"I have found employment."

"Not at your trade?"

"No, but at something else, which will pay equally well, till trade
revives."

Here he told the story of the chance by which he was enabled to
serve Mr. Merriam, and of the engagement to which it had led.

"You are, indeed, fortunate," said Mrs. Crump. "Two dollars a day,
and we've got nearly the whole of the money that came with this dear
child. How rich we shall be!"

"Well, Rachel, where are your congratulations?" asked the cooper of
his sister, who, in subdued sorrow, was eating her second slice of
pudding.

"I don't see anything so very fortunate in being engaged as a
porter," said Rachel, lugubriously. "I heard of a porter, once, who
had a great box fall upon him and crush him; and another, who
committed suicide."

The cooper laughed.

"So, Rachel, you conclude that one or the other is the inevitable
lot of all who are engaged in this business."

"It is always well to be prepared for the worst," said Rachel,