I argued that one and threepence was too much to pay for the delivery
of a telegram which had only cost sixpence itself; I also argued that
one and threepence was too little for a wealthy institution like the
G.P.O. to worry about, but the messenger wouldn't reduce the price. I
had had my telegram, said he, and I must pay for it. I offered to give
him the telegram back, but he guessed it was only from Carr and wasn't
having any. It was my money he wanted and that, unhappily, was some
miles away in a bank.
For reasons best known to myself, and not too clearly appreciated even
in that quarter, I am always full of petty cash at the beginning of
the month and out of it at the end. My wife never draws any at all,
knowing it is much safer where it is, and as for Albert, our only son,
he takes no interest in the stuff. When we, in moments of self-denial,
slip a coin into the slit of his money-box, he is merely bored, being
as yet unable to unlock the box and get the coin out again, owing to
ignorance of the whereabouts of the key. I explained all this to the
telegraph boy, but his heart didn't soften; so, still parleying with
him in the porch, I sent the maid to my wife to see what she could do
to ease the financial position.
The maid returned with a shilling, which was my wife's limit, and this
I tendered to the boy, explaining to him the theory of discount for
net cash. But he was one of those small and obstinate creatures who
won't learn, so I sent him round to the back premises to get some
tea, while I retired to the front to do some thinking. It was at
this moment that Albert chose, imprudently, to make an important
announcement from the top of the stairs with regard to a first tooth,
which he had lost by extraction the day before but had not yet been
able to forget. His idea was that he should come down and inspect
it once more; but I paid no heed to this. His mention of the matter
suggested, when I came to think of it, a solution of my difficulty
with the telegraph boy.
Later, I asked my wife to step into my study and to shut the door
behind her. "This has become a serious matter," said I; "nay, it
threatens to be a grave scandal. You remember Albert's tooth?"
She did. These things are not easily forgotten. "I wish," I pursued,
"to interview Albert's nurse as to it," and I rang the bell sternly.
"She hasn't got it," said my wife; "we have," and she took from the
mantelpiece a small packet tied up with pink ribbon.
I explained that it wasn't the child's molar but the child's funds
that I was concerned with. "You will recollect that I compensated him
for the loss of it with a shilling. It makes it all the more poignant
that it was my last shilling. I put it into his money-box, the key of
which is accessible to miscreants. That shilling is gone!"
My wife smiled. "How did you find out?" she asked.
"I had reason to be looking in the box," I said airily, "and happened
by chance to notice that the shilling had been stolen."
"You mean," said she, "that you were proposing to steal it yourself?"
I disregarded the question. "I never did trust that nurse," said I.
"But to steal the treasured capital of a defenceless infant!"
"I am the thief," said my wife, "and you are the receiver. Whether
or not the telegraph-boy will be jointly charged with us is for the
police and Albert to decide between them."
At this moment the nurse entered and asked what we required of her. My
wife was confused, but not so I. I told nurse we required nothing of
her but much of Albert. Would she ask him to step downstairs?
We assembled in the porch, my wife, Albert, the nurse, and the
telegraph boy. I took the chair.
"Ladies and gentlemen," said I, "I have a proposal to lay before the
meeting with a view to adjusting the acute crisis. Let me remind you
of the facts:--The gentleman on my right," and I indicated Albert,
whose attention wandered a little, "was recently possessed of a tooth,
two parents, and a godfather of the name of Carr. The tooth, as teeth
will, had to be removed; the parents, as parents may, advanced
a shilling upon it; and the godfather, as godfathers needn't,
telegraphed to say he was coming forthwith to the _locus in quo_.
Things were so when Mr. (I didn't catch your name, Sir," and I turned
to the telegraph boy) "threatened to liquidate us unless his debt was
satisfied. Business is, as he very properly remarked, business. "Now
for my suggestion: Albert," and I turned to him again, "will have, the
telegram, which, being from _his_ godfather, is rightly his. He will,
however, take it subject to encumbrances, of which, I understand, he
has already discharged all but threepence. Happily his parents are
willing to withdraw their first charge on his personal assets, and
I have much satisfaction, Sir"--I bowed to the telegraph boy--"in
presenting you with the goods, which were as recently as yesterday
valued at no less than a shilling, and in asking you to keep the
balance as a mark of our unshaken affection and esteem."
And I handed him Albert's tooth.
* * * * *
"Accused, who gave the name of Janet Arthur, quoted Scott's
'Wha Hae' and other works."--_Lincolnshire Echo._
Such as the Wha-Haeverley Novels.
* * * * *
[Illustration: THE WORLD'S WORKERS.
_Little Girl._ "PLEASE, MRS. MURPHY. MUVVER SAYS, IF IT'S FINE,
TO-MORRER, WILL YOU GO BEGGIN' WITH 'ER?"]
* * * * *