| MERCHANT'S LIFE!!! |
| FOR FULL DETAILS SEE EXTRA SUN, PRICE |
| TWO CENTS!" |
| |
+--------------------------------------------+

"Wonder if CHARLEY writ all that 'ere," says I, inwardly, inquirin' of a
boy where Mr. DANY'S particular holdin' out place might be, and givin'
him three cents to show me the way. Drawin' a quick breath, I knocked at
the door. "Come in," says a peskish voice. I cum in, and there, sure
enough, with nose close down to the desk, a writin' away for dear life,
sat CHARLEY. I knowed him to onc't, for all he was a little oldish, and
a little grayish, and had a bare spot like a turtle's back on the top of
his head. My heart cum' a bustin' up into my throat, and an inward voice
seemed to say:

"Do it now EPHRAIM, do it now, while the feeling is onto you." Jest then
he looked up, and I bust forth: "Oh, CHARLEY! CHARLEY! its a long time
sin' we met, CHARLEY. Don't you know me? Don't you remember little EPH
ECKELS? Oh! CHARLEY, CHARLEY, give us a grip of your knob, old
hunk"--and I slewed over towards him for to shake hands when he suddenly
drawed back, kinder gloomy like, putting down his pen and chewing his
gums sort of swagewise. as he said:

"My name, sir, is the Hon. CHARLES AUGUSTUS DANA, Ex-Assistant Secretary
of War, Ex-Proprietor of the ablest paper in the West, and at present
Chief Editor of the New York _Sun_, price two cents. There is no
individual here, sir, answering to the appellation of "Old Hunk," and,
as I perceive, sir, that there is a most infernal smell of cow yards
about your raiment, and the effluvia arising thence is becoming