had been a long while involved in one of
those suits in Chancery, which are the
triumphs of our legislation. Seven-and-
twenty years had it lasted, but at the end
of that time, by a happy dispensation of
Providence, he had been so fortunate as to
gain his cause. Lawyers, solicitors, and
barristers had, however, been to work so
merrily that all costs and expenses paid,
there was left of the estate which formed
the bone of contention, the exact sum of
five pounds ten shillings and twopence.
Three letters and a consultation from our
family solicitor, informing us of this edifying
result, swallowed up the five pounds of
this total, and the conscientious member of
Lincoln's-inn then scrupulously forwarded
to us the remaining ten shillings and
twopence, merely deducting therefrom six and
eightpence, price of the envelope in which
the residue was enclosed.

My father hereupon ranged seven
sixpences on our breakfast table. "My boy,"
he said, "see what comes of going to law
in Great Britain! Your mother has told
you that I have won my suit in chancery?"

"Yes, papa."

"Well, then, look! That is all I get of
it;" and he pointed grimly at the
sixpences.

I opened wide my eyes.

"All that you get of the whole suit!"
I echoed, with a puzzled air, firmly
convinced that a suit in chancery was composed
as other suits are, of a coat, waistcoat, and
trousers. "Why, papa, those are only the
buttons!"

This deplorable joke had earned me my
sixpence. My father had thrown it over
to me, laughing, and, like a dog who is
pelted with a bone, I had rushed hastily
off with it for fear they should think of
taking it back again.

SIX . . . PENCE!

For a time anything like cool reflection
was impossible. I was too giddy, too
startled, to think. How think, indeed,
when one has sixpence! My sixpence was
as a moon of which the rays dazed me;
my head swam, my fingers tingled, my eyes
saw whirling through the air in a fantastic
gallop several millions of sixpences, all
white, all lately issued from the mint, all
bearing upon them, like my sixpence,
Victoria, D. G., Britanniarum, &c., with
her Majesty's head and the royal arms.

At last, however (and happily, too, for I
was a small boy, and unused to these
emotions), the intensity of my sensations
subsided. I grew more philosophical, and
after a time was enabled to bring upon the
subject that was absorbing me, a becoming
amount of self-possession. You know, of
course, what it was, this subject that was
absorbing me? It was the expenditure of
my sixpence. Like a Chancellor of the
Exchequer with the surplus of a year's
budget, I was wondering what I should do
with it.

Momentous question! But it needed a
refreshing breeze of out-door air to enable
me to solve it with coolness. I accordingly
rose from my bedside, where I knelt like a
Persian worshipping the sun, and having
laid my elbows and my sixpence upon the
sill of the open window, "multa corde
volutans," began deeply to meditate.

Now, it may, perhaps, be accepted as a
symptom of my great precocity of spirit
that I had not been merged above ten
minutes in reflection before I had made up
my mind upon one capital point, to wit,
that there were only three things upon
which my sixpence could worthily be
expended: a donkey, a gold hunting watch,
or a pewter squirt.

The only question to decide was upon
which of these three my choice should
pitch; and here was the rub. I had an
artistical admiration for squirts—pewter
squirts especially—which I classed amongst
the sublimest contrivances due to the
ingenuity of man. Their use as mediums
for the conveyance of ink or soapy water
upon the passers-by in the street had
always struck me as peculiarly practical,
and I think, on the whole, my sixpence
would have gone to the purchase of one of
these astonishing instruments had not a
reflection suddenly fallen upon me, and
drenched my enthusiasm as under a bucket
of cold water. I could not remember ever
having seen a grown-up man make use of
a squirt! My father, for instance, had, to
my certain knowledge, never spent his
morning in squirting ink upon the public
through the drawing-room window; and I
could not recollect ever having heard my
uncles advocate this species of pastime.
This was important. Yesterday I had
been a boy, and could do boyish things;
to-day the case was altered, my sixpence
had laid upon me the duties of manhood;
it was necessary to be cautious and dignified
. . . I discarded the squirt, and two
things then remained, the donkey and the
gold watch. Once more I began to ponder.

The purchase of a donkey, I reasoned,
offered unquestionable inducements. There
were, first of all, the advantages of