A. BILLFINGER,
Guide to Paris, France, Germany,
Spain, &c., &c.,
Grande Hotel du Louvre.

" Billfinger! Oh, carry me home to die!"

That was an "aside" from Dan. The atrocious
name grated harshly on my ear, too. The most of
us can learn to forgive, and even to like, a counte-
nance that strikes us unpleasantly at first, but few of
us, I fancy, become reconciled to a jarring name so
easily. I was almost sorry we had hired this man,
his name was so unbearable. However, no matter.
We were impatient to start. Billfinger stepped to
the door to call a carriage, and then the doctor said:

"Well, the guide goes with the barber shop, with
the billiard table, with the gasless room, and maybe
with many another pretty romance of Paris. I ex-
pected to have a guide named Henri de Mont-
morency, or Armand de la Chartreuse, or something
that would sound grand in letters to the villagers at
home; but to think of a Frenchman by the name of
Billfinger! Oh! this is absurd, you know. This
will never do. We can't say Billfinger; it is nause-
ating. Name him over again; what had we better
call him? Alexis du Caulaincourt?"

" Alphonse Henri Gustave de Hauteville," I sug-
gested.

"Call him Ferguson," said Dan.

That was practical, unromantic good sense.
Without debate, we expunged Billfingeras Billfinger,
and called him Ferguson.

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