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the Register, "General Tecumseh Brown, Brownsville," and, for an instant, seemed to fall into a brown study. Bogle was on the qui vive; he looked over the General's shoulder.

"From Sacramento, sir?" said he.

The General gazed at Bogle sternly for a moment, and replied, "I am, sir."

"I see, sir," said Bogle, with a cordial smile, "you live in Brownsville; may I inquire if you are in business there?"

The General gazed at Bogle more sternly than before, and shortly answered, "You may, sir."

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"Well," said Bogle, are you?"

"Yes, sir," replied General Brown, in a stentorian voice, at the same time advancing a step toward his fat little inquisitor. "I have lately made a fortune there."

"Oh!" said Bogle, nimbly jumping back as the General advanced. "How?"

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By minding my own business, sir!" thundered the General, and turning to Duncan, who had forgotten the "Lady Maude" in the charms of this conversation, said, "Give me my key, sir, and the moment a young man calls here to inquire for me, send him up to my room."

So saying, and grasping the key extended to him, General Brown turned away, and, casting a look of

fierce malignity at little Bogle, who tried to conceal his confusion by taking a pinch of snuff, retired, taking with him as he went the only brown japanned candlestick that stood among the numerous array of those articles provided for the Tehama's guests.

"Well," said Bogle, "of all the Brown-where did you put him, John?"

"No. 32," replied that individual, returning to "the cave."

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Thirty-two!" exclaimed Bogle. "Goodness! Gracious! why, that joins my room, and the partition is as thin as a wafer."

CHAPTER II

Up-stairs went Bogle, two steps at a time. The door of thirty-two slammed as he reached the door of his apartment; it slammed on a brown coat-tail, about half a yard of which remained on the outside; there was a muttered ejaculation, then a deep growl, and-rip! went the coat-tail, the fragment remaining in the door.

"Gracious! Goodness!" said Bogle, "what a passionate man! he's torn it off! he's like Halley's comet; no! that never had a tail; he's like that fox,' -and Bogle entered his apartment.

Here sat his interesting wife, rocking their offspring, and instilling into its infant mind the first

lesson of practical economy, by singing that popular nursery refrain,

'Buy low, Baby; buy low, buy low."

"Hush!" said Bogle, as he entered on tiptoe, and, carefully closing the door of thirty-one, held up a warning finger to the partner of his joys and sorrows. The lullaby ceased. It is said that all women become like their husbands after a certain time, both in appearance and disposition. Mrs. Bogle, who had been a Miss Artemesia Stackpole before marriage (Bogle said she was named for an elder sister, Mesia, who died, and she was called Arter-mesia), certainly did not at all resemble her husband in appearance. She was of the thread-paper order; one of those gaunt, bony females of no particular age, who always have two false eye-teeth, and wear brown merino dresses and muslin nightcaps with a cotton lace border in the morning. But in disposition she was his very counterpart. Curious, meddling, inquisitive, fond of gossip, and indefatigable in "the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties," she was an invaluable coadjutor to Bogle, whom she had materially assisted many times in obtaining information that even his prying nature had failed to accomplish. Eagerly she listened to his tale about the mysterious Brown and his tail, and, like a good and dutiful wife, all quietly she nursed the olive branch, while Bogle,

seated in close proximity to the partition, listened with eager ear, intent, to the motions of their neighbor.

Three times in as many quarters of an hour did that mysterious General ring the bell; three times came up the waiter; three times he replied to the General's anxious question, "that no one had called for him," and three times he went down again. After each interview with the waiter, Bogle, listening at the partition, heard the General mutter to himself a large word, a scriptural word, but not adapted to common conversation; it began with a capital D and ended with a small n. Each time that he heard it Bogle said "Gracious! Goodness!" At length his patient exertions were rewarded. As the clock struck ten a step was heard upon the stairs; nearer and nearer it came. Bogle's heart beat heavily; it stopped in front of "thirty-two ";-he held his breath; a knock;-the General's voice, "Come in ";--he heard the door open, and the stranger commence with "Good evening, General," but before he could say CC Brown," that gentleman exclaimed, Charles, have you seen Fanny?"

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Bogle, his ear glued to the wall, turned his eye toward his wife and beckoned. Artemesia approached, and seating herself on his knee, the infant clasped to her breast, listened with her husband.

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