“'True for you, I have, and there it is,' handing him a fifty dollar bill; it belongs to me, and I'm Frank Me--------; take the price of your winter's jaw out of it, and we'll see what's in town with the balance.' “He got well of his toothache in a moment. 'Happy to make your acquaintance; you're from the southern swamps, plenty of chill and fever there; permit me to read for your critical attention a few pages I have written in my book on the subject.' “'With the greatest pleasure in the world,' I replied; 'allow me to subscribe to your work; deduct it out of the fifty.' He commenced reading a description of a Mississippi agur, and cuss me if it wasn't so natural I shivered all over; and the tears pop't out of my eyes like young pigeons out of a loft, when I thought of the last shake I had in far distant Massassip, sitting on a muddy log fighting the mosquitoes, and waiting for a steamboat to bear me from her friendly bosom. You ought to have heard him when he described the awful effects it had upon our gals, developing their spleens, and bringing the punkin to their blessed faces; there was a pathos in his language, a tremor in his voice, soft as the warbling of a he-dove before he pitches into a pea-patch. “'Then it is,' he read, 'when the deleterious emanations of the decomposing vegetation have penetrated the inmost recesses and mysterious intricacies of the corporeal constituents of the intellectual inhabitants, that humanity instigates the benevolent individual to mournfully and sadly deliberate over the probable effects, after a perpetuity of continuance of such morbific impressions.' “I was delighted at the grand simplicity of his expression, and was giving my approbation too much vent, when tap, tap, went something at the door. “'And even beauteous woman,' continued the professor, 'goes a'--tap, tap--'whilst ever is heard'--tap, tap--' and nature assimilating'--tap, tap--'mournfully weeps over the silent'--bom, bom, went the outsider, growing impatient. 'Bless me! who's there? come in,'--and an hour-glass, the sand nearly out, was substituted for the punch-bowl--'Come in;' the door opened, and gave admittance to what would have been a handsome young woman, had the care in her heart not written 'at home' so legibly on her cheek. 'Take a seat, ma'am.' “'I will call again, professor,' said I, rising. “'No, no, sir, sit down, sir. Madam, how can I serve you?' “'I am in a great hurry, professor,' I said again, seizing my hat. “'No, sir, I insist you must not leave. Madam, what do you want?' and the poor professor jumped from his seat to the door, and from the door to his seat, asking, almost sternly, 'Madam, what do you want?' “'I'm a poor widow, with a large family of children, and hearing that you were a very charitable gentleman, and--' “'Professor, I cannot stand this pitiable narrative. Madam, there is some money for you. You must indeed excuse me. I shall not be able to restrain my tears.'