documents, papers, and notes from their various hiding-places, rooms,
drawers, and boxes, with the utmost speed. Harmony and order were
introduced into the wilderness, and the different packets were marked
and registered in their several pigeon-holes. They found all they wanted
in greater completeness even than they had expected; and here an old
clerk was found of no slight service, who for the whole day and part of
the night never left his desk, and with whom, till then, Edward had been
always dissatisfied.

"I should not know him again," he said to his friend, "the man is so
handy and useful."

"That," replied the Captain, "is because we give him nothing fresh to do
till he has finished, at his convenience, what he has already; and so,
as you perceive, he gets through a great deal. If you disturb him, he
becomes useless at once."

Spending their days together in this way, in the evenings they never
neglected their regular visits to Charlotte. If there was no party from
the neighborhood, as was often the case, they read and talked,
principally on subjects connected with the improvement of the condition
and comfort of social life.

Charlotte, always accustomed to make the most of opportunities, not only
saw her husband pleased, but found personal advantages for herself.
Various domestic arrangements, which she had long wished to make, but
which she did not know exactly how to set about, were managed for her
through the contrivance of the Captain. Her domestic medicine-chest,
hitherto but poorly furnished, was enlarged and enriched, and Charlotte
herself, with the help of good books and personal instruction, was put