For some years, while Stephen A. Douglas and Franklin Pierce and other gentlemen of prominence were playing at bowls on the United States of America; while Kansas was furnishing excitement free of charge to any citizen who loved sport, Mr. Eliphalet Hopper was at work like the industrious mole, underground.  It is safe to affirm that Colonel Carvel forgot his new hand as soon as he had turned him over to Mr. Hood, the manager.  As for Mr. Hopper, he was content.  We can ill afford to dissect motives.  Genius is willing to lay the foundations of her structure unobserved.

At first it was Mr. Barbo alone who perceived Eliphalet’s greatness,—­Mr. Barbo, whose opinions were so easily had that they counted for nothing.  The other clerks, to say the least, found the newcomer uncompanionable.  He had no time for skylarking, the heat of the day meant nothing to him, and he was never sleepy.  He learned the stock as if by intuition, and such was his strict attention to business that Mr. Hood was heard is say, privately, he did not like the looks of it.  A young man should have other interests.  And then, although he would not hold it against him, he had heard that Mr. Hopper was a teacher in Mr. Davitt’s Sunday School.

Because he did not discuss his ambitions at dinner with the other clerks in the side entry, it must not be thought that Eliphalet was without other interests.  He was likewise too shrewd to be dragged into political discussions at the boarding-house table.  He listened imperturbably to the outbursts against the Border Ruffian, and smiled when Mr. Abner Reed, in an angry passion, asked him to declare whether or not he was a friend of the Divine Institution.  After a while they forgot about him (all save Miss Crane), which was what Mr. Hopper of all things desired.

One other friend besides Miss Crane did Eliphalet take unto himself, wherein he showed much discrimination.  This friend was none other than Mr. Davitt, minister for many years of the Congregational Church.  For Mr. Davitt was a good man, zealous in his work, unpretentious, and kindly.  More than once Eliphalet went to his home to tea, and was pressed to talk about himself and his home life.  The minister and his wife ware invariably astonished, after their guest was gone, at the meagre result of their inquiries.

If Love had ever entered such a discreet soul as that into which we are prying, he used a back entrance.  Even Mr. Barbo’s inquiries failed in the discovery of any young person with whom Eliphalet “kept company.”  Whatever the notions abroad concerning him, he was admittedly a model.  There are many kinds of models.  With some young ladies at the Sunday School, indeed, he had a distant bowing acquaintance.  They spoke of him as the young man who knew the Bible as thoroughly as Mr. Davitt himself.  The only time that Mr. Hopper was discovered showing embarrassment was when Mr. Davitt held his hand before them longer than necessary on the church steps.  Mr. Hopper was not sentimental.