“Before I could make any reply, or even guess at his meaning, he was called away, and Mr. Lummocks stepped up and supplied his place. “ ‘You had better buy ’em, colonel,’ said Mr. Lummocks; ‘they will sell like hot cakes. Did you say you bought for cash?’ “ ‘Of _course_,’ I said, ‘if I buy at all.’ “He took a memorandum out of his pocket, and looked in it for a moment. “ ‘Let me see,’ said he, ‘Franco, Franco—what did you say your firm was? Something and Franco, or Franco and Somebody? The name has escaped me.’ “ ‘I have no firm,’ I replied. “ ‘O, you haven’t, hain’t ye? all alone, eh? But I don’t see that I’ve got your first name down in my “tickler.” ’ “ ‘My first name is Harry,’ said I. “ ‘Right—yes—I remember,’ said Mr. Lummocks, making a memorandum; ‘and your references, colonel, who did you say were your references?’ “ ‘I have no reference,’ I replied; ‘indeed I know of no one to whom I could refer, except my father.’ “ ‘What—the old boy in the country, eh?’ “ ‘My father is in the country,’ I answered, seriously, not very well pleased to hear my parent called the ‘Old Boy.’ “ ‘Then you have no _city_ references, eh?’ “ ‘None at all: I have no friends here, except yourself.’ “ ‘Me!’ exclaimed Mr. Lummocks, apparently in great amazement. ‘Oh, oh!—but how much of a bill do you mean to make with us, captain?’ “ ‘Perhaps I may buy a vest-pattern,’ I replied, ‘if you have got some genteel patterns.’ “ ‘_A vest-pattern!_’ exclaimed Mr. Lummocks; ‘what! haven’t you come down for the purpose of buying goods?’ “ ‘No, sir,’ I replied: ‘I came to New York to seek for employment; and as you had shown me so many kind attentions, I thought you would be glad to assist me in finding a situation.’ “Mr. Lummock’s countenance underwent a very singular change when I announced my reasons for calling on him. “ ‘Do you see any thing that looks _green_ in there?’ he asked, pulling down his eyelid with his forefinger. “ ‘No, sir, I do not,’ I replied, looking very earnestly into his eye. “ ‘Nor in _there_, either?’ said he, pulling open his other eye. “ ‘Nothing at all, sir,’ I replied, after a minute examination. “ ‘I guess _not!_’ said Mr. Lummocks; and without making any other answer, he turned on his heel and left me. “ ‘Regularly sucked, eh, Jack?’ asked a young man who had been listening to our conversation. “ ‘Don’t mention it!’ said Mr. Lummocks; ‘the man is a fool.’ ” Our friend was about to demand an explanation of this strange conduct, when the proprietor came forward and told him that he was not a retailer but a _jobber_, and advised him, “if he wanted a vest-pattern, to go into Chatham-street!” ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ He must have been a good deal of an observer, and something of a philosopher also, who wrote as follows, in a unique paper, some fifteen years ago: