on the together with the rear of the poor house and and the full front of the hospital so that it is the room in the whole house during the whole time that he stayed with us we found him a very worthy good sort of an old gentleman though a little queer in his ways he would keep in his room for days together and if any of the children cried or made a noise about his door he would out in a great passion with his hands full of papers and say something about his ideas which made my wife believe sometimes that he was not altogether indeed there was more than one reason to make her think so for his room was always covered with scraps of paper and old books the author lying about at and which he would never let any body touch for he said he had laid them all away in their proper places so that he might know where to find them though for that matter he was half his time worrying about the house in search of some book or writing which he had carefully put out of the way i never forget what a he once made because my wife cleaned out his room when his back was turned and put every thing to rights for he swore he would never be able to get his papers in order again in a upon this my wife ventured to ask him what he did with so many books and papers and he told her that he was seeking for immortality which made her think more than ever that the poor old gentleman s head was a little cracked he was a very inquisitive body and when not in his room was continually about town hearing all the news and into every thing that was going on this was particularly the case about election time when he did nothing but bustle about from to attending au ward meetings and committee account of rooms though i could never find that he took part with either side of the question on the contrary he would come home and rail at both parties with great wrath � and plainly proved one day to the satisfaction of my wife and three old ladies who were drinking tea with her that the two parties were like two each at a skirt of the nation and that in the end they would tear the very coat off its back and expose its indeed he was an among the neighbours who would around him to hear him talk of an afternoon as he smoked his pipe on the bench before the door and i believe he would have brought over the whole neighbourhood to his own side of the question if they could ever have found out what it was he was very much given to argue or as he called it about the most trifling matter and to do him justice i never knew any body that was a match for him except it was a grave looking gentleman who called now and then to see him and often posed him in an argument but tliis is nothing surprising as i have since found out this stranger is the the author ix city and of course must be a man of great learning and i have my doubts if he had not some hand in the following history as our had been a long time with us and we had never received any pay my wife began to be somewhat uneasy and curious to find out who and what he was she accordingly made bold to put the question to his friend the who replied in his dry way that he was one of the which she supposed to mean some new party in politics i scorn to push a for his pay so i let day after day pass on without the old gentleman for a but my wife who always takes these matters on herself and is as i said a shrewd kind of a woman at last got out of patience and hinted that she thought it high time some people should have a sight of some people s money to which the old gentleman replied in a mighty manner that she need not make herself uneasy for that he had a treasure there pointing to his saddle bags worth her whole house put together this was the only answer we could ever get from him and as my wife account of by some of those odd ways in which women find out every thing learnt that he was of very great being related to the of and to the man of that name she did not like to treat him what is more she even offered merely by way of making things easy to let him live free if he would teach the children their letters and to try her best and get the neighbours to send their children also but the old gentleman took it in such and seemed so at being taken for a that she never dared speak on the subject again about two months ago he went out of a morning with a bundle in his hand � and has never been heard of since all kinds of inquiries were made after him but in vain i wrote to his relations at but they sent for answer that he had not been there since the year before last when he had a great dispute with the man about politics and left the place in a and they had neither heard nor seen any thing of him from that time the author xi to this i must own i felt very much worried about the poor old gentleman for i thought something bad must have happened to him that he should be missing so long and never return to pay his 