Guess I'll give you twenty-five dollars a week, anyhow, for one week sartain; and then, if we suit each other, we can raise the pile bimeby.

Say, are you on ?" I "guessed" I _was_ "on;" and, went up-stairs to the paste-and-scissors purlieus with much gusto.
It was a very good commencement for me--I who had nothing to bless myself with before, for, the salary would pay my board and lodging twice over.

It was a beginning, at any rate; and, as we subsequently did "suit each other," my down-east friend behaved very fairly, keeping to his promise of "raising my pile"-- a synonym for increasing the weekly sum of "greenbacks" he allowed me for my labours.

I had never any reason to repent the bargain--nor did I.
The work I had to do was by no means arduous, although, in many respects, of a novel character.

From the fact that my residence in America had not been yet sufficiently extended to enable me to master the ins and outs of Transatlantic politics, the leading articles--or "editorials" as they are there styled--which I had to write were but few in number, and entirely referring to social subjects of local interest; notwithstanding that I was occasionally allowed to enlighten the Manhattan mind in the matter of European affairs.