"Sing away, my good fellow," said Jim. "Maybe I am the fox; but I'm a fox that has cut his eye-teeth. I'm too cute to put my neck in that noose, you see. No, sir; you can mention to Queen Victoria that if she wants Jim Fellows to marry one of her daughters, why Parliament has got to come down handsomely with dowry to keep her on. They are worth keeping, these splendid creations of nature and art; but it takes as much as to run a first-class steamer. They go exactly in the line of fine pictures and statuary, and all that. They may be adorable and inspiring, and exalting and refining and purifying, the very poetry of existence, the altogether lovely; but, after all, it is only the rich that can afford to keep them. A wife costs more in our day than a carriage or a conscience, and both those are luxuries too expensive for Jim." "Jim! Jim!! Jim!!!" I exclaimed, in tones of expostulation; but the impracticable Jim cut a tall pirouette, and sung, "My old massa told me so, Best looking nigger in the country, O! I looked in the glass and I found it so--_o_--o--O--_O_." The crescendo here made the papers flutter, and created a lively breeze in the apartment. "And now, farewell, divinest Alice, Jim must go to work. Let's see. Oh! I've promised a rip-staving skinner on Tom Brown in that Custom House affair." "What _is_ that business? What has Brown done? If all is true that is alleged he ought to be turned out of decent society." "Oh pshaw! you don't understand; its nothing but a dust we're kicking up because its a dry time. Brown's a good fellow enough, I dare say, but you know we want to sell our papers and these folks want hot hash with their breakfast every morning, and somebody has got to be served up. You see the _Seven Stars_ started this story, and sold immensely, and we come in on the wave; the word to our paper is 'pitch in' and so I'm pitching in." "But, Jim, is it the fair thing to do when you don't know the truth of the story?" "The truth! well, my dear fellow, who knows or cares anything about truth in our days? We want to sell our papers." "And to sell your papers you will sell your honor as a man and a gentleman." "Oh! bother, Hal, with your preaching." "But, Jim, you ought to examine both sides and know the truth." "I do examine; generally write on both sides when these rows come on. I'm going to defend Brown in the _Forum_; you see they sent round yesterday for an article, so you see Jim makes his little peculium both ways." "Jim, is that the square thing?"