then! do the best you can with it! We must get to press,'
said the foreman, who was over head and ears in work; 'just stick in
some other letter for o; nobody's going to read the fellow's trash
anyhow.'

'Wery well,' replied Bob, 'here goes it!' and off he hur