we had, or do we sing a note lower than we did?'

"Well, he walked up and down the room, with his hands onder his
coat-tails, for ever so long, without a sayin' of a word. At last, sais
he, with a beautiful smile that was jist skin deep, for it played on his
face as a cat's-paw does on the calm waters, 'What was you a sayin.' of,
Mr. Slick?' saw he.

"'What's our position to Europe?' sais I, 'jist now; is it letter A,
No. 1?'

"'Oh!' sais he, and he walked up and down agin, cypherin' like to
himself; and then says he, 'I'll tell you; that word Socdolager, and the
trade of preachin', and clockmakin', it would be as well to sink here;
neither on 'em convene with dignity. Don't you think so?'

"'Sartainly,' sais I; 'it's only fit for talk over a cigar, alone. It
don't always answer a good, purpose to blart every thing out. But our
_po_sition,' says I, among the nations of the airth, is it what our
everlastin' Union is entitled to?'

"'Because,' sais he, 'some day when I am asked out to dinner, some
wag or another of a lord will call me parson, and ask me to crave a
blessin', jist to raise the larf agin me for havin' been a preacher.'

"'If he does,' sais I,' jist say, my Attache does that, and I'll jist up
first and give it to him atween the two eyes; and when that's done, sais
you, my Lord, that's _your grace_ afore meat; pr'aps your lordship will
_return thanks_ arter dinner. Let him try it, that's all. But our great
nation,' sais I, 'tell me, hante that noble stand we made on the right
of sarch, raised us about the toploftiest?'

"'Oh,' says he 'right of sarch! right of sarch! I've been tryin' to
sarch my memory, but can't find it. I don't recollect that sarmont about
Hope pitchin' her tent on the hill. When was it?'

"'It was afore the juvenile-united-democratic-republican association to
Funnel Hall,' sais I.

"'Oh,' says he, 'that was an oration--it was an oration that.'

"Oh!" sais I, "we won't say no more about that; I only meant it as a
joke, and nothin' more. But railly now, Abednego, what is the state of
our legation?"

"'I don't see nothin' ridikilous,' sais he, 'in that are expression, of
Hope pitchin' her tent on a hill. It's figurativ' and poetic, but it's
within the line that divides taste from bombast. Hope pitchin' her tent
on a hill! What is there to reprehend in that?'

"Good airth and seas,' sais I, 'let's pitch Hope, and her tent, and the
hill, all to Old Nick in a heap together, and talk