Lafayette Moonshine. 421 
tnent." Thomas Jefferson Moonshine was inducted as first clerk 
in his " brother's commercial house." 
"Cornelia Elizabeth" became enamored of the village, and of 
course when she returned to the home of her parents, the old 
trees under which she sported so joyously in her childhood, looked 
"so dismal and sad, and every thing was so still and gloomy that 
she besought pa, with all the eloquence of woman's tongue, to 
sell out and move to Follytown. Then the family would all 
be together, for they could board brothers and Mr. Bangup, and 
besides every thing was so lively and cheeiful there. The people 
were so much more refined." Oh! she was in agony to go. 
With such arguments, urged by continual pleadings, who could 
blame a fond parent from yielding to their force? And who can 
imagine otherwise than that the old homestead was sold, and 
what remained, after paying debts which had been accumulating 
ever since Lafayette went to the city, was invested in the purchase 
of " a house and lot" in the villagd' of the family aspirings? It 
was even so; but it need not be surmised that the Moonshines 
had enough cash on hand to pay tor the aforesaid premises. 
Nor need it be so, for cash, wherever it may be found, will always 
purchase credit. It was so here. A credit of $2000 was obtained 
and a mortgage given on the premises as security. . And what 
was this paltry sum to those going on so swimm'ingly. A mere 
nothing. But then there were contingencies. Jsew furniture 
must be obtained, for the old country wares were " ancient and 
frightful." The old horses must be exchanged for a pair of young 
prancing animals, and, in fact, change and improvement were 
the order of every thing. 
Will the reader anticipate the result of this mighty march of 
progress, and allow us to bring our "long yarn" to a close? 
Methinks we hear some curious little body say, " pass over the 
intervening time and give us the sequel of your tale." W^e will 
do so in few words and brief sentences. W'hen the winter solstice 
came round, Bangup & Moonshine could not make their credits 
balance the debtor side of the page by some hundreds of dollars. 
They attributed this to a mistake in entry. A mistake it most 
certainly was, or it would not have been. But the error possibly 
lay in eaxiy impressions. The firm went down, though not with 
a very heavy crash or productive of much wonder, and Lafayette 
again became a gentleman and disentangled of business, further 
than waiting on creditors and dodging, to avoid sheriffs, can be 
called employment. His name was now seldom repeated by 
anxious mothers in the family circle, and blooming daughters, 
when they saw him approaching, were looking down as if seek- 
ing to avoid the mud, or discover a new plant by the wayside, or 
something best known to themselves. The men of the village 
