to keep the matter dark from "Aadam") skulk into some old familiar

pot-house; and there (if he had the luck to encounter any of his veteran

cronies) he would present me to the company with manifest pride, casting

at the same time a covert slur on the rest of his descendants. "This is

my Jeannie's yin," he would say. "He's a fine fallow, him." The purpose

of our excursions was not to seek antiquities or to enjoy famous

prospects, but to visit one after another a series of doleful suburbs,

for which it was the old gentleman's chief claim to renown that he had

been the sole contractor, and too often the architect besides. I have

rarely seen a more shocking exhibition: the bricks seemed to be blushing

in the walls, and the slates on the roof to have turned pale with shame;

but I was careful not to communicate these impressions to the aged

artificer at my side; and when he would direct my attention to some

fresh monstrosity--perhaps with the comment, "There's an idee of mine's:

it's cheap and tasty, and had a graand run; the idee was soon stole, and

there's whole deestricts near Glesgie with the goathic adeetion and

that plunth,"--I would civilly make haste to admire and (what I found

particularly delighted him) to inquire into the cost of each adornment.

It will be conceived that Muskegon capitol was a frequent and a welcome

ground of talk; I drew him all the plans from memory; and he, with the

aid of a narrow volume full of figures and tables, which answered

(I believe) to the name of Molesworth, and was his constant pocket

companion, would draw up rough estimates and make imaginary offers on

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