I should like to place in your hands
a sum for use at your own discretion. You must meet with many cases of
necessity which you would not care to mention to the authorities of the
church; and it would be a distinct advantage to you to have a sum of
money for use in such instances absolutely at your own command. Now I am
going to write you a cheque for fifty pounds to be used as you think fit;
and when it is done, you shall have more."

"Mr. Horn!" exclaimed the startled minister.

"Yes, yes, it's all right. All the money I've promised you this morning
is a mere trifle to me. And now, with your permission, I'll write the
cheques."

Why "Cobbler" Horn should not have included the whole amount of his gifts
in one cheque it is difficult to say. Perhaps he thought that, by writing
a separate cheque for the last fifty pounds, he would more effectually
ensure Mr. Durnford's having the absolute disposal of that amount.

The writing of the cheques was a work of time.

"There, sir," said "Cobbler" Horn, at last, as he handed the two precious
slips of paper across the table, "I hope you will find them all right."

"Thank you, Mr. Horn, again and again," said the minister, as he folded up
the cheques and placed them in his pocket-book; "they are perfectly right,
I am sure."

"Has it occurred to you," he continued, "that it would be well if you were
systematic in your giving?"

"Yes; and I intend systematically to give away as much as I can."

"But have you thought of fixing what proportion of your income you will
give? Not," added the minister, laughing, "that I am afraid lest you
should not give away enough."

"Oh yes," responded "Cobbler" Horn, laughing in his turn; "I have decided
to give proportionately; and the proportion I mean to give is almost all
I've got."

"I see you are incorrigible," laughed Mr. Durnford.

"You'll find that I am. But now--" and "Cobbler" Horn regarded his
minister with an expression of modest, friendly interest in his face--"I'm
going to write another cheque."

"You must be fond of the occupation, Mr. Horn."

"Cobbler" Horn's enrichment had not, in any degree, caused the cordiality
of his relations with his minister to decline. There was nothing in
"Cobbler" Horn to encourage sycophancy; and there was not in Mr. Durnford
a particle of the sycophant.

"I believe I don't altogether dislike it, sir," assented "Cobbler" Horn in
response to the minister's last remark. "But," he added, hand