nswer. "I'd do nothing of that kind, if I were
you."

"Of course you wouldn't. You have everything that I haven't--food,
clothes, shelter. Certainly you wouldn't. Why should you?"

"Why should you, if it comes to that?"

"Because ten shillings stands between me and a job. That's why, if you
want to know. There's eight shillings railway fare, a shilling for
something to eat to-night and a shilling for something in the morning.
But I haven't the ten shillings. So that's why."

"If I give you the ten shillings what assurance have I that you will
not go and get drunk on it?"

"None at all. I have not asked you for ten shillings, nor for one. I
have simply answered your question."

"That is true. I will give you a pound if you will take it, and so if
unfortunately you spent half of it in cheering yourself, you will still
have enough left to get that job. What is the job?"

"I am a carpenter."

"You are welcome to the pound."

"I will take it gladly. But, mind you, I am not a beggar. I will take
it if you give me your address, so that I may send it back to you when
I earn it."

By this time Bradley had come down on the pavement. The other man
laughed quietly.

"I cannot agree to that. You are welcome to the money. More if you
like. I merely doubled the sum you mentioned to provide for anything
unseen."

"Unless you let me return it, I will not take the money."

"I have perfect confidence in your honesty. If I had not, I would not
offer the money. I cannot give you my address, or, rather, I will not.
If you will pay the pound to some charity or will give it to someone
who is in need, I am more than satisfied. If you give it to the right
man and tell him to do the same, the pound will do more good than ever
it will in my pocket or in my usual way of spending it."

"But how are you to know I will do that?"

"I am considered rather a good judge of men. I am certain you will do
what you say."

"I'll take the money. I doubt if there is anyone in London to-night who
needs it much worse than I do."

Bradley looked after the disappearing figure of the man who had
befriended him.

"I have seen that man somewhere before," he said to himself. But in
that he was wrong. He hadn't.

* * * * *

Wealth is most unevenly and most unfairly divided. All of us admit
that, but few of us agree about the remedy. Some of the best minds of
the century have wrestled with this question in vain. "The p