the sixpence, or ought he not?"

"_Cospetto_!" said the doctor. "If the hen would but hold her tongue,
nobody would know that she had laid an egg."

Chapter V.

"Granted," said the Parson; "but what follows? The saying is good, but I
don't see the application."

"A thousand pardons!" replied Dr. Riccabocca, with all the urbanity of an
Italian; "but it seems to me, that if you had given the sixpence to the
_fanciullo_--that is, to this good little boy--without telling him the story
about the donkey, you would never have put him and yourself into this
awkward dilemma."

"But, my dear sir," whispered the Parson, mildly, as he inclined his lips
to the Doctor's ear, "I should then have lost the opportunity of
inculcating a moral lesson--you understand."

Dr. Riccabocca shrugged his shoulders, restored his pipe to his mouth, and
took a long whiff. It was a whiff eloquent, though cynical--a whiff
peculiar to your philosophical smoker--a whiff that implied the most
absolute but the most placid incredulity as to the effect of the Parson's
moral lesson.

"Still you have not given us your decision," said the Parson, after a
pause.

The doctor withdrew the pipe. "_Cospetto!_" said he. "He who scrubs the
head of an ass wastes his soap."

"If you scrubbed mine fifty times over with those enigmatical proverbs of
yours," said the Parson, testily, "you would not make it any the wiser."

"My good sir," said the Doctor, bowing low from his perch on the stile, "I
never presumed to say that there were more asses than one in the story;
but I thought that I could not better explain my meaning, which is simply
this--you scrubbed the ass's head, and therefore you must lose the soap.
Let the _fanciullo_ have the sixpence; and a great sum it is, too, for a
little boy, who may spend it all upon pocket-money!"

"There, Lenny--you hear?" said the Parson, stretching out the sixpence. But
Lenny retreated, and cast on the umpire a look of great aversion and
disgust.

"Please, Master Dale," said he, obstinately, "I'd rather not."

"It is a matter of feeling, you see," said the Parson, turning to the
umpire; "and I believe the boy is right."

"If it is a matter of feeling," replied Dr. Riccabocca, "there is no more
to be said on it. When Feeling comes in at the door, Reason has nothing to
do but to jump out of the window."

"Go, my good boy," said the Parson, pocketing the coin; "but stop! give me
your hand first. _There_--I u