am on the jury, as it happens."

Mr. Niggles then departed to his suburban villa, and passed the
remainder of the evening as became so respectable a man.

The next morning he was early at business; and, in his capacity of
citizen, did not neglect his duties in the court, where he arrived
exactly two minutes before any of the other jurymen.

When the prisoner was placed in the dock, I saw at once that she was the
sister of my first possessor. She had attempted to pass two bad
shillings at a grocer's shop. She had denied all knowledge that the
money was bad, but was notwithstanding arrested, examined, and was
committed for trial. Here, at the Old Bailey, the case was soon
dispatched. The evidence was given in breathless haste; the judge summed
up in about six words, and the jury found the girl guilty. Her sentence
was, however, a very short imprisonment.

It was my fortune to pass subsequently into the possession of many
persons, from whom I learnt some particulars of the afterlife of this
family. The father survived his daughter's conviction only a few days.
The son was detained in custody; and as soon as his identity became
established, charges were brought against him which led to his being
transported. As for his sister--I was once, for a few hours, in a family
where there was a governess of her name. I had no opportunity of knowing
more; but--as her own nature would probably save her from the influences
to which she must have been subjected in jail--it is but just to
suppose, that some person might have been found to brave the opinion of
society, and to yield to one so gentle, what the law calls "the benefit
of a doubt."

The changes which I underwent in the course of a few months were many
and various--now rattling carelessly in a cash-box; now loose in the
pocket of some careless young fellow, who passed me at a theatre; then,
perhaps, tied up carefully in the corner of a handkerchief, having
become the sole stock-in-hand of some timid young girl. Once I was given
by a father as a "tip" or present to his little boy; when, I need
scarcely add, I found myself ignominiously spent in hard-bake ten
minutes afterwards. On another occasion, I was (in company with a
sixpence) handed to a poor woman, in payment for the making of a dozen
shirts. In this case I was so fortunate as to sustain an entire family,
who were on the verge of starvation. Soon afterwards, I formed one of
seven, the sole stock of a poor artist, who