fourteen cents for selling a
tie, certainly you ought to get five cents for making one."

"But your money goes to support us, Paul."

"And where does yours go, mother?"

"A part of it has gone for a new dress, Paul. I went up to Stewart's
to-day and bought a dress pattern. I will show it to you after
supper."

"That's right, mother. You don't buy enough new dresses. Considering
that you are the mother of a successful merchant, you ought to dash
out. Doesn't Jimmy want some clothes?"

"I am going to buy him a new suit to-morrow. He is eight years old
to-morrow."

"Is he? What an old fellow you are getting to be, Jimmy! How many gray
hairs have you got?"

"I haven't counted," said Jimmy, laughing.

"I tell you what, mother, we must celebrate Jimmy's birthday. He is
the only artist in the family, and we must treat him with proper
consideration. I'll tell you what, Jimmy, I'll close up my business at
twelve o'clock, and give all my clerks a half-holiday. Then I'll take
you and mother to Barnum's Museum, where you can see all the
curiosities, and the play besides. How would you like that?"

"Ever so much, Paul," said the little boy, his eyes brightening at the
prospect. "There's a giant there, isn't there? How tall is he?"

"Somewhere about eighteen feet, I believe."

"Now you are making fun, Paul."

"Well, it's either eighteen or eight, one or the other. Then there's a
dwarf, two feet high, or is it inches?"

"Of course it's feet. He couldn't be so little as two inches."

"Well, Jimmy, I dare say you're right. Then it's settled that we go to
the museum tomorrow. You must go with us, mother."

"Oh, yes, I will go," said Mrs. Hoffman, "and I presume I shall enjoy
it nearly as much as Jimmy."

CHAPTER II.

BARNUM'S MUSEUM.

Barnum's Museum now lives only in the past. Its successor, known as
Wood's Museum, is situated at the corner of Twenty-ninth street and
Broadway. But at the time of my story the old Barnum's stood below the
Astor House, on the site now occupied by those magnificent structures,
the _Herald_ building and the Park Bank. Hither flowed daily and
nightly a crowd of visitors who certainly got the worth of their
money, only twenty-five cents, in the numberless varied curiosities
which the unequaled showman had gathered from all quarters of the
world.

Jimmy had often seen the handbills and advertisements of the museum,
but had never visited it, and now anticipated with eagerness the
m