place before that morning, but certain goods, lately ordered by the Smiths, were unaccountably delayed, while Mr. Jessup’s were fresh from the city and just opened.  The dress-maker had been engaged, and could not come again for she did not know how long, and Ellen must have a nice school-dress ready forthwith.  So the lady determined for once to break over rule, and step into the opposition store.  No doubt the fact that so respectable and pious a young man as Hiram was a clerk there had its influence in the decision; it made the place itself more reputable, many said.  And now she came slowly in, a little distrustful, as if entering on forbidden ground, and expecting to see some extraordinary difference between the place of business of an ungodly person like Jessup and that of the honest-minded Smith.  Thanks, however, to Hiram’s persevering industry, it was a model of neatness and order, and Mrs. Esterbrook, who was herself a pattern in that way, found her harsh judgment insensibly relaxing, as she stepped to the counter where Pease stood, and asked quite amiably to see some of the best calicoes, just in from New-York.  Pease, the narrow-minded idiot, thought this a good time to play off a smart trick on one of Smith’s regular customers.  So he paraded a large variety of goods before her, and took occasion to recommend a very pretty article, for which he charged a monstrous price, because he said it was a very scarce pattern, and it was with great difficulty they had secured a single piece.  As the lady herself could perceive, it had not been opened before; not a soul in the village had even seen the outside of it.  Now, it must not be supposed that Mrs. Esterbrook was different from the rest of her sex, and insensible to the pleasure of having the first dress cut from the piece.  Indeed, she determined, on this occasion, to take two dresses instead of one; Emily was coming home, and would want it.  Just as Pease was about to measure off the desired quantity, Mrs. Esterbrook exclaimed: 

‘You are sure those colors are fast?’

’Fast, ma’am! fast as the meeting-house round the corner.  We will warrant them not to run nor change.  Why, for color, we have nothing like it in the store.’

All this time, Hiram had been serving his customer; but with both ears and at least one eye attentive to what was going on near him.

Again Pease commenced to measure, when Hiram stepped deliberately forward and said: 

‘Mr. Pease is mistaken, Mrs. Esterbrook, those colors are not fast.’

‘What the——­’ hell do you know about it?  Pease was going to say; but he stopped short at the second word, utterly abashed and confounded at the extraordinary assumption of the junior clerk.  Never before had Hiram made such a demonstration.  Now he stood calm and composed, firmly fortified by the truth.  He looked and acted precisely as if he were the principal, and the objurgation of Pease died on his lips.  He attempted to cast on Hiram a contemptuous glance, as he managed to say: