of every shred of principle.

It robbed him of his life in the end, and that came about in this way. He
had been performing one evening in Gadbut's room, where a few of us were
sitting smoking and talking; and young Hollis, being in a generous mood,
had thrown him, as he thought, a sixpence. The dog grabbed it, and
retired under the sofa. This was an odd thing for him to do, and we
commented upon it. Suddenly a thought occurred to Hollis, and he took
out his money and began counting it.

"By Jove," he exclaimed, "I've given that little beast
half-a-sovereign--here, Tiny!"

But Tiny only backed further underneath the sofa, and no mere verbal
invitation would induce him to stir. So we adopted a more pressing plan,
and coaxed him out by the scruff of his neck.

He came, an inch at a time, growling viciously, and holding Hollis's half-
sovereign tight between his teeth. We tried sweet reasonableness at
first. We offered him a sixpence in exchange; he looked insulted, and
evidently considered the proposal as tantamount to our calling him a
fool. We made it a shilling, then half-a-crown--he seemed only bored by
our persistence.

"I don't think you'll ever see this half-sovereign again, Hollis," said
Gadbut, laughing. We all, with the exception of young Hollis, thought
the affair a very good joke. He, on the contrary, seemed annoyed, and,
taking the dog from Gadbut, made an attempt to pull the coin out of its
mouth.

Tiny, true to his life-long principle of never parting if he could
possibly help it, held on like grim death, until, feeling that his little
earnings were slowly but surely going from him, he made one final
desperate snatch, and swallowed the money. It stuck in his throat, and
he began to choke.

Then we became seriously alarmed for the dog. He was an amusing chap,
and we did not want any accident to happen to him. Hollis rushed into
his room and procured a long pair of pincers, and the rest of us held the
little miser while Hollis tried to relieve him of the cause of his
suffering.

But poor Tiny did not understand our intentions. He still thought we
were seeking to rob him of his night's takings, and resisted vehemently.
His struggles fixed the coin firmer, and, in spite of our efforts, he
died--one more victim, among many, to the fierce fever for gold.

* * * * *

I dreamt a very curious dream about riches once, that made a great
impression upon me. I thought that I and a friend--a