my
influence is unbounded, and, were I so disposed, I could have you
severely punished for the assault which you have committed on me. Your
dress and appearance indicate poverty, although your language evinces
that you have enjoyed more elevated fortunes; I am disposed to be not
only merciful, but generous. Come, sir--leave this young person with me,
unmolested; depart from this house quietly, and say nothing about what
you have seen, and here is a fifty dollar bill for you. When you need
more, come to me, and you shall have it."

The Honorable Mr. Tickels drew from his well-filled wallet a bank-note
for the amount named, and handed it to the Corporal, who regarded it
with a curious smile, and twirled it in his fingers. His smile may have
been one of gratification at receiving the money--but it looked very
much like a sneer of contempt for the donor and his bribe.

"Now is it not strange," quoth the Corporal, soliloquizing,--"that this
dirty little bit of paper--its intrinsic value not one cent, its
representative value fifty dollars,--is it not strange, I say, that this
flimsy trifle, that an instant's application to the sickly flame of a
penny candle would destroy, can procure food for the starving, clothing
for the naked, shelter for the homeless? Great is thy power,
money!--thou art the key to many of earth's pleasures,--the magic wand,
which can summon a host of delights to gild the existence of thy
votaries; thou cans't buy roses to strew life's rugged pathway--but thou
cans't not, O great deity at whose shrine all men kneel, thou cans't not
cleanse the polluted soul, still the troubled conscience, or dim the
pure surface of unsullied honor. Nor cans't thou purchase _me_, thou
sordid dross. Guns and grappling-irons!" abruptly added the Corporal,
abandoning his philosophical strain, and getting into a towering
passion,--"would you bribe me to desert my post as a guardian of
innocence, and turn traitor to every principle of honor in my
heart?--Bah!" and crumpling the bill in his hand, he threw it into the
face of the Honorable Mr. Tickels, much to that individual's amazement.

"What do you mean, sir?" he demanded, "do you scorn my gift?"

"Yes!" thundered the little Corporal, "you and your gift may go to the
devil together; and hark'ee, sir, perhaps 'tis well that you should know
who _I_ am, as you have so formally introduced yourself to me; I am--"

The remainder of the sentence was whispered in the ear of his