Copper buttons now replenished the pockets of dealers, and the stock made several violent gasps and starts for a desirable existence. But it was consumptive—evidently going into a rapid decline. The crushing process and the iron pump having depressed its spirits, and exhausted still further its vital energy. Grubemout thought that if the buttons were pressed into _bars_, and shown upon Change it might be encouraging, and mitigate the violence of the disease; but some wag of a broker suggested that it was “_a_ BAR _sinister_;” which remark sinister ruffled the backs of the _bars_, caused the bulls to toss their horns unpleasantly, and shook still further the liveliness of the stock, which drooped visibly under the imputation. Even _Jones_—the ardent, trustful Jones—got earnestly anxious about the state of the patient, and “suggested a consultation.” _Brown_ was full of good intentions, but “pleaded debility of the pocket, which, under heavy depletion, was rather low.” _Green_ was a little vivacious, and “suggested a new _cross-cut_.” _Grubemout_ was pleased with the idea, and hinted at “a new installment.” _Uptosnuff_ had “missed the stage, and was unable to get down to the meeting.” _Wilkins_, in answer to a pressing invitation to “_come in_,” was “busy selling goods.” _Sharp_ would not attend—“he had never had any thing to do with the rascally copper, and found his real estate bad enough just now.” _Flat_ “had enough of copper stock—it was not very heavy, to be sure, having rather a tendency to dissolve into air, its original element, but he was satisfied.” _The Stock_ grew feebler after consultation, as patients are apt to, in critical cases, from want of remedy. _The Bulls_ looked surly, as if they had been disappointed in pasture. _The Bears_ were as frisky as it is possible to be on a frosty morning, and were so much in their own element, that you looked involuntarily around for floating icebergs—and copper in this temperature of the atmosphere sunk into a torpor. _On Change_, in this changing world of ours, copper looked blue.