"And how comfortable you're looking too, eh! It makes an old
bachelor, like me, feel lonesome when he contrasts his own solitary
room with such a scene of comfort as this. You've got a comfortable
home, and dog-cheap, too. All my other tenants are grumbling to
think you don't have to pay any more for such superior
accommodations. I've about made up my mind that I must ask you
twenty-five dollars a quarter, hereafter."

All this was said very pleasantly, but the pill was none the less
bitter.

"It seems to me, Mr. Colman," remarked the cooper soberly, "you have
chosen rather a singular time for raising the rent."

"Why singular, my good sir?" inquired the landlord, urbanely.

"You know of course, that this is a time of general business
depression; my own trade in particular has suffered greatly. For a
month past, I have not been able to find any work."

Colman's face lost something of its graciousness.

"And I fear I sha'n't be able to pay my quarter's rent to-morrow."

"Indeed!" said the landlord coldly. "Perhaps you can make it up
within two or three dollars?"

"I can't pay a dollar towards it," said the cooper. "It's the first
time, in five years that I've lived here, that this thing has