104 Farmers' Miscellany. [July, 



simultaneously; every article carefully examined, by all present, 

 to see that it had received no injury in coming. The furniture 

 in every room would have been put in order in outline. I should 

 thus have acquired a large capital stock of popularity at the out- 

 set. My neighbors would have retired with their ruling passion 

 gratified, and with ample materials for conversation for a week. 

 We should have had employment for a week in filling up the 

 outline of which I have spoken. It would have been most con- 

 clusively proven that we were not proud. The supposed supera- 

 bundance of our furniture would have been set down to the score 

 of our ignorance, not our pride. 



Alas! that we should have foregone all these advantages — but 

 so it was. Our house was in order. \Miat the chambers and 

 closets contained could only be the subject of conjecture. I en- 

 tered upon my new course of life with a reputation for exclusive- 

 ness and pride. 



Weeks passed on, and I began to think I should have to live "alone 

 in my glory," in Grassdale. No body came near me but a few 

 weasel-faced fellows, to sell me certain articles, for which I was 

 sure they demanded double what they were worth. If I asked 

 their advice for my farming operations, I perceived it was always 

 so framed as to involve the necessity of giving them a job. I 

 began to grow \Qrj suspicious, and half wished myself back in 

 Montrose Alley. My nearest neighbor was Mr. Obadiah Soles, 

 whose farm was contiguous to mine, and whose house was about 

 one-fourth of a mile distant. He was very industrious and ener- 

 getic. I had called at his house several times, both in the morn- 

 ing and afternoon, very sagaciously fixing on the same hours 

 which I should have chosen to call on a business man in the city. 

 I never found him in, but was always told that if I had any busi- 

 ness with him they would tell him, and he would come and see 

 me. Of course I always remarked I had no business, but merely 

 called to see him. I subsequently learned that he was always in 

 at meal times, and also from after dark till nearly daylight. 



I sometimes passed him in the street, but he always seemed in 

 a hurry. Once as he was going by, and I stood in the street in 



