Their state is fearless and secure, enriched
With several blessings such as greatest kings
Might in true justice envy, and themselves
Would count too happy if they truly knew them.
--_May._



Ishmael was settled in his new apartments on the first floor of a
comfortable house on Louisiana Avenue. The front room opening upon
the street, and having his name and profession engraved upon a
silver plate attached to the door, was his public office; the middle
room was his private office; and the back room, which opened upon a
pleasant porch leading into the garden, was his bed-chamber.

The house was kept by two sisters, maiden ladies of venerable age,
who took no other boarders or lodgers.

So, upon the whole, Ishmael's quarters were very comfortable.

The rapid increase of his business justified him in taking a clerk;
and then in a week or two, as he saw this clerk over-tasked, he took
a second; both young men who had not been very successful
barristers, but who were very good office lawyers.

And Ishmael's affairs went on "swimmingly."

Of course there were hours when he sadly missed the companionship of
the congenial family circle with whom he had been so long connected;
but Ishmael was not one to murmur over the ordinary troubles of