He eyed me rather closely, and with a much less amiable expression than he assumed on learning that I was a near relative of his "Uncle Sam," which I saw it was essential to make known to him, in order to secure decent treatment; for he was decidedly savage in his looks and manners on the first introduction, taking me no doubt for some troublesome customer (as I eventually proved to be, by the way,) who had come to bother him about some trifling affair. An intimation that I would like to see him at the post-office was sufficient. We soon found ourselves there alone, and I commenced interrogating him thus:-- "Did you receive notice from the Department in March last of the discontinuance of the office at P.?" "I did, and was ordered to take possession of the property of the Department," he replied. "The old gentleman," said he, "rather hated to yield; but, when I showed him the documents, he caved in and made the best of it. The fact is, the office never ought to have been created at all." "When did the order reach your hands?" I asked; "and do you remember the circumstance of its arrival in the mail?" "I well remember all about it," said he; "I opened the mail that day myself, as usual. I think it was one of the last days in March. I shall never forget the astonished look of neighbor N., as he perused the order converting him into a private citizen once more." "He wasn't satisfied with a certified copy of the unwelcome document, was he?" I remarked. "And, by the way, what was the object of serving a _copy_ of the paper on him?" "Well," he rejoined, with a slight embarrassment, "the fact is, I thought I had better retain the original for my own protection, in case of any fuss. He had to have it, however, before he would shut up shop." At this juncture I produced the "order," and laying it before him, requested that he would turn to the entry of a free letter on his "mails received," at the time of the receipt of this one. The search was in vain, as I well knew it would be; and he undertook to explain that circumstance by claiming that official letters frequently came from Washington without wrapper or post-bill. By this time he evidently began to construe my inquiries into a suspicion of his fraudulent conduct; and, as in all such cases, every attempt to extricate himself only made the matter worse. "Come to think of it," said he, "I was absent from home the day that letter arrived, and on my return I took it from my private box where my letters are put," at the same time pointing to a pigeon-hole in a small letter-case over the desk. "And would your wife open the mail in your absence?" I inquired.