ued eagerness.

"Of sovereigns--why that means kings!"

It would appear that the Leaphighers, while they obey only the king's
eldest first cousin of the masculine gender, perform all their official
acts in the name of the sovereign himself, for whose person and
character they pretty uniformly express the profoundest veneration; just
as we men express admiration for a virtue that we never practise. My
declaration, therefore, produced a strong sensation, and I was soon
required to explain myself. This I did, by simply stating the truth.

"Oh, gold, yclept sovereigns!" exclaimed three or four, laughing
heartily. "Why then, your famous Great Breeches people, after all,
Chatterino, are so little advanced in civilization as to use gold!
Harkee, Signior--a--a--Boldercraft, have you no currency in 'promises'?"

"I do not know, sir, that I rightly comprehend the question."

"Why, we poor barbarians, sir, who live as you see us, only in a state
of simplicity and nature,"--there was irony in every syllable the
impudent scoundrel uttered--"we poor wretches, or rather our ancestors,
made the discovery, that for the purposes of convenience, having, as you
perceive, no pockets, it might be well to convert all our currency into
'promises.' Now, I would ask if you have any of that coin?"

"Not as coin, sir, but as collateral to coin, we have plenty."

"He speaks of collaterals in currency, as if he were discussing a
pedigree! Are you really, Mynherr Shouldercalf, so little advanced in
your country, as not to know the immense advantages of a currency of
'promises'?"

"As I do not understand exactly what the nature of this currency is,
sir, I cannot answer as readily as I could wish."

"Let us explain it to him; for, I vow, I am really curious to hear
his answer. Chatterino, do you, who have some knowledge of the thing's
habits, be our interpreter."

"The matter is thus, Sir John. About five hundred years ago, our
ancestors, having reached that pass in civilization when they came
to dispense with the use of pockets, began to find it necessary
to substitute a new currency for that of the metals, which it was
inconvenient to carry, of which they might be robbed, and which also
was liable to be counterfeited. The first expedient was to try a lighter
substitute. Laws were passed giving value to linen and cotton, in the
raw material; then compounded and manufactured; next, written on, and
reduced in bulk, until, having passed throug