"What's that?" said somebody; "what comes after? I thought this was the whole."

"You wouldn't catch me playing 'Capital and Interest' very often, if it was," said Norton. "No; the best business man, or the one who has the best business, is to appoint forfeits to all the rest; and if he knows how to do it, I tell you! that's fun."

"But how are we to decide who has the best business?"

"Can't! The Judge does that. Go ahead, David. What's your business?"

"I wish it was peddling old shoes!" said Judy.

"Why?" several asked.

"It won't be anything as respectable. We've taken to turning old coats at our house."

"Go ahead, Davy!" cried Norton.

But David was deliberate about it. He finished his writing, and looked up.

"I think my capital is myself," he said with a smile. "I mean to make the most of myself, in every way I can think of; as well as of my money, and whatever else I have got."

"Don't sound so bad," said Elisha looking at Judy.

"Well Davy," said Norton; "what are you going to do with yourself, after you have made the most you can of it?"

"I am the servant of the King Messiah," said David with a smile again; "myself and all I have belong to him, and I want to make the most of them for Jesus and his work and his Kingdom. They are the talents He has given me to work with. And when the King comes to take account of me, I want to be able to say, 'Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds.'"

The little people were silent. David spoke so simply and in so business-like fashion, there was no game to be made of his words; and nothing was said, till Norton remarked he did not know what he was going to do; he could not remember one half that had been said for him to pass judgment upon.

"I've got it all here," said David. "Take your seat, and begin; I'll read you two, and you choose the best in your judgment of those; then take another and compare with that, and so on."

"Well," said Norton. "Get along, David. It s a pesky business, this being judge, I can tell you."

"Silence in the court!" said David. "Esther Francis; capital, the most beautiful diamonds in New York; interest, she outshines everybody."

"Next"—said Norton.

"I didn't say that, did I?" asked Esther.

"Of course you said that; he's got it down. Next, David?"

"Bob Francis. Capital, a cavalry officer's commission and a horse. Interest, he'll ride."

"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed a round chorus of the children.

"Silence in the court!" repeated David. "We wait for the Judge's decision."

"Hm!—I wish you had it to do!" growled Norton, rubbing his head. "Which is the best business of those two? Well, between diamonds and horses, if you're shut up to them, I think a horse is the best stock in trade."

"But the business—the interest," said Bob. "Ain't riding like a man better than sitting or dressing to be stared at like a woman?"

"I think it's the most manly," Norton repeated.

"But not the most womanly?" said Esther.

"No, not the most womanly."

"Well, which is best?" somebody cried.

"Riding is the best for me," said Norton. "I should feel like a fool in diamonds."

"A Hindoo rajah, or a Persian shah, or an Arab emir wouldn't feel so," suggested David.

"I am not a Hindoo nor an Arab, though," said Norton. "If I am to give judgment I'll give it like a good American. And I say, that a saddle is better than a jewel-box any day; and it's better in my judgment to ride for one's life, than to make people's eyes wink with looking at you. Go on, Recorder!"

"Hatty Delaplaine. Capital, a dressmaker and dry-goods unlimited. Interest, nothing but new dresses."

"Riding is better than dressing," said the Judge. "Bob Francis has it yet."

"But why is it better?" asked Miss Hatty. The Judge was a little at a loss.

"I tell you what," said he, "my business is hard enough as it is; I can't stand any aggravations. I'll take the sense of the assembly. All who say as I do, hold up their hands."

But it was found that the judgments were essentially masculine and feminine; the girls sided with Hatty, the boys with Bob.

"There's most good to be done by riding," said Norton.

"There ain't!" said Judy. "Dressing encourages the working people."

"And there's no good in riding at the head of soldiers," said Hatty.

"Well, it is a more noble occupation," said Norton.

"I don't see the nobility!" said Roswell Holt.

"Well, I don't care!" said Norton. "Let them both stand together then. I hope there'll be something more remarkable than either of 'em."

"Juliet Bracebridge. A carriage and horses. Will drive all over the world. Thinks she'll never know ennui."

"Juliet has it," said the Judge. "That's better than just riding or dressing for its own sake. I'd like driving over the world myself. What next?"

"Joe Benton. Will have a fortune. Interest, wife, house, and estate better than anybody else."

"I don't believe the best wife can be bought," said Roswell.

"And the best house for you mightn't be the best house for me," said Judy.

"He didn't mean it for you, Judy," said her cousin Bob.

"Judge'll never get through, if you don't stop these civilities," said Norton. "I decide for Joe. No, I don't! I decide for Juliet. Nicer to go contentedly travelling all over, than to take all one's comfort in one's pride. Juliet has it yet."

"Judy Bartholomew. Will have a queen's power, and the use of it is to put down religious freedom in her dominions."

"Juliet has it!" shouted Norton. "Better amuse yourself not at other people's expense, I think, if you can manage it."

"Roswell Holt; all books in all languages, and power to understand them. Finds the good of his life in reading."

"That sounds sensible," said Norton. "I give it for Roswell over Juliet."

"But why?" urged Juliet.

"There's something in books, you see."

"I am sure there is a good deal in countries and cities and people."

"True," said Norton.

"How's his business better than mine?"

"I don't know. Seems as if it ought to be."

"He pleases himself one way, and I another."

"And I another," said Esther.

"True. But books are books, as I said before. Now there's nothing in diamonds."

"There is in travelling," said Juliet again.

"Yes, there is. But the books shew a higher aspiration, Miss Bracebridge."

"I don't see it," said the young lady pouting.

"Well, when you are Judge, you'll know how easy it is," said Norton. "After all, it's only a game. Go ahead, David."

"Ben Johnson. Goes supercargo to China. Object, to do nothing and smoke seventy cigars a day."

"Roswell has it yet," said Norton. "Go ahead."

"Lucy Ellis. Great beauty. Loves to have all men look at her."

"Roswell has it!" cried Norton. "No stop. Go on."

"Matilda Laval. Has a medicine for all ills; and she lives to cure people."

"Matilda has it," said Norton, in a somewhat lowered tone.

"Bill Langridge. Governor of the State. Object, to have things his own way."

"Matilda has it!" said the judge judicially.

"Egbert Watson—prefers military to civil rule; therefore chooses to be head of the army instead of the State. Object, same as Bill Langridge's."

"Matilda Laval has it," said the Judge. He began somehow to look gloomy.

"Elisha Peters—has freedom to go through the world on foot. Object, is to see everything."

"Matilda Laval has it!" growled the Judge.

"Dick Morton. His capital is rifles, with powder and ball; object in life, to kill or to hunt and eat wild beasts."

"Don't come near Matilda Lavals," said the Judge.

"Julia Simpson has no object."

"Easy disposed of," said Norton.

"Ned Forsyth agrees with Watson; Mary Fortescue sides with Lucy Ellis; and half a dozen more with Lucy, Roswell Holt, Bill, and Miss Bracebridge."

"Then there's only you," said Norton gloomily.

"David Bartholomew. Capital, himself and all he has, to be made the most of. Business, to use it all for the King whose servant I am."

"What's the interest?" growled Norton, after a moment's pause. "But stop! how are you going to use it? you don't tell your business after all. What are you going to do?"

"I don't know," said David. "The King's will, whatever that is. Whatever he gives me to do."

"The interest?"

"That comes all along the way," said David. "But at the end—I shall inherit all things!"

"Is that a proper way of speaking, David?" said Esther gravely.

"That's the promise," said David.

"He's an old prig, that's what he is!" said one of the boys.

"No," said David, "stop! hear me; you don't understand. In that day the King will take account of his servants. And to those who can say to him, 'Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds'—or 'five pounds'—he will say, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.' I want that."

Something about the manner of David's speech stilled the impatient little company. David was always much looked up to and somewhat feared; and now he had spoken with a clear and sweet business tone which left no hold for ridicule. Nobody attempted it; and Judy saw her time was not then and kept silence. So did the Judge; too long, some of them thought.

"I suppose Matilda and you are in the same box," he began, "and what I give to one of you I must give to the other."

"No, no, you mustn't!" was cried in a stream of little voices. "They didn't say the same thing at all; you must judge by what they said."

"They both meant the same thing, I know," said Norton; "but if I must go by what they said, then David spoke more clearly than Matilda. Bartholomew has it."

"Reasons! reasons!" cried Judy and one or two more; for it was usual for the Judge to fortify himself thus in the opinions of his little assembly.

"Well," said Norton, without his usual readiness, "the reasons are plain enough. The best business is what yields the best interest; and you may judge yourselves, if working for other people isn't nobler than working for oneself. And as to the interest,—well, you know,—if you come to look at it," Norton went on not very lucidly—"that's better than this."

"What's better than which?" said Judy.

"Come, Judy," said her brother; "what will last, is better than what won't last; and all your diamonds cannot compare with 'shining as the stars for ever and ever;' and the King's court will be better than any little king's or queen's rule in this world."

There was a general cry now for the forfeits. It fell to David by right to dispense them. I have not time to tell how witty and how pleasant they were; but only that they brought every one into good humour long before the game was out.

The little party slept at the house, and returned to town by an early train next morning.

"David," said Matilda, catching him a moment by himself after they got home,—"don't you think Norton is coming round?" She spoke eagerly, anxiously, almost exultingly.

"Give him time, Tilly," said David smiling. "He rather committed himself last night, I think he will."



Cambridge: Press of John Wilson & Son.



Typographical errors silently corrected:

Chapter 1: take dancing lessons?" replaced by take dancing lessons?

Chapter 2: to feel." replaced by to feel.

Chapter 4: bloom all round. replaced by bloom all round."

Chapter 4: coffee; they are replaced by coffee; "they are

Chapter 8: 'The Lord said unto replaced by "'he lord said unto

Chapter 11: =a Jew as ever I was—= replaced by =a Jew as ever I was"—

Chapter 12: nothin' agin the neighbourhood replaced by nothin' agin' the neighbourhood

Chapter 15: nearer the p'int replaced by nearer the point

THE END