epithet, ‘loafers;’ and they eyed me with very sinister looks, while the leader began an appeal to my esprit de corps.  It is scarcely necessary to repeat the argument that followed.  Having nothing new to offer, I merely said, that I considered myself at full liberty to work for whatever amount of wages to me seemed satisfactory; that I would no more submit to any interference with that liberty, than to any tyranny over my conscience; and that all I claimed at their hands, was to be let alone.  Cries of ‘Hustle him out!’ frequently interrupted me; and perhaps a proof that ‘blows hurts’ might have followed, but just as I finished, my boss came in, and commanded the party to leave his premises, with an assurance that he would not suffer me to be molested.  The leader, who seemed as much ashamed of his followers as Falstaff was of his ragged regiment, immediately beat a retreat, and his troop with him; one or two, as they went out, declaring that they would ‘hammer’ me whenever they caught me in the street.  I, however, went and came as usual, and for some reason—­perhaps the boss’s declaration in my favour—­met with no annoyance.

What was the upshot?  As emigrant cabinet-makers arrived, they were at once engaged, and set to work; and at the end of six weeks, the strike came to an end.  The turn-outs not only failed in carrying their point, but found themselves in a worse position than when they began, for numbers of them were no longer ‘wanted,’ and had to migrate to the country, or accept a lower rate of wages than before, besides the loss of the best part of the busy season.  In our own shop, one American and two of the Germans were altogether dismissed, greatly to their mortification; and in this unexpected reverse, they began to perceive how they had been duped.  I, on the other hand, having finished the first bookcase, was well advanced in a second; and had, besides, the satisfaction of knowing that the overplus of my six weeks’ earnings was safely added to the ‘nest-egg,’ and of hearing my shopmates applaud my resolution, and wish that they had done likewise.  Many were the conversations touching masters and men that grew out of the event, and, if permitted, I may perhaps take an opportunity of making our conclusions public.

One day, some two years after the strike, while walking down Washington Street, I met the leader of the second deputation aforementioned.  ’I guess I have seen you before,’ he said, laying a hand upon my shoulder.  ’Didn’t you work at C——­’s?  Ah! you were the toughest customer we had; but if we had all done as you did, it would have been better for us.’

THE DOCTOR VERSUS THE MEDICINE.