it?’ he continued.  I replied I had been in York State, but was born on Cape Cod.  ‘Well,’ he rejoined, ’don’t matter where a feller’s born nor grow’d, only he’s got the right sort o’ bone and siners in him.’  The general appearance of things had mightily changed since I last visited the place—­in truth, I could scarcely believe my own eyes.  Mr. Prompt now drew forth a handful of long nines, said he never liked to smoke alone, and invited me to join him.  I excused myself as well as I could, adding that I had no small vices.  The truth was, the spit-boxes, and rat-traps, and a large supply of tobacco, looked so suspicious, that I was at a loss how to comport myself:  I feared I had got into the wrong box.  ‘Anyhow,’ said Mr. Prompt, ’bring yourself to a mooring—­remember we treat all citizens alike here—­and be quite at home in the establishment.  Smooth, I believe, is the name?’ He looked at my card as I bowed, expecting every moment to see him rise from his easy posture.  With a sort of languid endurance he said the establishment was at my service—­that anything I desired would be put through like Jehu.  A set of snobby fellows, he said, had for a number of years made a den of aristocracy of the place, but the aspect of things had been changed now to suit the good fellow-spirit of our institutions.  Here he drew a deformed hat over his forehead, and let fly a moist projectile; which, instead of taking effect in a box of saw-dust, expanded ineffectually upon the face of a female dog-iron.  I suggested that it warn’t so bad a shot.  He replied, he reckoned—­Just at this moment the full yellow face of the negro protruded itself into the doorway.  ‘Mas’r,’ he ejaculated, ’dat’s da geman (pointing to Prompt, whose face was seen to contract) what do up all da plomacy ob dis establishment.’  The yellow face withdrew behind the green baize.  All this time I had been careful not to disclose to Mr. Prompt that I was minister in general to Mr. Pierce.

“‘Citizen,’ said he, continuing his cigar, ’that ar nigger’s sassy enough for three legations.  Pierce sent him here;—­for what, no one about the establishment can tell.  Anyhow, seeing it’s you, I was about giving out an idea of what an interminable muddle Pierce would get everything into if he had but his own way; but, as there isn’t time now, and as you won’t join me in a cigar, suppose we send out and have a first-rate brandy-smash?’

“This I respectfully declined; I thought it would give him so much trouble.  Indeed, he said there was so much to do about the establishment, and nobody to do it except himself.  In reply to a question, he said, the governor—­meaning Mr. Buckanan—­had worked himself out, and was laid away to dry.  At present he alone constituted the establishment.  There used to be a secretary (the salary, he had reason to believe Uncle Sam yet paid) but nothing had been seen of him for several months:  when last heard from, he was entering into a partnership with Monsieur Souley for the purchase