"General jobbers," said the American,
solemnly; "and I am Hannibal C. Petter, at your
service. Fill your glass, and allow me to ring
for a fresh bottle. Here, you snowball, Cicero,
be spry with more Madeira, and get some chips
of ice, do you hear? We speculate in all notions,
from whale-teeth to Lyons velvet; and just now,
there's an operation coming off West, in which
you could try your wings."

Long before the wine in the second bottle
had ebbed away, I was duly engaged as drummer
to the firm of Petter and Co., conditionally on
my testimonials being approved by my employers.
The college friend, to whose good nature I owed
the means of starting in the New World, had
procured me one or two introductory letters to
respectable residents in New York. These
gentlemen had not been able, at the time, to assist
me in finding a situation, crowded as the city
was with needy candidates from Europe; but
they had received me civilly enough, and I
knew they would vouch for my being what I
professed to be.

It was settled that I was to repair to Cincinnati,
and there to await the receipt of
remittances from the firm. The "operation," I was
told, consisted in buying up, for ready cash, a
considerable quantity of corn, flour, wheat,
apples, pigs, pork, and other articles of Western
export, which Mr. Petter styled by the generic
term of "pro-duce," and which were now
supposed to be cheapened by a glut in the Eastern
markets. The firm, however, had reason to
know that this phase of affairs was merely
temporary, and their arrangements were already
made for shipping two cargoes of provisions to
Europe, where they had an advantageous
contract with the heads of one of her Majesty's
dockyards.

Very lucky I thought myself, especially when
Mr. Petter, before calling for his bill and ordering
out his tandem, insisted on pulling out his
pocket-book, and forcing a number of dollar-notes
upon me.

"There, there; dear sir; you travel on our
account now, remember. Put up at the
President House, Dr. Parlam's Hotel, when you
get to Cincinnati, and I will forward the remittance
there. When you come to New York, I
shall be glad to present you to my partners.
Latch has a delightful house, and his wife is a
most accomplished matron. Jarman is, like
myself, a bachelor. I am sure they will
approbation the engagement which I have been
fortunate enough to form with yourself. Six
o'clock. I must slide. Adieu, Mr. Hill!"

Off went Hannibal C. Petter, leaving me half
bewildered by the suddenness of my good fortune.

There were plenty of the members of my new
profession, as well as partners, junior or senior,
in Northern houses, on board the Ohio steamboat;
but there were none to whom my employers
were known. To be sure, as one of the
Philadelphia men observed, the growth of New
York was gigantic, and so many new firms
annually sprouted into existence, that many of them
must necessarily be unknown to fame.

"Petter, Latch, and Jarman," said the
Philadelphian, thoughtfully; "one of those names
hangs, somehow, to my memory. 'Tain't
Jarman though, nor Petter. Must be Latch. Let
me see. There was a fellow of that name barber
on board the Missouri steam-boat Jefferson;
same man, do you think, now?"

"I should think not," I answered, more than
half indignant at the question. "I have not
the honour of being personally acquainted with
Mr. Latch, but I have Mr. Petter's authority
for affirming that he is a wealthy citizen. And his
wife——"

"Ah! this Latch had a wife, too—not that
there's anything wonderful in that coincidence—
but I have heard that Madam Latch hadn't her
equal for kidnappin' nigger babies: a perfect
talent she had for it, and got hold of more bits of
live ebony, among the free blacks to Ohio State,
than any slave-stealer in the country. It was a
way she had of talking over the mothers with
fine words, for she was well educated, was Hetty
Latch. Her husband made Missouri too hot to
hold him, but the States Marshal never could
put salt on him, never. A smart chap, Latch."

The Philadelphia broker whistled a bar
or two of the Star-spangled Banner as he
walked away, and for some minutes I was
exceedingly uncomfortable. However, the awkward
impression produced on my mind by the late
conversation, soon wore off. I had no reason
to think the barber of a Missouri packet was
connected with my employer, the rich and
hospitable merchant, in any other wise than as
bearing the same name. And his wife, too, whom
the senior partner had described as an accomplished
matron, what connexion could there be
between her and an obscure female who earned
some base gain by wheedling credulous negresses
out of their children for the supply of the
Southern markets? Absurd! It seemed
ungrateful on my part even to give such a groundless
suspicion, a temporary resting-place in my
mind. What a contrast did my doubts afford to
the frank confidence of Mr. Petter, whose dollars
I had actually in my pocket, and at whose cost
I was now voyaging. I blushed at my own
meanness of spirit, and rather eschewed the
company of the Philadelphia man for the rest of the
trip.

I was by no means solitary in my new mode
of life, and I found a new pleasure in American
society. I was now a member of a recognised
guild, and free from the harassing curiosity which
seldom fails to beset a traveller, native or foreign,
whose exact rank and business furnish an enigma
to the sovereign people. Mr. Petter had cautioned
me not to be over-communicative as to the
nature of the "operation" which my zeal and
the funds of the firm were to carry out in the
teeming West, and I kept my own counsel. It
was wonderful how many people on board the
steamer seemed to know one another. Most of
these were bound for Cincinnati, like myself,
though some were going on to more western
cities; but I was surprised to see how
widespread was the acquaintance of nearly all those