whole circulation of the country is at the mercy of your
Government?' remarked Popanilla, summoning to his recollection the
contents of one of those shipwrecked brochures which had exercised so
strange an influence on his destiny. 'Suppose they do not choose to
issue?'

'That is always guarded against. The mere quarterly payments of interest
upon our national debt will secure an ample supply.'

'Debt! I thought you were the richest nation in the world?'

'Tis true; nevertheless, if there were a golden pyramid with a base as
big as the whole earth and an apex touching the heavens, it would not
supply us with sufficient metal to satisfy our creditors.'

'But, my dear sir,' exclaimed the perplexed Popanilla, 'if this really
be true, how then can you be said to be the richest nation in the
world?'

'It is very simple. The annual interest upon our debt exceeds the whole
wealth of the rest of the world; therefore we must be the richest nation
in the world.'

'Tis true,' said Popanilla; 'I see I have yet much to learn. But with
regard to these pink shells, how can you possibly create for them a
certain standard of value? It is merely agreement among yourselves that
fixes any value to them.'

'By no means! you are so rapid! Each shell is immediately convertible
into gold; of which metal, let me again remind you, we possess more than
any other nation; but which, indeed, we only keep as a sort of dress
coin, chiefly to indulge the prejudices of foreigners.'

'But,' said the perpetual Popanilla, 'suppose every man who held a shell
on the same day were to--'

'My good friend! I really am the last person in the world to give
explanations. In Vraibleusia, we have so much to do that we have no time
to think; a habit which only becomes nations who are not employed. You
are now fast approaching the Great Shell Question; a question which, I
confess, affects the interests of every man in this island more than any
other; but of which, I must candidly own, every man in this island is
more ignorant than of any other. No one, however, can deny that the
system works well; and if anything at any time go wrong, why really
Mr. Secretary Periwinkle is a wonderful man, and our most eminent
conchologist. He, no doubt, will set it right; and if, by any chance,
things are past even his management, why then, I suppose, to use our
national motto, something will turn up.'

Here they arrived at the hotel. Having made every arrangement for
th