that could not be, for every country has its own money with its
own King's or President's head on the coins. Here in England we have the
King's head on one side and various designs on the other, which are
different according to the coins they adorn. It would be rather nice if
money did grow on bushes. Supposing we could have a row of them in the
garden. The penny ones might be like gooseberry bushes, rather low down
and stumpy, and mother would say, 'Now, who will go and see if there are
any ripe pennies for me to-day?' and we should see the great round brown
pennies hanging ready to drop, and the little wee ones just beginning to
grow, or perhaps having grown to the size of halfpennies; and we might
ask, 'Shall we gather all we find, or leave the halfpennies for another
day to grow into pennies?'

Then there would be silver trees, where shillings and half-crowns grew,
and we should be told, 'You must not go near those, they are too
valuable. You might drop some of the money and lose it in the mud;' and
the gold, I think, would have to be reared in hothouses only, and kept
locked up very carefully.

Well, of course, this is just imagination. Take out a shilling and look
at it. It probably has the King's head on it, or it may have King
Edward's, or Queen Victoria's head if it is a very old one. Anything
further back than that would be valuable as a curiosity. All these
shillings are the same value, and it makes no difference which one you
use, and they have all been made at the Mint in London. It is not
difficult for anyone to get leave to go to see over the Mint, and it is
a very interesting thing to do. The building is near the Tower, and does
not look at all grand; in fact, it is difficult to believe that such
riches can come out of any building so poor looking. Here all the money
for England is coined--gold, silver, and copper. If we are lucky, the
day we go we shall find the workmen making gold sovereigns, and pouring
them out so fast that it is like the old fairy story of Rumpelstiltskin.

In the first room there are great furnaces, with dirty-looking caldrons
hanging over them, and in these caldrons there is not soup or anything
to eat, but gold, pure gold. This gold has been found in far-away
countries and brought to England, and the men who bring it get paid so
much for it according to its weight, and then the Mint people turn it
into coins. The gold is all liquid, seething and boiling. The man who
stands by