s detailed history of the transaction, as well as his
picturesque denunciation of his opponent, I had already put in
about a hundred dollars' worth of my time without any prospect of
a return. I knew that if the case were tried it would mean a day
lost for myself and a judgment against my client. The old fellow
had a large amount of property, however, and I was willing to take
a loss if it meant future business. Yet the time involved and the
trifling character of the suit annoyed me and I resolved to take
it upon myself to settle the matter over my client's head.

On my way home I stopped in at the tailor's and told him to take
his three dollars and discontinue his action, which he was glad
enough to do. The next day I wrote Mr. Wimbleton that I had forced
his enemy to capitulate--horse, foot, and dragoons--and that the
suit had been withdrawn. My embarrassment may be imagined when my
client arrived at the office in a state of delirious excitement
and insisted not only on inviting me to dinner, but on paying me
fifty dollars for services in giving him the satisfaction of beating
the tailor. Instantly I saw a means of entirely satisfying the
old man and earning some good fees without the slightest exertion.

The same method--although for another purpose--will be recalled by
my readers as having been invoked by the unjust steward who called
his lord's debtors to him and inquired how much they owed. One,
if I remember correctly, said a hundred measures of oil.

"Take thy bill," said the steward, "and sit down quickly, and write
fifty."

Another, who confessed to owing a hundred measures of wheat, the
steward let off with eighty. On discovering what he had done his
lord commended him for having done wisely, on the ground that the
children of this world were wiser than the children of light.

Thus, it will be observed, my early Biblical training stood me in
practical stead; and the only difference between the unjust steward
and myself lay in the manner in which we were each eventually
treated by our respective masters. Indeed, I found this Scriptural
scheme so profitable and effective that soon my client swore I was
the cleverest lawyer he had ever employed.

Some one would commence a suit against him for damages for breach
of contract amounting to a couple of thousand dollars, where he
thought he ought to pay only fifteen hundred, but where he really
had no defense. I would file an elaborate answer setting