[Footnote 5: Dr. Faustus on this day From Auerbach's cellar rode away, Of a barrel of wine astride, Which many mothers'-children eyed; This through his subtle art achieved, And for it the Devil's reward received. 1525.] [Footnote 6: It first appeared in the fourth volume of his Works. Leipzig. Goeschen. 1786.] [Footnote 7: Mr. Brooks's translation.] [Footnote 8: _Kunst und Alterthum_. B. VI. Heft I., II.] MISS WIMPLE'S HOOP. "Believe in God and yourself, and do the best you can." In Hendrik on the Hudson, fifty miles from New York, there was, winter before last, a certain "patent seamless."-- But a hooped skirt with a history, touching and teaching, is no theme for flippancy; so, by your leave, I will unwind my story tenderly, and with reverential regard for its smooth turns of sequence. The Wimples, of whom Sally is the last, were among the oldest and most respectable of Hendrik families. Sally's father, Mr. Paul Wimple, had been a publisher in good standing, and formerly did a flourishing business in New York; but seven years ago he failed, and so, quite penniless, his health sadly broken, his cheerfulness and energy all gone with his fortunes, without heart for any new beginning, he returned to Hendrik, his native place. There, the friends of his youth, steadfast and generous, pitying his sad plight, and having perfect faith in his unimpeached integrity, purchased--principally at the sale in bankruptcy of his own effects--a modest stock of new and second-hand books and magazines, together with some stationery and a few fancy articles in that line, and reestablished him in the humble but peaceful calling of a country bookseller. They called his shop "The Hendrik Athenaeum and Circulating Library," and all the county subscribed; for, at first, the Wimples were the fashionable charity, "the Wimples were always so very respectable, you know," and Sally was such a sweet girl that really it was quite an interesting case. Mrs. Splurge forthwith began improving the minds of her girls to the extent of three full annual subscriptions for Josephine, Adelaide, and Madeline respectively; and that triplet of fair students, who, separately or conjointly, were at all times competent to the establishment of a precedent for the graceful charities of Hendrik good society, handsomely led off with a ten-dollar investment in "fountain" pens, "cream-laid assembly note," motto-wafers, Blessington envelopes "with crest and initial," ivory tablets, pencil-sharpeners, and ink-erasers. But all their munificence came to nought. Mr. Paul Wimple's heart was broken,--as they say of any weary Sysiphus who lies down by his stone and sleeps forever;--so he died.