SUCH

CCH was the legend over a dim little shop, within whose narrow bounds a quiet old gentleman awaited customers. In sitting at my window opposite, during a few weeks while the old gentleman occupied his stand, I had observed with curiosity the numbers of people who resorted thither in the dusk of the evening, as if seeking to escape observation. The few whose entry and exit I had noticed during daylight, had also attracted my attention, inasmuch as they had departed, not with the satisfied mien of those having made a good bargain, but as if dissatisfied or surprised.

Now, I surmised at first that the old gentleman was a humbug-a fellowcraftsman to the impostors who vend, for one dollar received by mail, postpaid, "receipts for making an easy living by work to be done during the afternoon, by any lady or gentleman at their own house." Yet the departing customers did not seem indignant, but rather perplexed and doubtful. Neither, after all, could I find it in my heart to attribute the character of a swindler to so respectable-looking an old man as the compensation merchant. He somehow wore, in my eyes, the aspect of an emeritus missionary; of a singlehearted militant Christian, who, having expended his youth and strength in benignant and much-enduring labors of love among naked Hottentots or wild Indians, had come home to expend the remainder of his years, his enlarged wisdom and benevolence, his increased spiritual power, on a retiring pension of nothing per annum among his own people. His thick, short, white hair, his somewhat bent form, his embrowned face, his quiet, peaceful mouth and chin, his still, half-humorous, bright black eyes, his whole person and atmosphere were lovely and reverend. And I always ended my meditations in the conviction that he could not be a swindler.

But it was evidently impossible for a philosophical man like myself, to refrain from investigating a phenomenon so noticeable and suggestive as this. So, without many words, I easily introduced myself to the old gentleman, and, with the plea of want of occupation, solicit

ed permission to occupy a remote and obscure corner in his dark little shop during the afternoon.

The old shopman granted my petition as soon as asked, with a sequent readiness which impressed upon me an indistinct notion that he had expected me to make precisely that request; and I was moreover somewhat discomposed by the very penetrating look and quiet, intelligent smile with which he regarded me as I spoke. Yet, with proper philosophic imperturbation, I next morning assumed my seat, which was in a corner so dark as to put me almost in the situation of a spy, since only a very keen eye, or a close investigation would serve to distinguish my black dress and brown hair in the dim atmosphere of my corner, and among the old garments which hung just by me.

Nobody came to buy compensations for a long time. So I scrutinized the shop and the shopman. Old garments, as I said, hung near me-apparently cast-off clothes, for they seemed not even valuable enough to tempt the buyers of second-hand raiment. The room was fitted with one counter, on one side; for it was too small to afford room for more; and behind the counter and before it were the usual rows of shelves for goods. On these shelves, therefore, I looked to see what was the curiously named merchandise of the old man. But for the most part they were empty. Here and there, dusty and torn, stood an old pasteboard box, labelled "Jefferson Ties," and with the illustrative addition of the silhouette of a low-quartered shoe. Upon the upper shelf were also sundry boxes with dingy glass show-fronts, displaying stratified deposits of varicolored sugars, as if to answer at once by the lusciousness of the material and the learned arrangement, so like the colors on a geological chart, the demands of the sensual and the scientific customer. Behind the counter were small drawers with little wooden knobs, superscribed with dimly-lettered words on tin signs, the titles of divers spices and rare drugs and dyes, as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, alum, saleratus, indigo, and the like, such as one might imagine to have been stolen by the chief baggage-eunuch of the

Queen of Sheba, running away to set up for himself in trade in a free country, and stealing the labels of her packages, for convenience, along with the precious commodities themselves.

There was also a can, suggestive of the black art-for what more natural than to suppose that for an art so named, Cornelius Agrippa, or Michael Scott, or Virgilius, who is so curiously reported the prince of all the wizards, should have invented and left in his tomb, to be found by the light of the everburning sepulchral lamp, and secretly used by Day and Martin, or transatlantic Thompson, the recipe for composing the celebrated Oil Paste Blacking?

There were many other queer old articles in the little shop, such as might be the remnants of the outfit in trade of some old wizened grocer who had never renewed stock since he first set up his business in youth, and who had died, leaving everything untouched, to his successor, the Compensation Merchant. But if I should stop to recount all of them, I should not have time to speak of that very respectable old gentleman himself, nor of his traffic; so let them go-the blacking to dry up into hard, cracked, stony lumps; the spices to waste their sweetness on the desert air of the old drawers, and the geological candy to await some terrific disruption which in the coming ages shall accomplish the upheaval and confusion of its strata, to the perplexity of all scientific confectionery students.

The old merchant himself next underwent an examination. But besides the characteristics, which I have already mentioned, of his outward man and reverend aspect, there was little to observe. He said nothing to me, but was apparently occupied either in adjusting his accounts in certain business-like leather-backed ledgers and day-books which lay before him, or in meditations.

After a proper Baconian process of induction of phenomena, classification, and generalized statement, I sought in vain for a result which should throw light on the problem of this Compensation business. There seemed to be nothing to sell; for nobody could want the musty commodities left in the depositories of my hypothetical wizened old grocer; and a suspicion of knavery again began to creep upon my mind, but so faint and timid that it straightway fled before the benignant and yet

keenly-intelligent smile which just then the old man directed toward me in my dark corner. I half thought again that he knew what I was thinking, so appo site was the gesture and the expression to the thoughts then in my mind.

I was upon the point of beseeching him to tell me what was the true nature of his mysterious employment, when the lower half-door of the old shopthe upper one having been left open for air and light-was hastily pushed inward, and a lady stepped hurriedly within.

"I wish, sir," said she, advancing without pause to the counter, and bending over it with eagerness, "for one of your fullest compensations, if you have any such thing. I was told that you furnished such an article; but I do not believe it. However, if you are a cheat, the police will expose you; so you need not try to practice any imposition on me. My husband is a well-known and influential man, and will take care of anything of that sort."

The old man looked up calmly at the end of this injurious speech, and answered, without reference to the implications of probable dishonesty therein, saying,

You are acquainted with the regulations of this establishment, are you, madam?"

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'Sir? No, sir. I only came to purchase your commodities; I don't know anything of your regulations."

"Ah!" answered the precise old gentleman. "I fear you may not have seen our circular, either; nor our advertisements. Allow me to hand you a circular, madam."

So saying, he presented to the lady a document printed upon a small square piece of white paper; one of those little flitting messengers which city tradesmen, concert-givers, and all persons whose business operations are conducted by the sonorous sounding of paper trumpets, are accustomed to insert in keyholes, to send up and down in newspapers, to leave on door-mats, to thrust into the hand of any transient person whom they or their emissaries can possess thereof, and in any and every possible way to bring within the notice of that long-eared auditor, The Public.

The lady read the contents of the paper very quickly, and looked upon the old man in anger, but he prevented her by saying, in his quiet way,

"We are obliged to keep a very full register of the business we do, after the manner of life insurance companies, in order that the tabulated results of our operations may enable us both to trace their success, and to render our terms as accommodating as possible, so that the business may increase."

"But," answered the lady, "what security have I that you will not publish my name, and expose to the world the nature of the business on which I have come?"

The same security," said the merchant, "that all customers have whose names their tradesmen know-the interest of the seller. But"-and here it seemed to me that the old gentleman's eyes showed the same sort of deep, selfrelying intelligence which had impressed me with the belief that he expected my visit-"you need not give your real name or residence. That is not necessary to our purposes. Those, if you notice, are not required by the terms of the circular. We should readily discover you if we should desire to see you on business. Our facilities in that line are, perhaps, unusually great. The only necessary record, if you will be so good as to observe, is that of the occupation of the applicant, and the circumstances causing the application."

As the lady made no answer to this statement, the old gentleman threw open a weighty volume which lay upon the counter, as hotel registers do, with the foot of the page turned outside, for the convenience of customers. Quickly turning over the leaves, nearly to the end of the book, he dipped his pen in ink, and offered it to her. She hesitated a moment, but accepted it, and wrote a few lines in the register. Then the old gentlemen, having read the record after her, said,

"I shall be unable to answer the application to-day, madam, as our manufactory is at a great distance, and I happen to be left with no assortment. But if you will be so good as to call tomorrow, at the eleventh hour, I shall be prepared to furnish you."

The lady seemed surprised at the calm and independent manner in which the old gentleman waited upon her. Perhaps she was astonished by his dissimilarity to the smirking clerks whom she had usually seen jumping over the counters, and running against one another, in the dry goods stores, in their

haste to "accommodate." Perhaps she had perceived, as I had, the strange self-possession and apparent consciousness of superiority in the merchant's demeanor. At any rate, she did not remonstrate against this delay, although evidently disappointed, but departed very much more slowly than she had entered, and in a puzzled state of mind.

During the remainder of that day, there entered other customers, all of whom were put off by the merchant, in like manner, to the next morning, at times, successively, half an hour apart, after the hour of eleven. They all acquiesced in the formula of registration and in the delay, with little or no opposition, except one fat, red-faced old gentleman, who somehow impressed me with the idea that he was president of a bank and of a railroad company, and worth about two millions of dollars. He waddled importantly in, brushed up his gray whiskers in a pompous manner, and, with a thick and grumpy voice, made demand of the old merchant for one of his very best compensations; throwing, also, upon the counter, by way of demonstrating his ability to pay for what he ordered, a great, over-gorged wallet, which had swallowed so many notes and bills, and evidences of money due, as to have become bloated into an unhealthy rotundity, and to look in singular likeness to its master, as if its girths could hardly hold it together.

The old merchant then made known to his red-faced friend the conditions of the application, whereupon he straightway affirmed that the concern was a humbug and fraudulent; that the design of the delay was to enable the merchant to secure the funds paid over, and to depart at night in the manner of swindlers.

The old merchant, with an animation which I had not expected him to show, replied, promptly, that no one was obliged to trade at that counter, who was dissatisfied with the terms of sale; that these terms had been fairly advertised; that the accusation of swindling had rarely been brought against him-and here his bright black eyes resumed that singularly keen and far-seeing expression which I have mentioned-except by some one whose estimate of other men was based upon his opinion of his own character; and then, he unceremoniously asked the fat man if the

causes of his application for compensation were not such that he was ashamed to write them down, even in a register of so confidential a character as that of the Compensation Shop?

The red face of the rotund applicant became quite empurpled with wrath, for a few seconds; but he soothed himself, rather to my astonishment, and speedily re-addressed the old merchant, in a very bland and sly way, winking at him, withal, in signification that he was a bird of the same feather.

"Well, well, my boy," said he; "all right, all right. No use in being musty about it. Always like to see if I can trade, you know. Fact is, I've just been looking at that circular of yours. Now, I think I could help you to an increase of capital, if we can agree on the terms. I haven't any money myself; times is precious hard, just now; but there's a friend of mine that I s'pose would let me have a little, to accommodate, you know. Don't look as if you had any too much invested," continued the red-faced old gentleman, laughing a thick keckling laugh-as if it were done up in cotton-and peering about the dark, dusty shop.

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Well, sir," said the merchant, steadily; "what proposal would you make?

The old railroad president-if such he were-proceeded to develop a shrewdly contrived and comprehensive plan for inflating the existing stock of the concern to a high rate of value, together with a large addition to itwhich he showed would be easy, inasmuch as the enterprise was of a kind easily recommended, especially to people in moderate circumstances-of issuing very many compensations, without the present restrictions; and, at last, of engineering matters so that the stock might suddenly be "beared" in the market, all bought in by those in the secret, at a merely nominal rate, and then either retained in their hands as a bait for fat dividends, or used to accomplish the immediate winding up of the business, with no less gain to the operators.

"I take it," asked the old merchant, gravely, when the President had ended, "that this is an enterprise of precisely such a character as is daily contrived, and often successfully carried through, in the Exchange?"

"Undoubtedly," answered the solid

man, "I salted fifty thousand, not two weeks ago, by just such a little dodge.”

"My dear sir," said the old man, "I assure you that the company of which I am agent is based upon the principle of giving every man a fair return for his money, and of discouraging all vain speculation and over-trading."

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Exactly, exactly," replied the capitalist, with a chuckle of satisfaction. "That's just the ticket, for soup, as the beggar said. You've got it to a dot. I always say just the same, to the outsiders. There couldn't be a safer way of putting it. And perhaps it's just as well to say so, for the sake of being all straight, now. But between you and me, you know, that's all in a horn, of course. Honor bright, though; isn't that a good little programme? Worked that out in half-an-hour, on my word. You'll go it, I see. Just say the word, and I'll draw my check for any amount, short of three hundred thousand. I know it can't fail."

"My friend," replied the compensation merchant, with a strong and angry sternness of voice and of eye, which held the red-faced respectability as still as if he had been thrust throngh with a dart, "I will have neither part nor lot in your slimy villainy. I told you the truth. Your eyes are so rotten with swindling, that you cannot see honesty when it stands square before you. If you suggest another word of your devilish plot against widows and orphans, and industrious poor men, I will blow your reputation sky-high to-morrow."

The solid man fairly choked with surprise and rage. Recovering, he defied the old shopman, reviling him with all manner of choice epithets of reproach, and threatening him in turn with suits and exposure; which being accomplished, without discomposing the old merchant, the irate man of money marched out of the shop.

Those who registered their names, during that day, in my presence, beside the lady who had been the first customer, were a fair and slender girl, a middle-aged man in black, apparently a clergyman, and another younger man, whose occupation I could by no means determine from his appearance, but whose face was at once energetic and thoughtful, and whose step was quick and firm.

I departed early in the evening, to keep an appointment elsewhere; having

first ascertained from the old gentleman that the regulations of his establishment would not prevent him from permitting me to occupy my quiet corner, during the day, to the end that I might observe the results of the applications whose registration I had witnessed.

I came in accordingly, some time before eleven o'clock, next morning, in order that I might resume my hidden observatory, in season to avoid embarrassing any customer, and thus restricting those elucidatory conversations which I expected to overhear, upon the subject of the transactions in the shop.

A few minutes before eleven, the lady whose visit had been appointed at that hour, entered the door.

"I have come, sir," she said, in the same assured and somewhat peremptory tone which she had used the day before, "to conclude the transaction which we commenced yesterday."

"Very well, madam," answered the old gentleman. "But before I can make you an entirely definite answer, I shall be obliged to put a few questions to you, in order to certify myself of the state of your case. You have entered, in the register, your occupation, as a leading lawyer's wife;' and the circumstance occasioning your application, as an unhappy home;' but these items are so indefinite, that I hope you will excuse me, for requesting some supplementary details."

"Is this species of information as to my private affairs entirely indispensable" inquired the lady, with some asperity. I shall be well pleased to bargain with you, but I do not choose to enter into confidential communications with an entire stranger."

"I will ask, if you please, such questions as I wish," returned the old merchant, "and you will of course be enabled to decline replying, at your pleasure. An unhappy home,' you say. Why unhappy?"

The lady's proud face flushed with anger; but reflecting a few moments, she restrained herself beneath the old man's steady look, and answered him :

"I am alone, and lonely. My husband is absent all day, in the prosecution of a large and gainful business in the courts. When, therefore, he is at home, whether at the end of the day or the end of the week, he is too utterly tired to hold any communion with me, other than what is absolutely necessary.

It has been so ever since we were married. And thus I, who have a loving heart, and a busy mind withal, am cruelly shut off from the happiness which I sought in marriage. For I expected happy progress in my husband's company, in studies and accomplishments which we both like, and in love and the comparison of experience and observation. And I remain alone in life, and am eating up my heart in my

sorrow."

"Have you no children?" asked the merchant.

"Yes, four. But they are away at school. And besides, I have no help in training and governing them, and they are strong and self-willed; and I almost dread their presence in their home, though I love them well.”

"Have you faithfully endeavored," said this inquisitive merchant," to nourish in your loneliness, with the helps which are provided for the lonely, over-brimming fountains of love in your heart, and to cherish your husband, and to guide, and attract, and instruct your children, and so to make their home the centre, and yourself its queen and beloved source of their happiness?"

This inquiry first perplexed and then vexed the customer. Whatever love might in former days have been in her heart, it did not now beam at all within

her haughty eyes. She must have been supposing the regretful remembrance of it to be the possession of it. So she answered, with some confusion,

"How could I keep love alive in my heart, when I was left alone for years by the man who had promised to love and cherish me? How could I help becoming cold and distant myself, when the only human being who was bound to love me left me alone."

"I regret to perceive, madam," said the compensation merchant, "that you did not, after all, observe the terms of our circular. Your record and expla nations do not bring you within the class of persons with whom our charter permits us to deal. I am exceedingly sorry."

He was interrupted by the voice of the haughty lady, who observed, in a very cold manner, and yet evidently with wrath only suppressed, that she had all along been without much confidence in his professions, and that now she was sure he was an impostor.