"Upon my word, Dr. Riccabocca." said Mr. Dale, smiling, "you come in good
time to solve a very nice question in casuistry;" and herewith the Parson
explained the case, and put the question--"Ought Lenny Fairfield to have
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 Doctors 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 in the story;
but I thought 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