, and wait for an opportunity: you have the game in your
own hands then, and can take advantage of the follies and passions of
others, instead of allowing them to avail themselves of yours."

"In plain English, cheat instead of being cheated," put in Coleman.

"You're not far wrong there, Freddy; the world is made up of knaves and
fools--those who cheat, and those who are cheated--and I, for one, have
no taste for being a fool," said Cumberland.

"Nor I," said Mullins; "I should not like to be a fool at all; I had
rather be----"

"A butterfly," interrupted Coleman, thereby astonishing Mullins to such
a degree that he remained silent for ~34~~some moments, with his mouth
wide open as if in the act of speaking.

"You cannot mean what you say; you surely would not wish to cheat
people," said I to Cumberland; "if it were really true that one must
be either a knave or a fool, I'd rather be a fool by far--I'm sure you
could never be happy if you cheated any one," continued I. "What does
the Bible say about doing to others as you would have others do to you?"

"There, don't preach to me, you canting young prig," said Cumberland
angrily, and immediately left the room.

"You hit him pretty hard then," whispered Coleman; "a very bad piece
of business happened just before I came, about his winning a lot of tin
from a young fellow here, at billiards, and they do say that Cumberland
did not play fairly. It was rather unlucky your saying it; he will
be your enemy from henceforth, depend upon it. He never forgets nor
forgives a thing of that sort."

"I meant no harm by the remark," replied I; "I knew nothing of his
having cheated any one; however, I do not care; I don't like him, and
I'm just as well pleased he should not like me. But now, as my foreign
relations seem to be rapidly assuming a warlike character (as the
newspapers have it), what do you say to giving me a lesson in sparring,
as you proposed, by way of preparation?"

"With all my heart," replied Coleman.

And accordingly the gloves were produced, and my initiatory lesson
in the pugilistic art commenced by Coleman's first placing me in an
exceedingly uncomfortable attitude, and then very considerately knocking
me out of it again, thereby depositing me with much skill and science
flat upon the hearth-rug. This manouvre he repeated with great success
during some half hour or so, at the end of which time I began to
discover the knack with which it was done, and pro