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King George the Third of England was a button-maker, and therefore no wonder need be excited at the information which was sent to the Landers from the king of Boossa, announcing to them that his majesty was a tailor, and that he would thank them much for some thread and a few needles for his own private use; the king also took it into his head that as he was a tailor, the Landers must be gunsmiths, and therefore he sent them his muskets to repair, but it being Sunday when the guns were sent, they declined the job until the following day.
"How do you know, then," proceeded Alley, triumphantly, "but the button-maker that Miss Gourlay has fallen in love with may be a knight o' the garther?" "Begad, there maybe a great dale in that, too," replied the unsuspicious grazier, who never dreamt that Alley's knowledge of court etiquette might possibly be rather limited, and her accounts of it somewhat apocryphal; "begad, there may.
May could think of no fitting parallel unless the pathetic one of that miserable young princess apprenticed to the button-maker, dying with her cheek on an open Bible, at the text, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
With the exception of Upson and Troup, these were all natives of the State. Upson was from Connecticut, and was the son of a button-maker at Watertown, in that State. He was a thorough Yankee in all the qualities of perseverance, making and saving money. He was a pure man, stern and talented; and as a lawyer, was scarcely equalled in the State.
When the Huguenot troubles began, the Lord of Aubeterre threw himself into the movement and appropriated the lands and revenues of the ecclesiastical foundations in the town. Francois d'Aubeterre was involved in the conspiracy of Amboise, and was sentenced to death, but pardoned. He deemed it expedient, however, to go to Geneva, where, as Brantome informs us, he turned button-maker.
Add to these a rollicking saddler from Heldesheim, who figures in a full beard, a rich cluster of crisp, brown curls, his own especial pride, and the object of deep envy to his less hirsute companions; and who, far too fond of corn brandy-wine, goes about singing continually the song of the German tramp, “Ich Liebe das liederliche Leben!”—This vagabond life I delight in!—an earnest, quiet student, who, for reasons of economy, has made the Schuster-gasse his place of refuge; and a dishevelled button-maker, last from Hamburg, who has just received his geschenck, or trade-gift, amounting to fifteen silver groschens, about eighteenpence in English money; and who ponders drearily over it as it lies in the palm of his hand, wondering how far this slender sum will carry him on the road to Breslau, his native place, still some two hundred miles away.
Alley, who thought she had been overlooked in this partial dialogue, determined to sustain her part in the conversation with a dignity becoming her situation, now resolved to flourish in with something like effect. "They know nothing about it," she said, "that calls Miss Gourlay's sweetheart a button-maker.
So cautious on this head were some of the republicans, that, it is pretended, in reciting the Lord's prayer, they would not say, "thy kingdom come," but always, "thy commonwealth come." The commons intended, it is said, to bind the princess Elizabeth apprentice to a button-maker: the duke of Gloucester was to be taught some other mechanical employment.
Heavens, how they spoke of the Lord Mayor! One of them didn't know his name, and didn't want to know it; another wasn't certain whether he was a tallow-chandler or a button-maker; a third, who had met with him somewhere, described him as a damned ass; a fourth said, 'Oh, don't be hard on him; he's only a vulgar old Cockney, without an h in his whole composition. A chorus of general agreement followed, as the dinner-hour approached: 'What a bore! I whispered to my friend, 'Why do they go? He answered, 'You see, one must do this sort of thing. And when we got to the Mansion House, they did that sort of thing with a vengeance!
"So far, then," replied the grazier, "we do agree; an', dang my buttons, but I'll lave it to this gentleman if it wouldn't be betther for Miss Gourlay to marry a daicent button-maker any day, than such a hurler as Dunroe. What do you say, sir?" "But who is this button-maker," asked the stranger, "and where is he to be found?"
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