E DAY.

I.

Nobody ever knew, except himself, what made a foolish young newspaper
reporter, who happened into a small old-fashioned hotel in New York,
observe Mr. Abel Pinkham with deep interest, listen to his talk, ask a
question or two of the clerk, and then go away and make up an
effective personal paragraph for one of the morning papers. He must
have had a heart full of fun, this young reporter, and something
honestly rustic and pleasing must have struck him in the guest's
demeanor, for there was a flavor in the few lines he wrote that made
some of his fellows seize upon the little paragraph, and copy it, and
add to it, and keep it moving. Nobody knows what starts such a thing
in journalism, or keeps it alive after it is started, but on a certain
Thursday morning the fact was made known to the world that among the
notabilities then in the city, Abel Pinkham, Esquire, a distinguished
citizen of Wetherford, Vermont, was visiting New York on important
affairs connected with the maple-sugar industry of his native State.
Mr. Pinkham had expected to keep his visit unannounced, but it was
likely to occasion much interest in business and civic circles. This
was something like the way that the paragraph started; but here and
there a kindred spirit of the original journalist caught it up and
added discreet lines about Mr. Pinkham's probable stay in town, his
occupation of an apartment on the fourth floor of the Ethan Allen
Hotel, and other circumstances so uninteresting to the reading public
in general that presently in the next evening edition, one city editor
after another threw out the item, and the young journalists, having
had their day of pleasure, passed on to other things.

Mr. and Mrs. Pinkham had set forth from home with many forebodings, in
spite of having talked all winter about taking this journey as soon as
the spring opened. They would have caught at any reasonable excuse for
giving it up altogether, because when the time arrived it seemed so
much easier to stay at home. Mrs. Abel Pinkham had never seen New
York; her husband himself had not been to the city for a great many
years; in fact, his reminiscences of the former visit were not
altogether pleasant, since he had foolishly fallen into many snares,
and been much gulled in his character of honest young countryman.
There was a tarnished and worthless counterfeit of a large gold watch
still concealed between the outer boarding and inner lath and plaster
o