be willing to furnish the sum necessary for the accomplishment of this
grand purpose: still she would attempt it, trusting that when he had
fairly entered upon the joys of fashionable life, he would be too much
charmed with them to begrudge "the paltry sums" necessary to continue
them.

Mr. and Mrs. Swigg had not always enjoyed such advantages. There was a
time when the lady might have been seen in a market stall, where her
robust beauty drew to her crowds of admirers of doubtful character. She
had made a wise choice, however, and after looking coldly upon these
swains, had bestowed her hand upon Ephraim Swigg, a rising young
butcher, who sold his wares in the same market. To be sure, Mr. Swigg
was not a beauty, nor even as handsome as the plainest of the admirers
she had cast aside; but he had a more substantial recommendation than
any of them. He was the owner of a lucrative business, and had several
thousands laid by in hard cash. So, influenced by these considerations,
Miss Polly Dawkins became Mrs. Ephraim Swigg. In justice to her, be it
said, she made a good wife. He was equally devoted, and they were
genuinely happy. They had one child, a daughter, who, as she grew up,
bade fair to ripen into a very pretty woman.

They prospered steadily, and matters went on smoothly with them until
the rebellion startled the men of means with a vague fear for the
safety of their worldly possessions; then Mr. Swigg, reckoning over his
property, found himself possessed of a handsome fortune. He watched the
course of affairs anxiously until the great disaster at Bull Run, and
then, like a good patriot, set to work to see how he could help the
country out of its difficulties. Mr. Swigg's patriotism was of the
substantial kind--he derived the chief benefit from it. He bethought
himself of taking out a contract for supplying the Army of the Potomac