u_ win, you can either keep the mare or hand her over
to me, and I will pay you back your guinea."

"And suppose we neither of us win?" asked Amos.

"Oh, then," replied his brother, "we shall have done a good-natured
thing by giving Gregson a helping hand out of his difficulties, for it
will take a good deal of hunting up to get a hundred names for the
raffle."

"But, my boy," said the squire, "remember there's some one else to be
considered in the matter. I can't undertake to keep two horses for you;
you have your own pony already."

"All right, father; there'll be no difficulty there. I can sell my own
pony, and Rosebud won't eat more nor take up more room than poor Punch;
and I shall put a few sovereigns into my own pocket too by selling my
own pony."

"That is to say, if you are the winner, my boy; but there will be
ninety-nine chances to one against that."

"Oh yes, I know that, father; but `nothing venture, nothing win,' says
the proverb.--Well, Amos, what do you say? will you be one?"

"I cannot," said his brother gravely.

"Oh, why not?" asked his sister; "it will be so nice for dear Walter to
have that beautiful creature for his own."

"I do not approve of raffles, and cannot therefore take part in one,"
replied Amos.

"Why, surely," she exclaimed, "there can be no harm in them."

"I cannot agree with you there, dear Julia," he said. "I believe
raffles to be utterly wrong in principle, and so there must be harm in
them. They are just simply a mild form of gambling, and nothing got by
them can be got fairly and strictly honestly."

"Eh! that's strong indeed," cried Walter.

"Not too strong," said his brother. "There are but three ways of
getting anything from another person's possession honestly: you must
either earn it, as a man gets money from his master by working for it;
or you must give a fair equivalent for it, either so much money as it is
marketably worth, or something in exchange which will be worth as much
to the person from whom you are getting the thing as the thing he is
parting with is worth to him; or you must have it as a free gift from
its owner. Now a raffle fulfils none of these conditions. Take the
case of this mare Rosebud. Suppose you pay your guinea, and prove the
successful person. You have not earned Rosebud, for you have not given
a hundred guineas' worth of labour for her. You have not given a fair
equivalent, such as an equally good horse or something else of