Squire Plausaby’s influence.  We are in the habit of thinking a mean man wholly mean.  But we are wrong.  Liberal Donor, Esq., for instance, has a great passion for keeping his left hand exceedingly well informed of the generous doings of his right.  He gives money to found the Liberal Donor Female Collegiate and Academical Institute, and then he gives money to found the Liberal Donor Professorship of Systematic and Metaphysical Theology, and still other sums to establish the Liberal Donor Orthopedic Chirurgical Gratuitous Hospital for Cripples and Clubfooted.  Shall I say that the man is not generous, but only ostentatious?  Not at all.  He might gratify his vanity in other ways.  His vanity dominates over his benevolence, and makes it pay tribute to his own glory.  But his benevolence is genuine, notwithstanding.  Plausaby was mercenary, and he may have seen some advantages to himself in having the post-office in his own house, and in placing his step-son under obligation to himself.  Doubtless these considerations weighed much, but besides, we must remember the injunction that includes even the Father of Evil in the number of those to whom a share of credit is due.  Let us say for Plausaby that, land-shark as he was, he was not vindictive, he was not without generosity, and that it gave him sincere pleasure to do a kindness to his step-son, particularly when his generous impulse coincided so exactly with his own interest in the matter.  I do not say that he would not have preferred to take the appointment himself, had it not been that he had once been a postmaster in Pennsylvania, and some old unpleasantness between him and the Post-Office Department about an unsettled account stood in his way.  But in all the tangled maze of motive that, by a resolution of force, produced the whole which men called Plausaby the Land-shark, there was not wanting an element of generosity, and that element of generosity had much to do with Charlton’s appointment.  And Albert took it kindly.  I am afraid that he was just a little less observant of the transactions in which Plausaby engaged after that.  I am sure that he was much less vehement than before in his denunciations of land-sharks.  The post-office was set up in one of the unfinished rooms of Mr. Plausaby’s house, and, except at mail-times, Charlton was not obliged to confine himself to it.  Katy or Cousin Isa or Mrs. Plausaby was always glad to look over the letters for any caller, to sell stamps to those who wanted them, and tell a Swede how much postage he must pay on a painfully-written letter to some relative in Christiana or Stockholm.  And the three or four hundred dollars of income enabled Charlton to prosecute his studies.  In his gratitude he lent the two hundred and twenty dollars—­all that was left of his educational fund—­to Mr. Plausaby, at two per cent a month, on demand, secured by a mortgage on lots in Metropolisville.

Poor infatuated George Gray—­the Inhabitant of the Lone Cabin, the Trapper of Pleasant Brook, the Hoosier Poet from the Wawbosh country—­poor infatuated George Gray found his cabin untenable after little Katy had come and gone.  He came up to Metropolisville, improved his dress by buying some ready-made clothing, and haunted the streets where he could catch a glimpse now and then of Katy.