nothing of a cup of tea given him in grace at the end of his labors.

My acquaintance was, as the reader will be glad to learn, a native
American, though it is to be regretted, for the sake of facts which his
case went far to establish, that he was not a New-Englander by birth. The
most that could be claimed was, that he came to Boston from Delaware when
very young, and that there on that brine-washed granite he had grown as
perfect a flower of helplessness and indolence, as fine a fruit of
maturing civilization, as ever expanded or ripened in Latin lands. He
lived, not only a protest in flesh and blood against the tendency of
democracy to exclude mere beauty from our system, but a refutation of
those Old World observers, who deny to our vulgar and bustling communities
the refining and elevating grace of Repose. There was something very
curious and original in his character, from which the sentiment of shame
was absent, but which was not lacking in the fine instincts of personal
cleanliness, of dress, of style. There was nothing of the rowdy in him; he
was gentle as an Italian noble in his manners: what other traits they may
have had in common, I do not know; perhaps an amiable habit of illusion.
He was always going to bring me his discharge papers, but he never did,
though he came often and had many a pleasant night's sleep at my cost. If
sometimes he did a little work, he spent great part of the time contracted
to me in the kitchen, where it was understood, quite upon his own agency,
that his wages included board. At other times, he called for money too
late in the evening to work it out that day, and it has happened that a
new second girl, deceived by his genteel appearance in the uncertain
light, has shown him into the parlor, where I have found him to his and my
own great amusement, as the gentleman who wanted to see me. Nothing else
seemed to raise his ordinarily dejected spirits so much. We all know how
pleasant it is to laugh at people behind their backs; but this veteran
afforded me at a very low rate the luxury of a fellow-being whom one might