Chapter I

Tiptop is somewhere in the State of Massachusetts; but, in consideration of the unpleasant nature of the details of my story, I do not feel at liberty to state its precise geographical position. Undoubtedly, too, there are within the limits of our ancient commonwealth a great many Tiptops, and, by assigning it a specific locale, many whom the coat fits will fail to put it on.

Tiptop was fully up with the times. The distinctions of caste were as precisely defined and protected as in New York or Philadelphia. It is true, a belle from one of the emporiums of fashion would not have felt at home there; but then the Tiptopites labored to be as fashionable as the metropolitans, and if they did not succeed, it was not their fault.

There were balls, parties, and lyceums in Tiptop; but, unfortunately for the luminous propensities of the “upper ten,” they were obliged to call in the aid of the canaille on these occasions, in order to make the expense fall as lightly as possible on the glorified few.

There was a great excitement in the place when it was understood that the Hon. Mr. Silas Lumpkin, M. C., from one of the Western States, proposed to spend a few days with Squire Rogers, his “chum” in college.

The Hon. Mr. Lumpkin was a distinguished man in his day and generation. Though not thirty-five at the period of our story, he had made a mark on the country which time will not immediately obliterate.

But Mr. Lumpkin was a sensible man, notwithstanding the temptations of his position to be otherwise. We have referred to the Congressional Globe, but we do not find that he ever made a long speech, which, in our mind, fully establishes his reputation as a model Congressman.

The distinguished gentleman’s visit to Tiptop, promised to be an epoch in the history of the place. The notables were duly impressed with the honor which awaited them, and immediately put their heads together to devise a suitable plan for a public demonstration. They fully appreciated the great man’s condescension, and it only remained to make a proper expression of it.

A voluntary committee of the most notable of the notables waited on Squire Rogers in this emergency. Unfortunately, the Squire was a legal man, and did not feel competent to advise in an affair of this kind; and the squire, too, was a sensible man, and had it not been for the fact that he was a candidate for the office of representative to the next General Court, would probably have expressed his disgust at the whole thing.

But while the voluntary committee were discussing a scheme for a public dinner in the town hall, the ladies decided that a grand reception ball should be given on the occasion of Mr. Lumpkin’s arrival.

Of course the matter was settled, for Miss Araminta Pipkin and Annabellina Punkinton had said so. Miss Dorothea Pilkinton was opposed to it at first, on account of the shortness of the time; but Miss Pipkin was an Amazon in an argument, and carried the day.