nk; besides, being a stone goblin, it
was out of the question.

* * * * *

"Well, if it ain't there, sure enough!" said the vergeress next morning.
She took the shining coin down from the dusty niche and turned it over
and over in her grimy hands. Then she put it to her mouth and bit it.

"She can't be going to eat it," thought the Saint, and fixed her with his
stoniest stare.

"Well," said the woman, in a somewhat shriller key, "who'd have thought
it! A saint, too!"

Then she did an unaccountable thing. She hunted an old piece of tape out
of her pocket, and tied to crosswise, with a big loop, round the thaler,
and hung it round the neck of the little Saint.

Then she went away.

"The only possible explanation," said the Goblin, "is that it's a bad
one."

* * * * *

"What is that decoration your neighbour is wearing?" asked a wyvern that
was wrought into the capital of an adjacent pillar.

The Saint was ready to cry with mortification, only, being of stone, he
couldn't.

"It's a coin of--ahem!--fabulous value," replied the Goblin tactfully.

And the news went round the Cathedral that the shrine of the little stone
Saint had been enriched by a priceless offering.

"After all, it's something to have the conscience of a goblin," said the
Saint to himself.

The church mice were as poor as ever. But that was their function.

THE SOUL OF LAPLOSHKA

Laploshka was one of the meanest men I have ever met, and quite one of
the most entertaining. He said horrid things about other people in such
a charming way that one forgave him for the equally horrid things he said
about oneself behind one's back. Hating anything in the way of
ill-natured gossip ourselves, we are always grateful to those who do it
for us and do it well. And Laploshka did it really well.

Naturally Laploshka had a large circle of acquaintances, and as he
exercised some care in their selection it followed that an appreciable
proportion were men whose bank balances enabled them to acquiesce
indulgently in his rather one-sided views on hospitality. Thus, although
possessed of only moderate means, he was able to live comfortably within
his income, and still more comfortably within those of various tolerantly
disposed associates.

But towards the poor or to those of the same limited resources as himself
his attitude was one of watchful anxiety; he seemed to be haunted