Augustus Grant had
been appointed an attache to the American legation at Paris; the newspapers
say he is a rising man."
"Well, he ought to be," rejoined Mrs. Ellis, "for his old grand-daddy made
yeast enough to raise the whole family. Many a pennyworth has he sold me.
Laws! how the poor old folk do get up! I think I can see the old man now,
with his sleeves rolled up, dealing out his yeast. He wore one coat for
about twenty years, and used to be always bragging about it."
As they were thus talking, a door of one of the splendid mansions they were
passing opened, and a fashionably-dressed young man came slowly down the
steps, and walked on before them with a very measured step and peculiar
gait.
"That's young Dr. Whiston, mother," whispered Caddy; "he's courting young
Miss Morton."
"You don't say so!" replied the astonished Mrs. Ellis. "Why, I declare his
grandfather laid her grandfather out! Old Whiston was an undertaker, and
used to make the handsomest coffins of his time. And he is going to marry
Miss Morton! What next, I'd like to know! He walks exactly like the old
man. I used to mock him when I was a little girl. He had just that
hop-and-go kind of gait, and he was the funniest man that ever lived. I've
seen him at a funeral go into the parlour, and condole with the family, and
talk about the dear departed until the tears rolled down his cheeks; and
then he'd be down in the kitchen, eating and drinking, and laughing, and
telling jokes about the corpses, before the tears were dry on his face.
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