MHRAR Y 
 
 OK THK 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 OIKT 01-* 
 
 Deceived 
 Accessions Noi CLiss No. 
 
MRS. LIMBER S RAFFLE 
 
 OR, A CHURCH FAIR AND 
 ITS VICTIMS 
 
 \ 
 
 A SHORT STORY 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM ALLEN BUTLER 
 
 NEW EDITION 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 1894 
 
COPYRIGHT, /875, 1894, 
 BT D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 
 
PEEFAOE. 
 
 THE narrative of Mrs. Limber s experience 
 in the management of a church-fair raffle, as 
 contained in the following pages, was published 
 in 1876, anonymously, in order that the moral 
 which it sought to enforce might stand on its 
 own merits, free from any element, either of 
 strength or weakness, attaching to personal ad 
 vocacy. The book was widely circulated, and its 
 condemnation of raffling was not met by any ad 
 verse criticism or answered by any opposing ar 
 gument. A new edition of the story being called 
 for, its authorship is avowed ; and attention may 
 fitly be called to the great advance in sound pub 
 lic opinion on the subject of lotteries, during 
 the eighteen years which -have elapsed since its 
 first publication. The scandalous attempt in 
 Louisiana in 1890 to perpetuate, on an enor 
 mous scale, a lottery system for the benefit of 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 the State, with the intent of drawing its re 
 sources from the entire country, aroused a storm 
 of indignation which swept away its local sup 
 ports, and fastened a brand of outlawry on an 
 evil which is now denounced and prohibited by 
 the Constitution of almost every State in the 
 Union. 
 
 Raffling, which is included in the prohibi 
 tion, still survives and flourishes, for the reason 
 that the public conscience, while awakened to 
 the evils of gambling on a large scale and in its 
 grosser forms, winks at the same evil in its lesser 
 proportions, partly as a peccadillo and partly from 
 its serviceableness as an ally of benevolence a 
 bad means sanctified by a good end. The sym 
 pathies of charitable women, especially, repel the 
 idea of wrong or immorality as inhering in any 
 thing which stimulates the impulse of benevo 
 lence by the added zest of chance ; and accord 
 ingly they set aside the mandate of the law and 
 the moral principle on which it rests, with a 
 charming indifference to both, characteristic of 
 their sex, which shrinks instinctively from im 
 purity and evil, but smilingly chaperones a seem 
 ingly innocent vice which not only leans to vir 
 tue s side, but is obtrusively active in her service. 
 Truth, thus wounded in the house of her friends, 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 finds few defenders in the ranks of those whose 
 special duty should be the education of the con 
 science and the conservation of morals. This re 
 sult is largely due to the inherent difficulty of 
 asserting a moral principle which depends for its 
 true acceptance upon a process of reasoning, and 
 also to the ungraciousness of discouraging the 
 efforts of well-meaning and benevolent people. 
 Meanwhile the demoralization goes on ; boys and 
 girls make their first essay in gambling by draw 
 ing some petty prize in the chances of a raffle ; 
 and the general assent of the community is easily 
 enlisted, on the plea of philanthropy or Christian 
 charity, in aid of deliberate violations of a posi 
 tive law and an established moral principle. 
 
 WILLIAM ALLEJ^ BUTLER. 
 
 ROUND OAK, YONKEES, N. Y., May, 1894. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAUK 
 
 CHAP. I. ST. PARVUS BY MOONLIGHT ... 6 
 
 IL CENTURIA .... 21 
 
 TIL PAT LOONEY S LUCK . . .84 
 
 IV. A RUBRICAL RECTOR . . . 41 
 
 V. MR. CALENDAR S CODE . , .63 
 
 VI. THE FAIR .... ?S 
 
 VII. THE DAY AFTER THE FAIR . . .92 
 
 VIII. PUBLIC OPINION IN SPINDLE 107 
 
 IX. FIAT JUSTITIA . . . .118 
 
 X. APOTHEOSIS OF CENTURIA . . 14G 
 
MES, LIMBEE S EAITLE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ST. PAEYUS BY MOONLIGHT. 
 
 MBS. DAYID LIMBEB was a housekeeper with 
 out fear and without reproach. There was but 
 one key to her storeroom, and she held it with a 
 firm hand. She was an active manager, with 
 a keen eye for dirt, a quick ear for all un 
 licensed sounds, and a sense of smell almost su 
 pernatural. Her good bargains were prover 
 bial, and she was a standard authority on butter. 
 No one could excel her in that gift of domes 
 tic divination, by which experienced housewives 
 can announce, at the first sound of the street- 
 door bell, who is ringing it, and can detect the 
 existence of "something burning," or of un 
 fastened windows, or suspicious footfalls in distant 
 corners of the house, at the dead of night, in 
 
spite of all adverse presumptions, or of the crimi 
 nal indifference or apathy of husbands. 
 
 Among other high prerogatives of Mrs. Lim 
 ber, was that of being, as she was in the habit of 
 expressing it, " the last one up in the house," 
 by which it is to be understood, not that she 
 rose in the morning after every one else, but that 
 she did not retire at night until the whole family 
 was actually or constructively in bed. 
 
 In the enjoyment of this privilege, Mrs. Lim 
 ber was seated, one Saturday evening, in her 
 little up-stairs sitting-room, in the absence of her 
 husband, the only person in her spacious mansion 
 who had not ended the week s work or play and 
 gone to bed. A hickory-fire, which the first Oc 
 tober frost had made a cheerful novelty on her 
 hearth, gave out a glow in harmony with her 
 own genial presence. A large basket, piled with 
 stockings, was placed conveniently by her side, 
 and, as she plied her needle with the quick cer 
 tainty of an expert in the art and mystery of 
 darning, two unsolved enigmas occupied her 
 thoughts the first, where all the holes in the 
 stockings came from; and the second, why no 
 one could mend them but herself. 
 
 It was evident, however, that these questions 
 were suggested by no bitterness of spirit, and 
 
ST. PARVUS BY MOONLIGHT. 7 
 
 that they would, if answered, have probably re 
 sulted in a quiet sense of satisfaction, on Mrs. 
 Limber s part, that her husband and children 
 were pushing their way in the world, and she 
 was helping them do it, for her face wore a smile, 
 and her heart was in her work as really, if not as 
 literally, as her hand. Seen at this moment by 
 even the most unskilled physiognomist, Mrs. 
 Limber would have appeared the embodiment of 
 good sense and good temper, a fair-faced, free 
 hearted matron, blessed with a contented hus 
 band and healthy children, and with a will and 
 a way of her own. This is precisely what she 
 was. 
 
 The hall-clock struck eleven. The clock in 
 Mrs. Limber s bedroom did the same, and so did 
 the clock on her sitting-room mantel-piece. What 
 Charles V. found it impossible to do, Mrs. Lim 
 ber had accomplished ; her clocks struck to 
 gether. At the last stroke she paused in her 
 work, folded away the nineteenth stocking, one 
 only out of ten pair having been wonderfully pre 
 served from new rents, thanks to the strength of 
 former darns, and laid it on the top of the pile, 
 to which she gave a motherly pat with her broad, 
 white palm. The final destination of this pre 
 cious basket was the top of the bureau in her 
 
8 
 
 own bedroom, but just now she let it rest on the 
 work-table at which she had been seated, while 
 she opened the window, with the single intent of 
 closing the outside blinds, according to her inva 
 riable habit, and as an indispensable preliminary 
 to a quiet night s rest. 
 
 But this movement, so commonplace and me 
 chanical, was changed into a gesture of surprise 
 and delight as the opened window disclosed a 
 scene in which the most familiar and ordinary 
 objects were clothed with a beauty as rare as it 
 was unexpected. The night was clear, and the 
 moon, at its full, was at that instant transform 
 ing, by its magic touch, the prosaic manufacturing 
 village of Spindle, upon which David Limber s 
 front-windows looked down, and in which his 
 own factories were the most prominent objects, 
 into one of the selectest nooks of fairy-land. The 
 tall chimneys, the shingle roofs, the tinned cupo 
 la of the court-house, the church-spires, the black 
 mass of railroad-buildings at the junction-depot 
 all took on a new aspect, and the surrounding 
 hills and woods seemed for once in harmony with 
 the quiet town, which was, in reality and by day 
 light, one of the noisiest and most obtrusive coun 
 ty seats and railway centres which the genius 
 of modern improvement ever thrust into any 
 
ST. PAEVF8 BY MOONLIGHT. 9 
 
 one of the many happy valleys of the Empire 
 State. 
 
 Mrs. Limber s eye rested on the whole moon 
 lit scene. Although much more given to the 
 practical than the ideal, she did not, at that 
 witching hour, stop to think how much of it 
 was owned in fee by her husband, and subject, 
 by virtue of her tender relation to him, to 
 her own inchoate right of dower. Her unselfish 
 gaze turned from the clustered factory-roofs and 
 lingered on the sleeping village, resting with spe 
 cial satisfaction on the cross-tipped spire of the 
 little church of St. Parvus. Wooden though it 
 was, and somewhat out of the line of a true per 
 pendicular, it seemed to her a model of grace and 
 proportion. The Grecian pediment of the First 
 Presbyterian Church, it is true, was pure Pa 
 rian in the moonlight ; the square, brick tower 
 of the Baptists, bathed in the silver sheen, waa 
 redeemed from its native ugliness ; even the 
 Methodist Meeting-House, touched by the lunar 
 beam, wore a tint better than that for which it 
 had long been awaiting the painter s brush ; 
 while the Roman Catholic Church, planted at a 
 respectful distance, but on a commanding emi 
 nence, seemed to catch and reflect, on its large 
 gilt cross, more than its share of the impartial 
 
tO MRS. LIMBER S RAFFLE. 
 
 moonlight. But St. Parvus pierced the serene 
 sky with the tallest steeple, and soared heaven 
 ward with a sense of conscious supremacy. So, 
 at least, it seemed to Mrs. Limber. 
 
 And yet, as she gave one last, loving glance, 
 and gently drew the blinds together, secured the 
 fastenings, turned the bolt of the sash, and then, 
 after her immemorial habit, made a spasmodic 
 effort to reopen the window, by way of making 
 assurance doubly sure, Mrs. Limber heaved a 
 sigh. This first sigh, like her last glance, was 
 given to St. Parvus, and was inspired by the 
 thought that, however bright its aspect by moon 
 light, its e very-day condition was one of chronic 
 and desperate poverty, so desperate that Mr. Lim 
 ber and his fellow-vestrymen were kept out of 
 their houses and their beds on this very Saturday 
 night to sit up with an incurable and exasperat 
 ing church debt, and to devise ways and means to 
 be rid of it. No wonder it seemed to Mrs. 
 Limber as disagreeable and troublesome as the 
 strangled Hunchback in the "Arabian Nights," 
 a dead weight, not to be concealed or disposed 
 of, with the fatal disadvantage of entire inability 
 to lay it at the door of any other church. 
 
 The utter indifference of the general popula 
 tion of Spindle, manufacturers, operatives and all, 
 
ST. PAKVUS BY MOONLIGHT. 11 
 
 to this pitiable condition of St. Parvus, was some 
 thing which Mrs. Limber, to use her own language, 
 "never did and never could comprehend." It 
 confirmed her belief in the doctrine of total de 
 pravity that the superior privileges which were 
 enjoyed at this exclusive shrine, on as favorable 
 terms as those held out by any First or Second 
 Presbyterian, any Wesleyan Methodist, any Free 
 will Baptist, or any Reformed Dutch Church, 
 should attract so few adherents, while those rival 
 societies were as strong in numbers and as easy 
 in their finances as they were, according to Mrs. 
 Limber s ideas, unsound in doctrine. 
 
 Equally incomprehensible, and not to be ac 
 counted for by any hypothesis, doctrinal or other 
 wise, was the way in which the worthy Rector of 
 St. Parvus, the Rev. Alban Chancel, ignored and 
 dismissed from consideration, as he might have 
 done some pestilent heresy or petty scandal, the 
 depleted state of the finances of his church, pur 
 suing his weekly and daily round of ministerial 
 duty with as much precision and with as comfort 
 able a sense of parochial independence as if the 
 revenues of Old Trinity had been at his sole dis 
 posal. 
 
 " Mr. Chancel hardly seems to know that there 
 is such a thing as a church debt," Mrs. Limbei 
 
had said to the rector s wife, her bosom friend, 
 as they diverged, in conversation one day, from 
 the absorbing topics of dress and domestics to 
 the distresses of St. Parvus. 
 
 Mrs. Chancel was an invalid, but somewhat 
 skilled in repartee. 
 
 " Do you think, my dear, that if Mr. Chancel 
 were to borrow trouble the parish debt could be 
 paid any sooner ? " 
 
 " No," said matter-of-fact Mrs. Limber ; " but 
 he does not seem to take it much to heart. Now, 
 I always worry over a debt until it is paid." 
 
 " Oh, if this were Mr. Chancel s debt, I dare 
 say he would worry over it, but, instead of his 
 taking it to his heart, perhaps it would be as 
 well for the pew-holders to take it to their pock 
 ets." 
 
 " Of course, the parish owes the debt," said 
 Mrs. Limber, and the discourse of the ladies 
 gravitated again toward the last item of domestic 
 experience. 
 
 But, if the good rector and his wife bore the 
 burden of the debt too lightly, it weighed heavi 
 ly enough on the soul of Mrs. Limber, the most 
 faithful of his faithful nock. She was the cham 
 pion, though after a strictly feminine, unhistoric, 
 and illogical fashion of her own, of the highest 
 
ST. PAKVUS BY MOONLIGHT. 13 
 
 ecclesiasticism, and delighted in her reputation 
 as an uncompromising churchwoman, who stood 
 for Episcopacy in general, and St. Parvus in par 
 ticular, against all comers and all goers, as she 
 would have stood for her husband and children, 
 determined to do her whole duty even should sho 
 be left, like Dean Swift s dearly-beloved Roger, 
 the sole auditor of the rector s exhortations. 
 
 Of all the many contributions made to St. 
 Parvus by this estimable parishioner, the most 
 valuable was David Limber himself, whom she 
 had brought over, bodily and he was a good 
 two hundred pounds weight from the First 
 Presbyterian Church and Dr. Flatfoot. There 
 had been a former Mrs. Limber who was Presby 
 terian. She died, in the fifth year of her married 
 life, leaving a boy, three years old, and an infant 
 daughter. Her husband, seven years later, had 
 married again, with the full consent and approba 
 tion of every man, woman, and child, in Spindle, 
 capable of forming and expressing an opinion on 
 the subject. This unanimity of sentiment was 
 partly owing to the fact that Mr. Limber s popu 
 larity was so great that, whatever he had chosen 
 to do, short of marrying his grandmother, would 
 have been presumptively right, but it was due 
 even more to the real wisdom of his choice. 
 2 
 
Everybody knew Martha Fleming, the only child 
 of the old village doctor whose horse and chaise 
 had stopped, at one time or another, at almost 
 every door in the county before Spindle numbered 
 a tithe of its present population, and whose pro 
 fessional repute, in spite of the inroads of young 
 er practitioners, had continued to the day of his 
 death. His daughter had kept his house for 
 many years, tenderly caring for him in his declin 
 ing days, and it was not until after his death 
 that she would admit the idea of being more to 
 any one else than she had been to him ; but 
 when at twenty-six she married David Limber, 
 the leading manufacturer of the place, only fifteen 
 years her senior, and by right entitled to as gocd 
 a wife as Spindle, or the world at large, could 
 afford, it was universally admitted, at all tea-tables 
 and elsewhere, that she had done well and wise 
 ly. Not long after his second marriage, Mr. Lim 
 ber, who during a sober courtship had been a 
 constant attendant at St. Parvus, was seated 
 punctually at the head of the pew which his de 
 parted father-in-law had occupied whenever his 
 Sunday rounds permitted. With a little aid 
 from his wife, the new recruit, who had privately 
 expressed his fears that he was " rather stiff in 
 the joints " for the services of St. Parvus, was in 
 
ST. PAEYUS BY MOONLIGHT. 15 
 
 due time fully initiated as a churchman. He 
 took kindly to the change, but showed symptoms 
 of recusance when, at the end of a year, he 
 found himself, on Easter Tuesday, suddenly meta 
 morphosed into a warden. 
 
 " There is no warrant for it in Scripture," said 
 he to the rector s wife, whom Mrs. Limber had 
 called to her aid in overcoming his scruples. 
 " There s a town clerk mentioned in the Acts, 
 and a chamberlain, but never a warden or a ves 
 tryman." 
 
 " And where," said Mrs. Chancel, " is mention 
 made of a trustee or a synod ? " 
 
 This retort did not make his personal duty 
 any clearer to Mr. Limber, but he yielded, at last, 
 and soon ascertained that, whether warranted by 
 Scripture or not, there was no uncertainty about 
 the pecuniary obligations which his new functions 
 imposed, and that there was, in this respect, a 
 striking coincidence between the privileges of an 
 Episcopal warden and a Presbyterian trustee. 
 
 All these changes had happened a dozen 
 years ago, as the stockings in Mrs. Limber s bas 
 ket could attest, representing as they did besides 
 Sam, the eldest boy, now a college graduate and 
 student in a metropolitan law-school, and his sis 
 ter Bessie, the children of the first marriage 
 
16 
 
 three little Limbers of a later growth, of whom 
 the eldest was ten and the youngest four, all 
 boys. 
 
 The well-disciplined clocks were about to 
 stiike, in concert, half-past eleven, when Mr. Lim 
 ber s step was heard at his front-door, and he 
 was soon seated, with slippered feet, before the 
 bed of coals which his wife had carefully gathered 
 into a glowing heap. 
 
 " I am out of all patience, Martha," said the 
 tired warden, " with these vestry -meetings. It 
 is always the same old story, more debt and less 
 money." 
 
 " How much is wanted to clear off the debt ? " 
 asked Mrs. Limber, throwing a shovelful of ashes 
 over the coals. 
 
 a Three thousand dollars to cover everything, 
 including the assessment for opening Shuttle 
 Street, and the rector s salary to November 1st," 
 replied Mr. Limber, with as much precision as 
 if he were reading the disagreeable figures to the 
 assembled congregation. 
 
 Mrs. Limber deposited another installment of 
 ashes on the apex of the coal-heap, and flattened 
 it with the back of the shovel. This was done 
 with emphasis. She was about to surprise Mr. 
 Limber with a statement. 
 
ST. PARVUS BY MOONLIGHT. 17 
 
 " You may count upon Mrs. Chancel and me 
 for a thousand, perhaps fifteen hundred dol 
 lars." 
 
 " Where from ? " inquired Mr. Limber. His 
 monosyllables had a very skeptical tone. 
 
 " From a church fair," replied Mrs. Limber, 
 tossing the remnant of the ashes on the extin 
 guished embers, and speaking with as much as 
 surance as if she had announced an entirely 
 original and unprecedented, as well as infallible, 
 remedy for all cases of ecclesiastical poverty. 
 
 Her husband shook his head. " A church 
 fair, Martha, is a kind of pious fraud, which can 
 be winked at when its object is to help along a 
 mission-school, or a poor-hospital, or some strug 
 gling congregation in a wild parish, but for a 
 congregation like our own, and in a community 
 such as this, it would be too undignified. I had 
 rather put my hand in my pocket and pay the 
 whole debt myself." 
 
 And, so far as putting his hand in his pocket 
 went, Mr. Limber suited the action to the word. 
 
 " Nonsense, husband ! " said Mrs. Limber ; 
 " you shall do no such thing. It would be very 
 foolish and very wrong. The people would de 
 pend upon you instead of depending on them 
 selves, and, as for dignity, poor and proud may 
 
18 
 
 do for private people, but it will not do for 
 churches." 
 
 " Any thing but a church fair," said Mr. Lim 
 ber, still unconvinced. 
 
 " Except a church debt," rejoined his wife. 
 
 " Church debts are bad enough, I admit, but 
 they are honest debts certainly ours is while 
 a church fair, or any fair, in fact, always seems 
 to me like a contrivance to get a great deal of 
 money for very little value, by putting off un 
 marketable goods on unwilling purchasers at ex 
 orbitant prices, on the pretense of doing good. 
 False pretenses, I say." 
 
 " It is lucky for you, husband," said Mrs. Lim 
 ber, good-naturedly, " that Mary Chancel isn t 
 here to hear you charging her and me with false 
 pretenses. Our fair is to be conducted on the 
 strictest business principles. We shall have over 
 six weeks for preparation, and it will be just be 
 fore Christmas, so that everybody can buy pres 
 ents of us ; we shall have the best of goods, at 
 fair prices " 
 
 " Which are always unfair" interposed Mr. 
 Limber 
 
 " I mean moderate prices and you knew that 
 well enough, so you need not trip me up ; but 
 seriously, David, it will be an advantage to the 
 
ST. PARVUS BY MOONLIGHT. 19 
 
 whole place. We shall get money, besides, from 
 every one who has it to spend. The Presbyte 
 rians are the richest people in Spindle, and why 
 should they have Christmas without paying toll 
 . for it to the church ? " 
 
 " It does seem to me," said Mr. Limber, " that 
 Christmas is the last thing in the world to grudge 
 to any one, even to Presbyterians, if they have 
 the grace to keep it." 
 
 " Then let them keep it like Christians," said 
 Mrs. Limber, " instead of locking up their church 
 es and lighting up Christmas-trees which Mrs. 
 Chancel says are relics of heathenism, handed 
 down from the Roman saturnalia, when they light 
 ed wax-tapers in honor of the sun at this very 
 season, and she says that, for all the religion there 
 is in a Christmas-tree, you might as well give the 
 children the Odes of Horace translated into words 
 of one syllable." 
 
 " I don t know anything about the Odes of 
 Horace," said Mr. Limber, " nor about Saturn, 
 except that T believe he devoured his children, 
 and it strikes me that Mr. Chancel might as well 
 try to gobble up all the Presbyterian boys and 
 girls as to undertake to cut down their Christmas- 
 trees. But I am half asleep, and the clock is just 
 going to strike twelve." 
 
 IVBR3IT7 
 
20 
 
 " I am wide awake," said Mrs. Limber, " but 
 we must try to get down to breakfast earlier on 
 Sunday morning, and going to bed after midnight 
 is hardly the way to do it." 
 
 She took up her basket and looked lovingly 
 at the pile of stockings, as she followed her hus 
 band. 
 
 " After all," she said, " my evening s work 
 was harder than yours : 
 
 A man may work from sun to sun, 
 But a woman s work is never done. 
 
 Twenty stockings and only one without a hole. 
 Dear me 1 what shall we do with these children s 
 
 toes ? " 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CENTUKIA. 
 
 IT was one of the sayings of Spindle that the 
 Limbers never did anything- by halves. David 
 Limber was a practical manufacturer, with a 
 genius for invention which helped him to reduce 
 the cost and enhance the quality of his fabrics, 
 and fitted him for a competition with rival mill- 
 owners by which he became used to transactions 
 on a large scale, and to very liberal ways. Mrs. 
 Limber, with a constitutional distrust of all retail 
 weights and measures, preferred unbroken pack 
 ages and uncut pieces. There was thus an air of 
 profusion about their way of doing things which 
 inspired respect. David Limber was justly reck 
 oned by his fellow-townsmen a whole-souled man, 
 and Mrs. Limber was rated as a whole-souled 
 woman enviable titles, inasmuch as men and 
 women with whole souls were as rare in Spindle 
 as they usually are in other manufacturing or un- 
 manufacturing communities. 
 
22 MRS. LIMBER S BAFFLE. 
 
 It was no wonder, then, that when Mrs. Lim 
 ber came in her own proper person to the rescue 
 of St. Parvus, and was officially announced in the 
 Spindle Freebooter as the promoter and chief pa 
 troness of a fair, to be held in her own spacious 
 parlors, and which was to be the most attractive 
 entertainment of the approaching holiday season 
 as well as the most effectual means of relief for a 
 deserving object, it seemed to everybody the most 
 natural thing in the world, and the most certain 
 of success. The beaux and belles of Spindle were 
 on the alert for a new social sensation, and the 
 most satisfactory results of the enterprise were 
 assured in advance, just as an expected financial 
 movement is discounted by the bulls and bears 
 of Wall Street. Volunteers nocked to Mrs. Lim 
 ber s standard, and her arrangements were soon 
 completed. 
 
 " We are making splendid progress," said Mrs. 
 Limber to her husband, as she filled his coffee-cup 
 at the breakfast-table, one Monday morning early 
 in December ; " Sam is our treasurer, and Bessie 
 our in-door manager. The stores sell us goods at 
 wholesale prices, and give liberal donations be 
 sides. We have a special agent who is making 
 purchases in New York and Albany, and securing 
 consignments of Christmas goods for sale on com- 
 
CENTUKIA. 23 
 
 mission. We are to have a post-office, a Sibyl to 
 tell fortunes, a lovely blonde for an Undine, and 
 half a dozen brunettes for a gypsy camp, a foun 
 tain of lemonade with several Rebeccas, a Punch 
 and Judy, a conjurer, a picture-gallery, a pavilion 
 for refreshments, a score of flower-girls, and last 
 but not least a hundred-dollar doll, Mrs. Chancel s 
 special contribution, direct from Paris, with a 
 wardrobe complete." 
 
 Mr. Limber had not paid much attention to 
 his wife s list of attractions, but he pricked up 
 his ears at the mention of the last item in the 
 catalogue. 
 
 " Who wants a hundred-dollar doll ? " he in 
 quired. 
 
 " Any one who can get it. The doll is really 
 a work of art. She is to be raffled for at a dollar 
 a chance, one hundred chances." 
 
 " Bessie," said Sam, pausing over his tenth 
 buckwheat cake, " I will give you a name for that 
 doll." 
 
 " What s in a name ? " said Miss Bessie, who 
 was just at the age of the most familiar quota 
 tions. 
 
 "There is one hundred dollars in the name I 
 am about to propose. If she is to command a hun 
 dred, she is a female centurion, and taking a slight 
 
24: MRS. LIMBECS RAFFLE. 
 
 liberty with terminations, I christen her * Centu- 
 ria, which you see has this great advantage, be 
 sides its evident appropriateness, that, when her 
 expensive wardrobe is to be marked, the initial 
 C. will stand at once for her name and her price." 
 
 " What a very smart boy our brother Sam is ! " 
 exclaimed Bessie ; " I wonder if we couldn t ex 
 hibit him as a separate department of the fair, 
 and raffle him off at the end ? " 
 
 " Not at a dollar a chance," said Sam, return 
 ing to his buckwheats. 
 
 " Mother," said Mr. Limber, laying down his 
 knife and fork, with great deliberation, and look 
 ing seriously at his wife, " do you really mean to 
 have raffling at this fair ? " 
 
 " Certainly," said Mrs. Limber, in her cheer 
 ful, positive tone. 
 
 " I am very sorry," said her husband. " I 
 think you ought not to allow it." 
 
 " I do not agree with you, husband. I cannot 
 see any harm in a raffle at such a fair as this is to 
 be ; they have them at all the church fairs, and 
 they contribute to the enjoyment, and bring in 
 money which we need so much." 
 
 She said this so sweetly, and out of the abun 
 dance of a heart so full of charity, and a conscience 
 go void of offense, that David Limber was on the 
 
CENTTJRIA. 25 
 
 point of dropping the subject, without further 
 question or protest, but he found himself impelled 
 by a vague sense of disquiet, rather than by any 
 well-defined motive, to hazard a fresh objection. 
 
 "I think, at least I have an impression, 
 that raffling is a wrong thing morally wrong, 
 I mean." 
 
 " Really," said Mrs. Limber, " I don t see and 
 I can t see how a thing can be wrong that is sim 
 ply and solely to do good, and that too for the 
 church." 
 
 " But even for the church," urged Mr. Limber, 
 " ought you to do good in a bad way ? " 
 
 " How can a way be bad which leads straight 
 to a good end ? " rejoined his wife ; " the money 
 goes just as directly into the treasury of the 
 church by the raffle as it does by the plate you 
 pass round on Sunday, and every one who gives 
 has value received in the one case as much as in 
 the other." 
 
 "I believe," said Mr. Limber, shifting his 
 ground, " that raffling is against the law." 
 
 " Oh, I don t know anything about the law," 
 said Mrs. Limber, " and, if it comes to that, a 
 thousand things are against the law, such as wood 
 cock before the Fourth of July, or paying more 
 than seven per cent, or six per cent., which is it, 
 
26 
 
 for borrowed money, and, when I was in New 
 York last month, Mr. Bullion told me he had been 
 fined five dollars for having a dead dog carted 
 from the avenue in front of his house that was a 
 violation of the health law, and one of his neigh 
 bors had to tear down a new bay-window that 
 was a violation of the fire laws ; and things have 
 come to such a pass that it is against the law for 
 men, in some places, not for women to be sure, 
 to work more than eight hours a day. Law in 
 deed ! " said Mrs. Limber, pressing her evident ad 
 vantage, " what kind of laws can we expect, when 
 you send such fellows to Albany to make them 
 as Jack Filch, a do-nothing and know-nothing, 
 without an honest hair in his head ; and, after one 
 winter in the Legislature, his wife told Jane By- 
 ass, the dressmaker, that she wanted her dresses 
 to out-trim every lady in Spindle, Mrs. Limber in 
 cluded ; those were her identical words and that 
 reminds me, Bessie," continued Mrs. Limber in 
 the same breath, suddenly changing her position, 
 and giving the subject under discussion literally 
 a cold shoulder, " that Mrs. Byass has not sent 
 home that pink silk which you were to have had 
 without fail last Saturday night. You must go 
 for it yourself directly after breakfast. Dear me 1 
 what shall we do with these dressmakers ? " 
 
CENTUKIA. 27 
 
 During Mrs. Limber s remarks her husband 
 had wisely resolved to abandon his attack upon 
 the raffle for the present, and to renew it at the 
 dinner-table, trusting to his ability to reenforce 
 his own views by some opinions or arguments to 
 be gained from authoritative sources in the inter 
 val. He was therefore well pleased with Mrs. 
 Limber s sudden diversion, and rising from the 
 table he took leave of her in his usual affectionate 
 way, and hurried to his factory and the varied 
 occupations of the day, which embraced a wider 
 range than the circle of his own affairs, for no 
 one in Spindle held so many places of trust as 
 David Limber. 
 
 Dinner was wellnigh dispatched when, with 
 what seemed to him a bold plunge, he opened 
 upon Mrs. Limber with the query 
 
 " My dear, have you consulted Mr. Chancel 
 about this raffling project ? " 
 
 " Dear, no ! I should as soon think of con 
 suiting him about the pattern of a polonaise." 
 
 " It seems to me that the clergyman of a par 
 ish ought to be the very best person to decide 
 whether a thing which his parishioners are going 
 to do for the benefit of the church is right or 
 wrong." 
 
 " Oh, in the abstract, I dare say anything, for 
 
28 
 
 instance, that could go into a sermon or about 
 which there is an article of religion, or a decree 
 of a council, or something of that sort but how 
 perfectly absurd it would be to preach about 
 raffling ! Besides, dear, good Mr. Chancel is just 
 as ignorant about practical, every-day matters 
 and what people ought to do and ought not to 
 do as ministers always are. You know, husband, 
 he is as innocent as a babe. Mrs. Chancel says 
 herself that he is such a piece of perfection that 
 she has to do things every now and then that are 
 the least bit wicked just to keep up his belief in 
 original sin." 
 
 " Tf she can t keep him sound in the faith on 
 that doctrine," said Sam aside to Bessie, " no 
 body can." 
 
 " For shame, Sam ! Mrs. Chancel l is all my 
 fancy painted her. She s lovely, she s " 
 
 "When your fancy paints her tongue," said 
 Sam, " I will let you have my sharpest razor for 
 a model. It is one of the kind that works deceit 
 fully sometimes." 
 
 " Be quiet, Sam, I want to hear what papa is 
 
 saying." 
 
 " I was talking with Mr. Proser this morn 
 ing," Mr. Limber went on to say with consider 
 able emphasis, " about raffling ; and he thinks it 
 
CEXTTTEIA. 29 
 
 sliould be wholly condemned, on principle. He 
 regards it as very pernicious. He says it is 
 against divine law and human law." 
 
 "Mr. Proser is a Presbyterian," said Mrs. 
 Limber, with her usual cheerful terseness when 
 on the defensive. 
 
 " For all that, I suppose a Presbyterian can 
 form an opinion and give information on moral 
 subjects." 
 
 " Oh, to be sure ; as for information, no one 
 can give more than they can. That is what Mrs. 
 Chancel says about Presbyterian clergymen, that 
 they are always imparting information, even in 
 their prayers, where there is certainly the least 
 need of it ; and Dr. Flatfoot spends nearly as 
 much time in reading notices as Mr. Chancel does 
 in delivering his sermon." 
 
 " Mr. Proser is not a clergyman," said Mr. 
 Limber, " but he is certainly a most upright, ex 
 cellent man, as everybody knows." 
 
 " So he is," said Mrs. Limber heartily, as if it 
 was a joy to her to speak the best she could, even 
 of Presbyterian human kind, " he is just as good 
 as he can be, and as patient as Job with those 
 harum-scarum children of his, but he is not re 
 sponsible for all Spindle, nor is he infallible, so 
 far as I know. As Mrs. Chancel says, his good 
 
30 
 
 ness is of the nitroglycerine sort you can t 
 come in contact with it without its exploding and 
 blowing you to bits." 
 
 " But, my dear, Mr. Proser is a man of great 
 experience, his views are entitled to respect ; he 
 is an elder in the church, he has been to the Gen 
 eral Assembly, and he knows what he speaks 
 about. He says that raffling is gambling, and a 
 raffle is a lottery, and he can see no difference or 
 distinction between the two." 
 
 " None so blind as those who won t see," 
 said Mrs. Limber ; " Mr. Proser will never forgive 
 me because you chose to leave Dr. Flatfoot 
 and become a churchman. He can make differ 
 ences and distinctions fast enough when he 
 chooses. He thinks it sinful to take a glass of 
 wine at a wedding, but you ought to see him de 
 vour brandy-peaches and tipsy-cake when he can 
 get them. He thought it was dreadful to go to 
 see Ristori in Queen Elizabeth, but he sends 
 his family in a body to the Hippodrome and 
 the Minstrels. There s a nice distinction ! But, 
 as Mrs. Chancel says, there are some people who 
 will make a wry face over a quadrille and gulp 
 down a circus." 
 
 " My dear Martha," said Mr. Limber, " I have 
 no doubt Mrs. Chancel is a good woman, but I 
 
CENTUEIA. 31 
 
 do wish you would not quote her all the time. 
 With all her sharpness she can t lift her own 
 baby, and I ll be bound she doesn t darn her hus 
 band s stockings. If I am wrong about this 
 matter, I will stand corrected, but I don t want 
 to be pelted with Mrs. Chancel s smart speeches. 
 I would rather have a pound of your plain home 
 spun common-sense than a bale of her sar 
 casms." 
 
 Feathered with this touch of flattery, Mr. 
 Limber s shaft, aimed apparently at Mrs. Chancel, 
 found its way to his wife s heart. She laughed 
 good-humoredly as she replied : 
 
 " Why, husband, I thought Mrs. Chancel was 
 your particular admiration. She is all the time 
 sending her love to you. As for lifting that little 
 Dicky, I think she might do it now and then if 
 she would make an effort, but I should be quite as 
 well satisfied if she kept his face clean, poor child ! 
 And now I think of it, speaking of children, I 
 promised to look up old Widow Riley and those 
 orphan grandchildren of hers. They have posi 
 tively nothing to eat. I must go there before 
 dark. Do give me some money to leave with 
 them." 
 
 Mr. Limber produced his pocket-book and re 
 sponded to his wife s appeal. He could not 
 
retrace the precise steps by which the result had 
 been reached, but he was conscious that his pro 
 mulgation of Mr. Proser s views on raffling had, 
 by some succession of ideas, led to a contribution 
 of five dollars for the benefit of a deserving fam 
 ily and to nothing else. Mrs. Limber, however, 
 seemed entirely satisfied, and, with the money in 
 her hand and a kiss on her lips, she parted from 
 her husband intent for the time being upon her 
 charitable errand. 
 
 "Come and take a look at Centuria," said 
 Bessie to her brother Sam, when they were alone 
 in the dining-room, " here she is in the bottom of 
 the cabinet ; " and by the opening of the doors the 
 waxen beauty was disclosed, in all the plenitude 
 of her Parisian toilet. 
 
 " The true girl of the period," said Sam, 
 " chatelaine and all ; what an assortment she has 
 dangling there a fan nearly as large as herself, 
 an umbrella, a watch, an opera-glass, vinaigrette, 
 card-case, pencil, reticule, eye-glass ! why don t 
 you hook on a prayer-book, Bessie ? Somebody 
 may mistake her for a Methodist." 
 
 " Not with that point-lace trimming on her 
 dress," said Bessie ; "they say that belonged once 
 oil a time to the Empress Eugenie." 
 
 " How did Mrs. Chancel ever come into poa- 
 
CENTURIA. 33 
 
 session of this supremely ridiculous piece of per 
 sonal property ? " inquired Sam. 
 
 " Some fine lady of her acquaintance picked it 
 up in Paris at a sale, and, hearing about our fair, 
 has sent it to Mrs. Chancel, who makes it her 
 special contribution. That is the story, I believe ; 
 * I tell the tale as twas told to me. But dear 
 Sam, do you know I am half sorry we have the 
 doll on our hands. I have an idea that some 
 thing disagreeable will happen. Papa seems so 
 opposed to raffling." 
 
 " What did Mrs. Chancel say when she heard 
 of his objections ? " 
 
 " She said that some people s consciences 
 were like her boy Dicky, always waking up and 
 creating a disturbance when they ought to be 
 quietly asleep. I think that was very disre 
 spectful to papa, don t you ? and besides, it was 
 hardly kind to say of Dicky." 
 
 " Dicky," said Sam, " is not too young, it seems, 
 to point a moral, though he is too ugly to adorn 
 a tale. Mrs. Chancel did not mean to be disre 
 spectful to papa, but she does not intend to be 
 interfered with. The raffle is decreed, and to 
 abandon it now would be like giving up one of 
 the thirty-nine articles." 
 
 > 0? T 
 
 tJIIVBESITY 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 MKS. LIMBER S visit of mercy had carried light 
 and love into a dark place. She came home with 
 the reflected glow still lingering on her face, and 
 with thoughts of kindness and sympathy filling 
 her heart. Mr. Limber being occupied with some 
 business visitors, she went earlier than usual to 
 her bedroom. On entering, she was surprised to 
 find Bridget, a housemaid of several years stand 
 ing, the most trusted of her servants, engaged in 
 smoothing pillows already as smooth as pillows 
 could be, placing chairs in position, and doing 
 other unnecessary things with evident embar 
 rassment. Mrs. Limber s divination-cap was on 
 in a moment. She scented trouble. Her thoughts 
 flew at once from their tranquil height to the dead 
 level of domestic cares. 
 
 " Bless me, Bridget, what is it ? " 
 " Please, ma am," said the girl, dropping a 
 half courtesy, " I was just waitiiig-like for you, to 
 
35 
 
 give you warning that I m leaving when my 
 month s up, and it s up next Monday, it is." 
 
 " What do you mean, Bridget ; has any thing 
 gone wrong down-stairs ? " 
 
 " Oh, no, ma am," said Bridget, brightening 
 into confidence in her haste to repel any such 
 idea ; " I have no fault to find with any one in 
 the house, leastways yourself, and Mr. Limber is 
 an awful nice gentleman, he is, and the children 
 are all good, and Miss Bessie is a fine } T oung lady, 
 and Mr. Sam " 
 
 "Well, what in the world takes you out of a 
 good place ? Perhaps it is nothing, after all." 
 
 Bridget grasped the solid foot-board of the 
 bedstead, and looked down on the carpet ; at 
 last she mustered courage to say, without look 
 ing at her mistress : 
 
 " It s Pat Looney, ma am." 
 
 " Pat Looney ! " Mrs. Limber gave the name 
 an inflection which operated somewhat after the 
 manner of a patent corkscrew in making an open 
 ing for Bridget s pent-up feelings. She looked 
 up, and they flowed freely. 
 
 " Yes, ma am, Pat Looney, you mind, him as 
 was always speaking for me, and it s three years 
 we have kept company, and now he wants to be 
 married next week, and " 
 
3t> MKS. LIMBER S RAFFLE. 
 
 " You marry that shiftless fellow ! Bridget, 
 you ought to be ashamed of yourself a nice, 
 tidy, capable girl like you. Why, he hasn t done 
 a stroke of work this twelvemonth. I have seen 
 him hanging around the Spindle Shades, the low 
 est kind of a drinking-place, and I wonder he 
 hasn t been killed outright in some drunken 
 brawl ! Have you lost your senses, Bridget ? " 
 
 " Well, ma am, Pat has been idle at times 
 like, which it is a weakness in his bones and 
 pains, and his being there was all along of a light 
 ness in his head ; and that is gone now, and he 
 has just come to his luck, ma am, and he can live 
 without work if he chooses." 
 
 "How can Pat Looney live without work? 
 If he is an honest man he cannot do it." 
 
 " Please, ma am, maybe Pat wouldn t like me 
 to be telling it, but it s a lady you are, and you 
 wouldn t get me into trouble, and it s himself 
 that has drawn a prize on his policy -ticket, he 
 has, and he has got the money, he has, and it s in 
 the bank, it is, and it s three thousand dollars, it 
 is, ma am." 
 
 " Drawn a prize in the lottery ! " cried Mrs. 
 Limber ; " three thousand dollars on a policy- 
 office ticket, and now you mean to marry him ! 
 Why, Bridget, I never heard of such a thing in 
 
37 
 
 all the days of my life. It is sheer, downright 
 madness. The man will go to destruction, and 
 drag you down with him, as sure as you live, 
 and you will never have a day s peace. Those 
 policy-shops are the vilest places in the world, 
 and drawing a prize in them is worse than losing 
 your money, because a man never does a day s 
 work after he has once drawn a prize ; and, like 
 drinking, it goes on from bad to worse ! Before 
 I would marry that man, Bridget, if I were you, 
 I would scrub the cross-walk in the middle of 
 Main Street on my bare knees in broad day 
 light ! " 
 
 " But, indeed, Pat has done no wrong," said 
 Bridget, whose self-possession was wholly re 
 stored by Mrs. Limber s violent onslaught ; " sure 
 it was his own money he paid for the policy, and 
 he took his chance with the rest, and if Pat Loo- 
 ney s luck is better than theirs, where s the harm, 
 and him with his mother to help ; and it was for 
 a good end like, if it was to help him to marry, 
 for the priest says a good wife is from the Lord, 
 though it s meself that says it, and the end scari 
 fies the means, he says." 
 
 " Sanctifies the means, Bridget," said Mrs. 
 Limber, " and that is nothing else than a false 
 Jesuit doctrine ; and as for Pat Looney s luck, it 
 
is all chance and a wild-goose chase ; the next 
 time he will lose everything he has got, and more 
 besides." 
 
 " But you see, ma am, it was all along partly 
 because of Pat s vow, it was." 
 
 " What vow could he possibly make about 
 such a wicked thing as a lottery-policy ? Vow, 
 indeed ! " said Mrs. Limber, in a blaze at Pat s 
 profanity. 
 
 " Sure and it was a vow that he would give 
 five dollars to the church out of every hundred 
 dollars, if his ticket was lucky, and he has kept 
 his vow sacred, and it s meself that is just after 
 coming from the priest, and Pat counted the 
 money into his hand, and he gave us his blessing, 
 he did, and a good man is Father Mahoney, and 
 it s good to us both his blessing will do." 
 
 " Bridget, this is horrible," said Mrs. Limber, 
 " to go and throw yourself away in this fashion, 
 and then to mix up religion and vows and the 
 church with these dreadful policy-shops ! I do 
 think Father Mahoney ought to be ashamed of 
 himself, but it s all of a piece like people like 
 priest. You marry that man, and you are a 
 ruined girl. Your husband will be a gambler 
 and a drunkard all his days, and perhaps a bur 
 glar or a murderer, and he will end in the State- 
 
PAT LOONEY S LUCK. 39 
 
 prison or on the gallows. This is just as certain 
 as the sun is to rise ; gamblers will stake their 
 money, and their wives, and their children, and 
 their own souls, until every thing is lost. If I 
 had known or suspected that any girl in my house 
 was mixed up with such wickedness, I should 
 have dismissed her on the spot, the moment I 
 found it out. I hope to goodness he has never 
 brought any of his hateful lottery-tickets into this 
 house!" 
 
 " And indeed, ma am," said Bridget, turning 
 on her heel and giving her head a toss, " it s very 
 hard you are on poor Pat for drawing as honest 
 a prize as ever was drawed in a lottery, seeing 
 you are going to have one yourself, by what I 
 hear, to keep your own priest s head above water, 
 which it is himself can t do at all ; and it is a true 
 saying, that people who live in glass houses 
 shouldn t throw stories at their neighbors. " 
 
 And Bridget sailed ont of the room and down 
 the hall before Mrs. Limber could recover her 
 breath. 
 
 " Is the girl crazy ? " she said to herself, and 
 then, as the full meaning of her parting words 
 dawned upon her, she added, more amused than 
 indignant, " was there ever such impudence ? 
 Our innocent little raffle, for the best of causes, 
 
4:0 MBS. 
 
 compared to a vulgar lottery ! You might as well 
 compare our Sam to Pat Looney." 
 
 And, as Mrs. Limber, with a little more vigoi 
 and rapidity than usual, loosened her dress and 
 jerked off her undersleeves, she relieved her 
 feelings with the exclamation : 
 
 " Dear me ! what shall we do with these Bid 
 dies?" 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A RUBRICAL RECTOR. 
 
 MR. LIMBER, without knowing that his con 
 science was like Master Dicky Chancel, found 
 it a very restless companion. It kept up a per 
 petual buzzing, like one of the great fly-wheels 
 of his own factory, and set in motion all manner 
 of doubts and questionings as to the propriety 
 of the raffle, and new reasons why he ought to 
 bestir himself in opposition, in spite of Mrs. Lim 
 ber s positive off-hand assurances in its support. 
 
 " There is no use in arguing or contending 
 with the women when they are bent on having 
 their own way," was his sensible conclusion after 
 a long course of reflection. " I will try Mr. Chan 
 cel myself. If I am wrong, perhaps he will set 
 me right ; and, if I am right, he must interfere 
 and put a stop to Mrs. Limber s raffle. I ought 
 to have gone to him before." 
 
 The little rectory adjoined the church of St. 
 Parvus, and in fact was connected with its rear 
 
by an old woodshed, to which Mr. Chancel, with 
 the aid of the village carpenter, had striven to 
 impart the air of a mediaeval cloister, but with 
 indifferent success. The rector s study was on 
 the ground-floor, and commanded a view of his 
 front-gate. In this study, somewhat scantily 
 equipped so far as as his professional needs were 
 concerned, the most imposing article of furniture 
 was the worthy rector himself. He was not a tall 
 man nor a large man, nor was there anything 
 striking in the expression of his smoothly -shaved 
 face, his broad forehead, or his rather dull blue 
 eye. But he was intensely clerical in his ap 
 pearance, and carried himself as though he was 
 perpetually in full view of a congregation. In 
 tellectually he was afflicted with a mild confu 
 sion of ideas respecting the cure of souls, church 
 creeds, communions, forms, and furniture, under 
 the force of which he had gravitated into that 
 extreme wing of the church militant which, by 
 its own movements, has most effectually severed 
 its communications with Christian charity and 
 common - sense. His small, natural light had 
 thus been hopelessly hid under a bushel of the 
 densest ecclesiasticism. Mrs. Chancel herself 
 was accustomed to say that he had been let down 
 from the surface of the earth at an early age into 
 
A RTJBBICAL RECTOK. 43 
 
 a church school, and then a little deeper into a 
 church college, and then deeper still into a theo 
 logical seminary, from the lowest depths of which 
 he had tunneled off into a succession of clerical 
 employments on the same dead level ; and while 
 wandering in these catacombs she had fallen in 
 with him, and he had married her, which, the 
 lively lady always added, he never would have 
 done had he seen her by daylight. 
 
 Aside from the injustice to herself, Mrs. 
 Chancel s description was hardly overdrawn. 
 Her good husband, not content w y ith the quiet 
 duties and rewards of his country cure, fancied 
 himself a theologian and a polemic, and was 
 best satisfied when excavating in some contract 
 ed and subterranean vein, which had its local fire 
 damp, and occasional explosions, but rarely ena 
 bled him to make any contribution to the upper 
 world, beyond an occasional fossil or the verte 
 brae of some extinct animal. And yet, at heart, 
 and when off his rickety stilts as a High-Church 
 man, Mr. Chancel was a good fellow, fond of a 
 quiet joke, true to his high function, and yet 
 easily remitted to the good things of this life, of 
 which, in truth, he had but a short allowance, and 
 even priding himself on his skill in brewing a 
 kind of patristic punch, which in his earlier days 
 
44 
 
 was in great vogue in certain thirsty corners of 
 those same catacombs whereof Mrs. Chancel 
 spoke. 
 
 Mr. Limber s appearance at the rectory-gate, 
 in the forenoon of a week-day, was almost as 
 great a surprise to Mr. Chancel as if one of the 
 early fathers, whose devotion to the church he 
 humbly strove to emulate, had suddenly de 
 scended to the sidewalk. His first impulse was 
 to rush up-stairs and exchange his morning 
 dressing-gown for the rigid clerical ccstume, by 
 which he endeavored in his daily walk to inspire 
 the people of Spindle with a due reverence for 
 the cloth. But Mr. Limber had alrealy caught 
 sight of the rector, and was on the porch. The 
 magnetism of his genial presence drew Mr. Chan 
 cel to the door, which he threw wide open to 
 give free entrance and welcome to his parish 
 ioner. 
 
 w My dear sir, this is an unusual, an unex 
 pected pleasure. Walk into my study ; will you 
 seat yourself in this easy-chair? I trust Mrs. 
 Limber is well, and your lovely family. You 
 appear to be enjoying your usual excellent 
 health." 
 
 Mr. Limber reciprocated these cordial greet 
 ings, and seated himself with more than ordinary 
 
A RUBRICAL RECTOR. 45 
 
 deliberation, feeling quite at a loss how to in 
 troduce the topic which had induced his visit. 
 
 But the worthy rector was eager to seize the 
 opportunity of interesting his visitor in the line 
 of excavation which he had immediately in 
 hand. 
 
 "You find me hard at work, Mr. Limber," 
 said he, waving his hand in deprecation of the 
 disordered state of his study, and his own unpre 
 sentable attire, various portions of which indi 
 cated that, though Mrs. Chancel s needle might 
 be as sharp as her tongue, it was not as ready for 
 active service ; " I am engaged on the sixth ser 
 mon in my course on the rubric, whjch I may 
 mention to you in confidence will be extended to 
 twelve, and which I propose to give to the 
 church, I may say the world, under the title of 
 * Caput Ecclesise, or the Rubric reinstated, the 
 chief title, as you perceive, being an adaptation, 
 I trust not inapt, of the ancient ecclesiological 
 designation of that part of the church in which 
 the altar, I will not say high altar, was erected 
 according to the canons of Gothic architecture, 
 and the minor, or sub-title, indicating the great 
 need of the church at the present time the 
 need of what we may call, Mr. Limber, a new 
 rubrication. I trust, sir, you are alive to the im- 
 
portance of this great subject. You stand by 
 the rubric, do you not, Mr. Limber?" 
 
 "It is rather fine print," said Mr. Limber, 
 evading the question. 
 
 "Yes," said the rector, with increasing ani 
 mation. " Lamentably true. Rubric, Mr. Lim 
 ber, is an equivalent term for Law. The an 
 cient Romans, as you perhaps remember, enti 
 tled their laws with red letters, and yet the mod 
 ern Church abandons this most essential symbcl- 
 ism, and the rubric is seen in black, a symbol 
 itself of a degeneracy from which I hope to take 
 a humble part in rescuing the Church. The ru 
 bric should be in large, conspicuous Gothic char 
 acters, and in the original color which belongs to 
 it; you say well, Mr. Limber. I rejoice in the 
 incidental confirmation of my views afforded by 
 your wise suggestion." 
 
 "I was not aware," said Mr. Limber ; "that 
 you laid so much stress on the rubric. I thought 
 it was your sailing directions, so to speak. I did 
 not suppose it was chart and compass." 
 
 " The common error," said the rector ; " rubii- 
 city, Mr. Limber, is the sheet-anchor of the Church. 
 Take a single but conclusive example, the deplor 
 able abuse of joint communion between church 
 men and non-churchmen. The rubric is explicit 
 
A RUBRICAL RECTOR. 47 
 
 here and settles the case. It reads, And there 
 shall none be admitted to the Holy Communion 
 until such time as he be confirmed or ready and 
 desirous to be confirmed. Now let us throw it 
 into the form of a syllogism : no one can confirm 
 but the bishop, consequently no one can right 
 fully commune unless confirmed by the bishop, 
 consequently only confirmed persons can com 
 mune together. Here you have the grand prin 
 ciple of church exclusion, Mr. Limber ; but let 
 me read you an extract from my sermon on which 
 I am now engaged, in which I undertake to de 
 monstrate that the commandments, although read 
 according to the rubric of our Church at the right 
 side of the altar or table as our Prayer-Book 
 unfortunately has it, and not at the north side, 
 according to the rubric of the mother-Church, are 
 virtually read in the same place, inasmuch as in 
 either case, by tradition and ecclesiastical under 
 standing, the place where the altar stands is theo 
 retically the east, and therefore " 
 
 Mr. Limber s internal fly-wheel was buzzing 
 with immense velocity. He made an effort and 
 broke in abruptly : 
 
 " My dear Mr. Chancel, pray let me hear that 
 another time. I ran in, at an odd moment, to 
 speak with you about the church fair which the 
 
 
 ft* oar ^w.* 
 
48 MRS. LIMBER S RAFFLE. 
 
 ladies are getting up t You know about it, I pre 
 sume." 
 
 " Certainly," replied Mr. Chancel, depositing 
 his manuscript on the table with evident reluc 
 tance. " I am aware that it is in contemplation 
 and preparation. A most meritorious service. 
 Church fairs are of great antiquity. Like the 
 rubric, they are of Roman origin, as the name in 
 dicates ferict) a holiday. Servius Tullius, I be 
 lieve, established a fair at which the laws were 
 proclaimed ; afterward they were consecrated by 
 being appointed on saints days, and you may 
 remember that, by royal grant, the Bishop of 
 Winchester received the revenues of the fair of 
 St. Giles, which lasted for sixteen days, during 
 which all merchants who sold wares in the city or 
 within seven, some say seventeen miles of it, for 
 feited them to the bishop. A noble tribute to 
 the Church, Mr. Limber." 
 
 " Rather an impracticable one in our day," 
 said Mr. Limber, hastening forward several cen 
 turies and bringing the conversation directly to 
 the day and date then present ; " but about this 
 fair of our ladies, which I suppose is all well 
 enough meant, it seems to me that there is one 
 thing which they intend to do that is wrong, and 
 I have come to ask you about it." 
 
A RUBEICAL KEOTOE. 49 
 
 Mr. Chancel looked at his parishioner with a 
 mildly expectant air, strikingly in contrast with 
 David Limber s energetic speech. 
 
 " It is the raffling that I mean ; setting up a 
 hundred-dollar doll and other nonsensical things, 
 I dare say, to be raffled for. It appears to me 
 that this is against good morals, and I believe 
 that it is against the law. The fair is to be held 
 in my house, and I do not want to violate either 
 morality or law, and I would like to know what 
 you think about it and whether you will use your 
 authority to prevent it." 
 
 "I presume, Mr. Limber," said the rector, 
 with great deliberation, " that you address tjiis 
 question to me, not in my individual capacity, but 
 as the incumbent of this parish." 
 
 " Upon my word," said our honest manufact 
 urer, feeling the ground beginning to slip away 
 from him here, as it had done at his own table, 
 " I want to know whether this thing is right or 
 whether it is wrong, and I do not see that it 
 makes any difference whether your opinion is 
 given in your dressing-gown or your surplice." 
 
 " The point of my inquiry is this," said Mr. 
 Chancel, pursuing the even tenor of his speech, 
 " right and wrong are relative terms, Mr. Limber, 
 and, in the case supposed, the answer might de- 
 
50 
 
 pend upon varying considerations, presentihg in 
 one aspect an abstract proposition, and in the 
 other a question of expediency. Even lotteries, 
 under certain conditions, have been comprehend 
 ed within the category of pious uses. A tempo 
 rary structure is said to have been erected at the 
 west door of St. Paul s on one occasion for the 
 drawing of prizes in money, plate, tapestry, and 
 armor ; and I believe it is customary, as an ad 
 junct of a strictly eleemosynary character, to 
 make a moderate use of the lot or chance in con 
 nection with fairs of this description. Person 
 ally, as a speculation in the higher region of 
 morals, I might discuss the subject with you 
 casuistically ; but, should it be, and I am unable 
 to affirm the contrary without further informa 
 tion, that the bishop of this diocese, upon due 
 deliberation, or even by implication, as by his 
 presence or expressed approbation, had sanc 
 tioned the holding of a fair at which such an ac 
 cessory was introduced, it would ill become me 
 to hazard an official decision that this was erro 
 neous. I will never commit an act of contumacy 
 against my bishop, Mr. Limber, never; and I 
 should hesitate to pronounce a private judgment 
 where the subject is one which might properly 
 be referred to my superior for adjudication." 
 
A RUBRICAL RECTOR. 51 
 
 " But, if it is against the law of the land," 
 urged Mr. Limber, " are you not bound to take 
 note of that, and instruct your parishioners ? " 
 
 " Not in the present absolute, I will not say 
 unhappy, divorce of Church and state," re) lied 
 the rector, promptly. " You will bear me wit 
 ness that I have never preached politics or med 
 dled with the civil powers. No, sir, I air. clear 
 of that imputation, however obnoxious to il other 
 pulpits may be." 
 
 " Other pulpits " meant Dr. Flatfoot, who had 
 just preached and published a sermon telling 
 some pla*in truths about the habits of the manu 
 facturing population of Spindle, giving the sta 
 tistics of drunkenness and crime, and demanding 
 an enforcement of the Sunday and excise laws. 
 But Mr. Limber was too much occupied with the 
 subject in hand to notice this side-thrust. 
 
 " Then I am to understand," said he, rising 
 and turning toward the door, " that it comes to 
 this, Mr. Chancel you decline to interfere." 
 
 " Just so ; to interfere the precise word, my 
 dear sir. Etymologically, it is derived from the 
 Latin inter-ferio-ferire, " to strike between " a 
 most apt derivative and descriptive word, giving 
 you, as a practical man, my exact position. It is 
 in many instances the duty of a priest to strike 
 
52 
 
 against the foes of his church, but never to stiike 
 between friends or to foment occasions of dis 
 cord. A bishop is to be no striker, and cer 
 tainly a poor rector should not be one." 
 
 Mr. Limber shook hands and said good-by as 
 cheerfully as he could, but with a feeling that 
 somehow he was being baffled at every point, 
 and as if it were his own fault. There was an 
 awkward sense of discomfiture in his leave- 
 taking, but Mr. Chancel s was as genial as at his 
 first greeting. 
 
 " Good-by, my dear sir my best regards to 
 Mrs. Limber. You will be sure to come again; 
 my next sermon will interest you as a manufact 
 urer. It will be on the symbolism of vestments, 
 and, by-the-way, I may mention to you in confi 
 dence that, in that discourse, while I establish 
 the identity of the surplice with the isiaca of 
 the priests of Tsis, I utterly confute the absurd 
 Puritanical prejudice against it on that account. 
 Come again, Mr. Limber. I rely upon you as a 
 rubricist." 
 
 If the front-gate closed with something of a 
 slam it in nowise disturbed the serenity of the 
 good rector, who went back to his excavations 
 with a complacent smile, after lighting a pipe, 
 which looked as if it had been bought at the first 
 fair after the discovery of tobacco. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ME. LIMBER walked from the rectory at a 
 rapid pace, in the direction of his factory, with 
 the full intention of reaching that haven of rest 
 at the earliest possible moment. But, as he 
 turned the corner of the street which led from 
 the Broadway of Spindle to the manufacturing 
 district, he suddenly stopped. Mr. Limber was 
 an inventor, and, like other inventors, he had his 
 sudden inspirations. He hesitated for a moment, 
 as if to assure himself that he was right in obey 
 ing the new impulse which controlled his move 
 ments, and then deliberately turned about and 
 retraced his steps toward the main street, saying 
 as he did so, " Why didn t I think of John Cal 
 endar before ? " 
 
 John Calendar was the best of the half-score 
 of lawyers who went up to the circuits and gen 
 eral terms of the judicial department in which 
 Spindle was situated. Being a man of method 
 
54: 
 
 and moderation, with a horror of debt, and a 
 habit of paying his bills promptly, he had ac 
 quired a reputation for wealth, and, being a man 
 who was more given to thinking than to talking, 
 he had also acquired a reputation for wisdom. 
 In reality he was neither as rich nor as wise as 
 people supposed, but, as he made no pretensions 
 to either quality, it was not his fault if he was 
 doubly overrated. On the other hand, he was 
 even a better lawyer than his clients imagined, 
 and, besides his knowledge of the law, he was 
 versed in many things, among others in human 
 nature and the ways of the world. 
 
 Mr. Calendar was a stanch Presbyterian, and 
 yet it was he who had counseled David Limber, 
 when he sought his advice, to quit the First 
 Presbyterian Church, and go with his wife to St. 
 Parvus. " Do not hesitate," he had said to his 
 client and old friend, as he saw him wavering 
 under a conflict of views, " go with your wife, by 
 all means; you will change neither your religion 
 nor your creed; the family is older than the 
 church. You are only a private and not an 
 officer in the Presbyterian ranks, and are not 
 responsible for the system, nor is it with you a 
 matter of sentiment as it is with your wife ; to 
 her the church-life to which she is accustomed is 
 
55 
 
 a part of her being, and she never could be at 
 ease elsewhere, while you can accommodate your 
 self easily to a change. For personal piety the 
 church of Jeremy Taylor and Wilberforce ought 
 to be as good as the church of Calvin or John 
 Knox. Its form of government would be intol 
 erable to me, but it will not disturb you. Its 
 order of worship is superior to ours " 
 
 "I didn t suppose you would admit that," 
 said Mr. Limber, somewhat startled. 
 
 " Certainly I do, not to the praise of Epis 
 copacy, but to the blame of Presbyterianism. 
 The Anglican Church, or its American offshoot, 
 has no more exclusive right to the Te Deum, or 
 the prayers of the early fathers, which they have 
 taken from the Latin Church, .than they have to 
 the Lord s prayer or the Apostles creed, but as a 
 squatter s title is sometimes made good by pre 
 scription, our Presbyterian churches, following a 
 bad extreme of Puritanism, leave them in posses 
 sion of the liturgy. It will be a great comfort to 
 you, at least it would be to me, to be in a church 
 where you will have some idea beforehand what 
 is going to happen at a christening, a wedding, 
 or a funeral. I would be an Episcopalian myseli 
 if it were not for Episcopacy." 
 
 " The service is very monotonous," said David 
 
56 
 
 Limber, feeling bound to make some show of 
 resistance. 
 
 "Yes," said Mr. Calendar, "it certainly is, 
 but it is the monotone of the deepest needs and 
 highest aspirations of our fallen, redeemed hu 
 manity, and, to the English-speaking race, the 
 book of Common Prayer must ever be, next to 
 the Psalms of David, the most perfect medium of 
 intercourse between earth and heaven which the 
 spirit of devotion ever cast in the mould of hu 
 man speech." 
 
 Aided by such counsel as this, Mr. Limber, to 
 whose honest nature substance was more than 
 form, was easily won over to the Prayer-Book, 
 submitting for its sake, as he used sometimes to 
 say, to a great deal of sing-song in the sermons. 
 This happy result was mainly due to Mr. Calen 
 dar s good offices, but Mrs. Limber never knew 
 for how much of her domestic peace and happi 
 ness she was indebted to the sharp-eyed lawyer, 
 whom she was apt to regard as a bigot in his 
 religion, an ascetic in his life, and a bore in his 
 conversation. 
 
 Mr. Limber was fortunate enough to find the 
 lawyer in his office, a little building adjoining 
 the old-fashioned house which he had made thor 
 oughly comfortable according to his own ideas, 
 
ME. CALENDAR S CODE. 57 
 
 after the somewhat luxurious though not extrav 
 agant habits of his profession. He greeted his 
 client very cordially. 
 
 " I thought I should have a visit from you 
 this week. We shall begin to take testimony in 
 the patent case next month, and I want the list 
 of your witnesses." 
 
 " It was not that which brought me here to 
 day," said Mr. Limber, seating himself by the 
 table and going at once to his point. " I want 
 to ask you some questions about another matter. 
 Perhaps I am foolish about it, but you must set 
 tle it for me. You have heard of Mrs. Limber s 
 church fair that is to be." 
 
 " Yes, to be sure. Our Lillie is working for 
 it like a little beaver." 
 
 " Well, Calendar, they are bent on having a 
 raffle at this fair which I suppose is a common 
 thing, tut I have got it into my head that it 
 ought not to be, and I want to ask you first of all 
 this simple question : Is raffling right or wrong ? " 
 
 " Unquestionably, wrong." 
 
 " Do you mean morally wrong or wrong be 
 cause it is against the law ? " 
 
 " Both. It is wrong by itself and in itself, and 
 wrong, besides, because the law of the land pro 
 hibits it." 
 
58 
 
 " Very good, but now I want you to tell me 
 why it is wrong and how it is wrong. I want 
 you to explain this thing and lay down the law 
 to me, both as to the moral part and the legal 
 part, just as if I were a jury and you were a 
 judge or a chief-justice." 
 
 And Mr. Limber put on a concentrated air of 
 attention, befitting twelve single jurors rolled into 
 one, waiting for the judge s charge at the close 
 of a long trial. 
 
 " The moral part, as you call it," said the 
 newly-invested chief-justice, " is very simple. It 
 rests on two plain facts which no one can dispute. 
 Fact number one, that there is in our human nature, 
 no matter how it got there, an inherent, univer 
 sal disposition to make chance a means of gain ; 
 fact number two, that this natural passion serves 
 no good end, and, on the contrary, has always 
 and everywhere, the world over, proved a fruitful 
 and perpetual source of idleness, misery, and 
 crime, so much so that the most advanced com 
 munities absolutely prohibit its exercise, either on 
 a large scale in government lotteries, or on a small 
 scale in bar-room raffles or church-fair raffles. In 
 other words, society says to every man, woman, 
 and child, that to pay money or give any valuable 
 thing for the chance of gaining a larger sum or 
 
ME. CALENDAR S CODE. 59 
 
 something of greater value, is so pernicious a 
 thing in itself and in its effects that it shall not 
 be tolerated. This is the testimony of society to 
 the moral evil, and here comes in what you call 
 the legal part ; because the evil is so universal 
 and far reaching, our own State has undertaken to 
 stamp it out by the most solemn prohibitions." 
 
 " I was certain it was against the law," said 
 David Limber, eagerly. 
 
 " Against the law ! My dear sir, the prohi 
 bition is made a part of the constitution of New 
 York. This is a very different thing, you see, 
 from a law, which one Legislature may make and 
 the next Legislature repeal." 
 
 " That disposes of my wife s Jack Filch argu 
 ment," said Mr. Limber to himself. 
 
 " Yes," continued Mr. Calendar, " this prohi 
 bition is a part of our social compact ; of the fun 
 damental law, as we lawyers call it. Let me 
 read it to you." 
 
 " That is right," said Mr. Limber. " I like to 
 have chapter and verse." 
 
 " Very well, here it is, article first, section 
 tenth of the constitution, the last clause : Nor 
 shall any lottery hereafter be authorized or any 
 sale of lottery tickets allowed within this State" 
 
 " But does that include raffles ? " 
 
60 MRS. LIMBER S RAFFLE. 
 
 " Yes, it does ; the word raffle is only an 
 other name for l lottery, the difference being that, 
 in a lottery, money is paid for the chance of win 
 ning money, and in a raffle, money is paid for the 
 chance of winning some article of more or less 
 value. The word * lottery in the constitution 
 covered both descriptions, and when the Legisla 
 ture came to make laws, to enforce the prohibition 
 of the constitution, it used both words, lottery 
 and c raffle. I will read the law to you present 
 ly, but, just now, let us keep in mind that the 
 provisions of the constitution and the law rest 
 on the conceded moral mischief of the thing. 
 What is condemned is not made wrong by the 
 law, but the law condemns it because it is wrong. 
 So you see that a lottery or a raffle is an immoral 
 and illegal thing, not to be permitted on any 
 pretense whatever, whether to put money into 
 the exchequer of a State, the purse of a gambler, 
 or the treasury of a church. Have 1 made this 
 clear to you ? " 
 
 " Perfectly," said David Limber, " but I must 
 ask one or two more questions : has it ever been 
 decided by the courts that a raffle is wrong and 
 illegal if it is in aid of a good object? That is 
 my wife s strong point. She says that a raffle 
 like hers, for a purely good object, cannot possi- 
 
61 
 
 bly be against good morals or against the law. 
 Has such a case ever come up ? " 
 
 " Certainly it has, and before our highest 
 court. I will tell you how it came about : There 
 was hardly ever a more commendable object in 
 itself than the American Art Union. It was an 
 association devoted to the promotion of the fine 
 arts and the encouragement of American artists. 
 Any one could subscribe, and by paying five dol 
 lars, yearly, become a member. The money was 
 used to maintain a free gallery for the exhibition 
 of works of American artists, to issue to each 
 member a fine engraving every year, and a copy 
 of the Art Journal, published monthly by the 
 association, and to the purchase of original paint 
 ings by American artists. Thus the subscriber 
 received for his five dollars, in the use of the gal 
 lery, in the engraving and the journal, and in the 
 satisfaction he took in the promotion of American 
 art, a full equivalent for his money, and he was 
 interested besides, as a part owner, in all the 
 works of art purchased during the year by the 
 association. At the close of the year, all the 
 pictures were distributed by lot among the mem 
 bers, and each one had a chance of getting a 
 picture worth perhaps fifty, perhaps five hundred 
 dollars, a landscape by Durand, a classic head by 
 5 
 
62 MRS. LIMBER S RAFFLE. 
 
 Gray, or a mountain-dell by Kensett. No won 
 der the Art Union was popular ; its fine gallery 
 on Broadway was a centre of attraction and a 
 new incentive to the pencil of every artist. In 
 1851 no less than thirteen thousand subscribers 
 were enrolled, yielding the handsome sum of six 
 ty-five thousand dollars for the cultivation of 1 
 American art. All of a sudden the statute pro 
 hibiting raffling was set in motion against this 
 praiseworthy association and its philanthropic 
 managers, including one very learned judge, sev 
 eral very learned lawyers, and a number of very 
 eminent citizens, all of whom were arraigned as 
 violators of the law." 
 
 "What became of the case?" asked Mr. 
 Limber, as much interested as if he had been the 
 holder of an Art Union certificate of membership. 
 
 " It went to the Court of Appeals. The Art 
 Union made a brave fight. The ablest counsel 
 pleaded for it ; the good it was doing and the 
 pure motives of its promoters were fully conceded 
 by the court, but there stood the law and the 
 constitution, and the fact that the scheme was 
 wrought out by an appeal to the universal passion 
 of playing at games of chance brought it under 
 the ban. As you like to have chapter and verse, 
 I will take the book which contains the decision, 
 
63 
 
 and read you the very words, so that you may be 
 sure I am not speaking after my own notions, but 
 according to the settled law. Here is what the 
 court say : The prohibition was not aimed at 
 the object for which lotteries had been author 
 ized, but at the particular mode of accomplishing 
 the object. It was founded on the moral princi 
 ple that evil should not be done, that good might 
 follow, and upon the more cogent, practical rea 
 son that the evil consequent on this pernicious 
 kind of gambling greatly overbalanced in the 
 aggregate any good likely to result from it. " 
 
 " But, suppose," said Mr. Limber, " the money 
 contributed to the raffle goes to the good object 
 directly, as to the church in this fair, the chance 
 of winning the prize being merely the instrument 
 or vehicle of an act of benevolence, does that 
 make no difference ? " 
 
 " No, not the least, so long as the chance is 
 the inducement held out to attract the contribu 
 tion. Whoever holds it out sets in motion the 
 evil principle which is the root of gambling and 
 its legion train of vices. To be sure, with many 
 persons it may be a matter of indifference whether 
 they win or lose, and charity may be the ruling 
 motive. But, in reasoning about the matter, we 
 must take human nature as it is, and men and 
 
women as they are, and the chance of winning 
 appeals to a universal passion. Suppose two 
 men sit down to play seven-up, each with fifty 
 dollars in his pocket, and they agree to stake all 
 their money on the game, but whoever wins shall 
 give it all to an orphan asylum. Would these 
 two be any the less gamblers because the result 
 of their game was to benefit the orphan ? If 
 charity was their motive, they could each give 
 fifty dollars without the play ; and if amusement 
 was their object, they could play without the 
 stake. The real zest of the game is in the haz 
 ard." 
 
 " Do you mean to say, then, that all games of 
 chance are wrong ? " 
 
 " By no means. Chance is a proper element 
 of calculation and determination, and using it for 
 amusement is no more wrong than using it in 
 drawing a jury, classifying directors, or distribut 
 ing seats in the House of Representatives ; but 
 to stake money on a chance, whether a cent or 
 a fortune, whether for greed or benevolence, is 
 wrong, because it is the exercise of a natural 
 passion whose tendency is wholly evil, and which, 
 therefore, must be evil in itself." 
 
 " But if it is a natural passion is it possible to 
 prevent its exercise?" 
 
65 
 
 " No," said Mr. Calendar, " it is not possible. 
 The native love of gaming is like the sea, with 
 its mighty under-currents and its resistless tidal 
 forces. All that human law-makers can do is to 
 build breakwaters which may restrain it within 
 some visible bounds, but which do not stay the 
 incessant roll of the waves or hinder the wrecks 
 which strew the shores. But surely all good men 
 and women should join hands to drive the pest 
 of pious gambling from the church ; there, if 
 nowhere else, things evil in themselves ought to 
 be wholly prohibited." 
 
 " I think I see your distinction," said Mr. 
 Limber. " It is the stake that makes the moral 
 mischief. According to this, 1 suppose, card- 
 playing for amusement is innocent, and yet I 
 have never seen a card in your house. This is 
 rather aside from our discussion, but I wish you 
 would tell me why you exclude cards if you don t 
 think it wrong to play cards." 
 
 Mr. Calendar smiled as he replied : " My dear 
 friend, you and I might certainly sit down of an 
 evening and take a hand at whist with Mr. Chan 
 cel or Dr. Flatfoot, just as Archdeacon Paley 
 was fond of doing with his clerical or lay com 
 panions, without breaking any law, human or 
 divine, and we ought to brook no man s meddling 
 
66 
 
 with our right to do so. I know that St. Chrys- 
 ostom denounced play as an invention of the 
 devil, but I believe, with Jeremy Taylor, that so 
 long as the play is not for money, cards are as 
 innocent as push-pin, and, if necessary to assert 
 mj 7 right to such an opinion, I would play cards 
 on my front -porch. We should never permit 
 priest or presbyter to recast the moral law or 
 override the gospel precepts with human prohibi 
 tions. In things not evil in themselves and ser 
 viceable for health, or amusement, or social relax 
 ation, the Bible rule, as I read it, is temperance 
 and not abstinence. And yet, if I am satisfied 
 by experience and observation that cards are such 
 favorite instruments of vice, all the world over, 
 so easily available for the worst uses and so asso 
 ciated with every scene of vile companionship, 
 that I prefer not to admit them to my house, and 
 to choose other forms of amusement for myself 
 and my children, I have certainly the right to do 
 it, though I have no right to impose my pref 
 erence on others. In short, I believe in the 
 law of temperance and the liberty of abstinence. 
 But see, and there is this plain difference between 
 card-playing and raffling, and this may bring us 
 back to our subject, that one may play at cards, 
 so long as he does it for amusement only and in 
 
67 
 
 play-time, without infringing any law of morals ; 
 but raffling is wrong in itself, because it stirs up 
 tlie evil element within us, the love of gaining by 
 chance. It is not a question of the object of the 
 action, but of the character of the action, and, if 
 that is bad, the action must be bad." 
 
 " And yet, while the moral evil must of course 
 have always been the same, how is it that the 
 legal prohibitions are so recent ? Haven t I heard 
 that Union College, and other literary institu 
 tions in this State, were founded or aided by 
 means of lotteries, and the newspapers every day 
 advertise drawings in other States ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ! The American Revolution, a more 
 beneficent enterprise even than Union College, 
 was promoted by a lottery, devised most ingen 
 iously by the same immortal Congress of 1776, 
 which put forth the Declaration of Independence, 
 and, to-day, distressed commonwealths at home 
 and abroad resort to the same shifts. In New 
 York we have grown rich enough and moral 
 enough to shame the venerated signers of 76 or 
 our own legislators of sixty years ago, who jum 
 bled together Union College, Hamilton College, 
 the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the As- 
 bury African Church, and the Historical Society, 
 in one grand conglomerated scheme for a lottery 
 
68 
 
 MRS. LIMBER S RAFFLE. 
 
 for the promotion of literature, and for other pur 
 poses ! And yet, even now, the spirit of 76 is 
 not extinct, and, in practice, our people are quite 
 ready to ignore the constitution, as well as the 
 moral law, and public opinion winks at the 
 offenders." 
 
 " What seems strangest to me," said David 
 Limber, " is that I cannot get my wife, who is, 
 as I verily believe, the best woman alive, to ad 
 mit the bare idea that her raffle may be wrong." 
 
 " My dear Limber, that is simply because 
 raffling belongs to a class of misdeeds, the evil 
 of which must be perceived by induction, and 
 not by intuition. The pure moral instinct, which 
 would be shocked at the staking a dollar on the 
 green cloth of the faro-table, takes no wound 
 when the same dollar goes into the lily-white 
 hand of a Sunday-school teacher, to swell her list 
 of raffle-chances. In reality, the same bad pas 
 sion is appealed to in either case, for different 
 ends, but, to make this apparent, requires a pro 
 cess of reasoning, and no lady patroness of a 
 Charity Fair will endure to have her way blocked 
 by a syllogism. Pure women, with their wits 
 about them, are wonderful detectives of vice, how 
 ever masked, but, under the sway of feeling, 
 they have been arrant law-breakers from Mothei 
 Eve down." 
 
G9 
 
 There was a pause, which Mr. Calendar occu 
 pied in sharpening a lead-pencil to a very fine 
 point, while his client s brows were contracted 
 under the seeming pressure of some inventive 
 idea. At last his face lighted up. 
 
 " You said you would read me the law. I 
 suppose there is some penalty or punishment for 
 breaking it." 
 
 " I meant to have given you chapter and verse 
 of the law, just as I did of the constitution. Here 
 it is on page 665 of the first volume of the Re 
 vised Statutes." 
 
 " Let me hear it," said Mr. Limber, as eagerly 
 intent as if the promised extract were the most 
 entertaining bit of prose ever penned, instead 
 of the two dry sections of the statute which are 
 the hinges whereon our story turns. 
 
 Mr. Calendar, thus urged, read as follows : 
 
 " SECTION 22. No person shall set up or propose any 
 money, goods, chattels or things in action, to be raffled 
 for, or to be distributed by lot or chance, to any per 
 son who shall have paid, or contracted to pay, any 
 valuable consideration for the chance of obtaining such 
 money, goods, or things in action. Any person offend 
 ing against this provision, shall forfeit three times the 
 sum of money, or value of the articles so set up, to 
 gether with the sum of ten dollars, to be recovered bj 
 
70 MRS. 
 
 and in the name of the overseers of the poor of the 
 town where the offense is committed. 
 
 " SECTION 23. No person shall raffle for any sum of 
 money, goods, or things in action, or become inter 
 ested in the distribution of any money, goods or things 
 in action, by lot or chance. Whoever offends against, 
 this provision shall forfeit ten dollars, to be recovered 
 as directed in the preceding section. " 
 
 " Thank you," said Mr. Limber, now wholly 
 at ease, and with an air of conscious mastery. 
 " If I understand it right, the threefold value of 
 the thing set up, and the ten-dollar penalty 
 against everybody who takes a chance, are col 
 lected by the overseers of the poor." 
 
 " So says the statute." 
 
 "And who sets the overseers in motion?" 
 
 " Any one who will turn informer and make 
 a complaint ; but I am quite sure no one in Spin 
 dle will think of setting the dogs of the law on 
 these benevolent ladies, even if they are wrong 
 doers." 
 
 " Can the overseers refuse to act if they are 
 called on to enforce the law ? " 
 
 " Strictly speaking, I suppose not. The law 
 presumes that every public officer is as prompt 
 to do his duty as he is to draw his pay." 
 
 " And the overseers can sue every man and 
 woman and child who has taken a chance ? " 
 
MR. CALENDAR S CODE. 71 
 
 " Yes, for ten dollars each." 
 
 " And they can sue the person putting up the 
 raffle for three times the value of the thing to be 
 raffled for, and ten dollars besides ? " 
 
 " Such is the law." 
 
 " Now, Calendar," said Mr. Limber, rising, 
 " one thing more. I want you to make me a bill 
 for all this advice, and date it to-day and receipt 
 it s for I mean to pay it before I go, and I am go 
 ing now." 
 
 Mr. Limber was evidently in earnest, and the 
 la Nvyer, seeing this, checked the refusal which 
 was rising to his lips, and laughingly said : 
 
 " For the legal part of my advice you may 
 pay, but not for the moral part. When my ad 
 vice is given from the Revised Statutes or from 
 my law-books, or from my own experience or 
 brains, my clients ought to pay, but I can hardly 
 make the Bible a basis for a fee." 
 
 " Perhaps you are not quite as sure of your 
 position on the Bible as you are on the Revised 
 Statutes, else why charge for your law and not 
 for your morals ? " 
 
 " Perhaps, friend Limber, it is because I pre 
 fer to give my clients gratuitously what I think 
 they need the most ! " 
 
 " Then you don t always believe in charity 
 
72 
 
 beginning at home ? " said the manufacturer, un 
 strapping his pocket-book. 
 
 " Take out an X," said Mr. Calendar, while 
 he wrote and dated a receipt, according to Mr. 
 Limber s request. That gentleman examined it 
 carefully, placed it in his pocket-book, and, with 
 a warm hand-shake, took his leave. 
 
 Mr. Calendar resumed his seat at his desk. His 
 pencil, although he had not written a word with 
 it since its last sharpening, seemed to require re 
 newed attention. He devoted himself for some 
 time to the process of giving it the finest im 
 aginable point, with an abstracted energy, which 
 might have served for the cross-examination of 
 the most unwilling witness. All the while he 
 was thinking rapidly. At last he pocketed the 
 pencil, seized a sheet of note-paper, and, taking 
 up the pen which had just traced Mr. Limber s 
 receipt, he wrote as follows : 
 
 SPINDLE, December 10, 18 . 
 Overseers of the Poor of the Town of Spindle. 
 
 GENTLEMEN: I believe that you rely upon me to at 
 tend to any law business which you may have. I am 
 BO situated at present that I may not be able to act 
 for you, and should you require any professional ser 
 vices, allow me to recommend, as a competent and 
 faithful attorney, Mr. Richard Folio, of this village. 
 He studied law with me, and was admitted at the last 
 
73 
 
 General Term. He is a prompt and efficient practi- 
 titioner. Yours truly, 
 
 JOHN CALENDAK. 
 
 Mr. Calendar, having sealed this note, directed 
 it to " Hugh Boulder, Esq., overseer of the poor," 
 and then opened his window and beckoned to 
 his man-of-all-work who was engaged in repair 
 ing a piece of fence hard by. 
 
 " Jacob," said he, " did you see Mr. Limber 
 as he left ray office ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," said the man, touching his hat ; " he 
 stopped and asked me whether Mr. Boulder had 
 got into his new office yet, over the bank, and I 
 told him he had. I saw him moving in yesterday." 
 
 " Very well," said Mr. Calender ; " I want you 
 to take this note to Mr. Boulder s office and if it 
 should reach there as soon as Mr. Limber, or be 
 fore, so much the better. Give it to his clerk and 
 let him deliver it." 
 
 " All right, sir," said Jacob, who was used to 
 Mr. Calendar s explicit orders, which he prided 
 himself on executing to the letter, and he hurried 
 off on his errand. 
 
 The lawyer crossed the snow-covered bit of 
 lawn between his office and his house. Midway 
 he was met by a fair-haired, blue-eyed girl qf sev 
 enteen. . 
 
"Dear papa, I was coming to find you. I 
 want you to take a little sleigh-ride with me ; the 
 pony is at the gate." 
 
 "Bring me some extra wraps and I will venture 
 with you, and, stop a minute, Lillie " as the girl 
 turned to fly toward the house "here is some 
 thing to spend at Mrs. Limber s fair." 
 
 He handed her the ten-dollar note for which 
 he had just receipted to Mr. Limber. 
 
 " Oh, thank you, papa, ever so much" this 
 with a kiss between every two words u I can 
 buy lots of things for Christmas." 
 
 " But, Lillie, not a cent for the raffle." 
 
 " No, papa, I should not have thought of tak 
 ing a chance in it, even if you had not spoken 
 about it." 
 
 " And why not, Lillie ? do you think you could 
 make out that it is wrong." 
 
 " Really, papa, I had not thought anything 
 about the right or wrong of it. I knew verv well 
 that you disapproved of it, and that was enough 
 for me." 
 
 And with another kiss she left his side and 
 ran toward the house. 
 
 Her father followed her with a look of satis 
 fied affection. " After all," he thought, " love is 
 the fulfillment of the law." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE FAIB. 
 
 THE fair was a success. This was the popu 
 lar verdict at an early hour in the day. A light 
 snow-fall, on a well-packed surface, had made the 
 sleighing excellent, and it was all the more enjoy- 
 able because of its novelty. The mercury stood 
 just below the freezing-point, and yet the sun was 
 shining as brightly as if its sole purpose was to 
 contribute all its attractive forces in aid of Mrs. 
 Limber and St. Parvus. 
 
 Spindle took kindly to a holiday in advance 
 of Christmas, and the well-filled tables in the 
 large, square parlors of the Limber mansion, with 
 their pretty-faced and prettily-attired attendants, 
 did not lack for customers. Everything went on 
 well and everybody was pleased. There were 
 no dead-letters in the post-office ; the Sibyls 
 gave out the most flattering oracles and re 
 sponses at the rate of twenty-five cents each ; 
 the gypsies foretold the most auspicious des- 
 
76 
 
 tinies ; the fair Rebeccas dispensed unceasing 
 draughts of lemonade from wells in which there 
 was only too much water ; Punch and Judy 
 out-Punched and out-Judied themselves in ten 
 derness and tragedy ; the conjurer exhibited a 
 cabbage-head in any gentleman s hat; the picture- 
 gallery, wisely ignoring high art, brought the 
 broadest grins to the faces of the visitors ; the 
 flower-girls got the largest prices for the small 
 est bouquets; the refreshment-tent, inclosed in 
 a temporary wooden structure, adjoining the 
 dining-room, and heated with portable stoves, 
 grew warmer as the day advanced, but was al 
 ways chilly enough to provoke unlimited de 
 mands for hot viands and repeated cups of cof 
 fee ; while the decorations of evergreens and 
 flowers and flags, and emblazoned texts and in 
 scriptions inciting to a reckless benevolence, con 
 spired to produce what the worthy rector was 
 pleased to call a happy and symbolical blending 
 of nature, patriotism, and piety. 
 
 Conspicuous on a marble pier-table, in front 
 of a polished mirror, stood Centuria, in all her 
 wondrous finery, and from her satin-slippered feet 
 depended the list of subscribers, duly numbered 
 from 1 to 100. The chances, at a dollar apiece, 
 were taken quite freely, but to fill the roll a little 
 
THE FAIE. 11 
 
 active canvassing was required on the part of the 
 young ladies in charge of the raffle, which was 
 under the general superintendence of Miss Bessie 
 Limber. Every new-comer, especially if he be 
 longed to the not very numerous class of eligi 
 ble young gentlemen who somewhat sparingly 
 adorned society in Spindle, was attacked with an 
 avidity which would have been creditable to a 
 veteran life-insurance agent. Dialogues such as 
 this were frequent: 
 
 " Now, Mr. Diagonal, I declare you must take 
 a chance in the raffle." 
 
 " Thanks, Miss Tarleton, I believe not." 
 " Oh, but you must; we shall never fill it up 
 if you don t." 
 
 " Wait till I come this way again. * 
 " How provoking you are ! that is just an ex 
 cuse to get away. I shall lose you if you go." 
 " I shall lose my money if I stay." 
 " But you will be sure to get this lovely doll, 
 and you know it will be just the thing for your 
 little niece what a darling she is ! " 
 " Oh, I never have any luck." 
 " You never had me to pick you out a lucky 
 number. Now, Mr. Diagonal, I will never, never 
 speak to you again as long as you live and breathe, 
 if you don t ; " and, under the influence of this 
 6 
 
78 
 
 fearful threat, down would go Diagonal s name 
 and his dollar, the helpless victim receiving in re 
 turn a sweet smile and a card containing his num 
 ber. 
 
 The evening brought the gentlemen in full 
 force, and the ladies in fresh costumes. Nothing 
 so brilliant had been seen in Spindle for many a 
 day. Mrs. Limber had worked with a will, and 
 had levied her contributions upon all available 
 sources of supply. Still, in her heart of hearts, 
 she wished the fair well over, and the feeling that 
 she would never no, never undertake another, 
 was beginning gently to steal over her even in 
 the hour of her triumph. She had planned a visit 
 to New York before the holidays, and it was ar 
 ranged that the whole family should leave for the 
 city the day following the fair. The preparations 
 for their departure, and the arrangements for put 
 ting the house in order during their absence, had 
 given Mrs. Limber an added share of labor, and 
 she rejoiced as the evening drew toward its close. 
 There was to be an auction at ten o clock, then 
 the raffle, and all was to end as near eleven as 
 possible. 
 
 This programme had been agreed to in the 
 morning, and an additional motive for rigidly ad 
 hering to it was the presence of the Spindle 
 
THE FAIR. 79 
 
 brass band, which had volunteered to play at in 
 tervals during the evening, and it was only too 
 well known that this tuneful brotherhood had 
 brass enough and wind enough to play all night 
 on the slightest encouragement. 
 
 Prompted by Mrs. Limber, Sam announced, 
 precisely at ten o clock, that an auction-sale of 
 all the unsold goods would forthwith be held, 
 immediately after which the drawing of the raffle 
 would commence, the whole number of shares 
 having been subscribed and the books closed. 
 Upon this, one of those good-humored, good-look 
 ing gentlemen, who always happen to be present 
 on such occasions, gifted with a ready flow of 
 wit and a magnetic voice, mounted the library- 
 steps, and, after the most approved manner of the 
 auction-room, invited the freest competition, pre 
 mising that, as he had been waiting all the even 
 ing for just such an opportunity of saying his 
 best things, the sale would be, on his part, wholly 
 without reserve. 
 
 With such a brilliant auctioneer the sale went 
 on swimmingly. He made more than the usual 
 complement of stale jokes, he dwelt fondly on 
 some articles and knocked down others before 
 they were fairly set up, and bid in several lots for 
 himself, to inspire confidence in his statements of 
 
80 MRS. LIMBER S RAFFLE. 
 
 value, and rejected ten -cent bids with scorn, and 
 finally, under the pressure of circumstances, ac 
 cepted an advance of five cents, and called upon 
 sundry old bachelors to invest in infants ward 
 robes, and recommended smoking-caps to gentle 
 men who never smoked, and shaving-soaps to gen 
 tlemen who never shaved, and wound up by offer 
 ing, to the highest bidder, Mr. Limber s house 
 and furniture, including all the family portraits, 
 with immediate possession ; terms, cash, payable 
 to the auctioneer. In the gaslight and under the 
 evergreens and in the current of good spirits, all 
 this seemed very funny, and the good-humored 
 and good-looking auctioneer had to stop now and 
 then and take breath and wipe his forehead. At 
 last, having cleared the tables, he paused and in 
 quired if there was anything or anybody else he 
 could knock down. 
 
 Here some one suggested that everything 
 was sold, including most of the purchasers. 
 
 Then some one else proposed that the list of 
 subscribers to the rafHe be offered for sale, deliv 
 erable after the drawing. 
 
 " All right," said Sam Liml^er, who, as treas 
 urer, was interested in swelling the receipts by 
 every possible penny, " set it up and sell it on 
 that condition." 
 
THE FAIK. 81 
 
 " Here it goes, then," said the auctioneer, " this 
 unique and valuable list of subscribers, the only 
 one in existence, every name warranted to have 
 been written by the subscriber in person or by 
 his duly-authorized attorney and therefore in 
 valuable to an autograph-collector : what shall I 
 have for it ? " 
 
 " Five dollars," promptly responded a voice 
 in the corner of the room. 
 
 " Five dollars is bid, less than one-half its val 
 ue will you say six then five, seventy-five 
 five, fifty five, twenty-five five, fifteen five, 
 ten five, five are you all done ? going, going, 
 last call, fair warning gone, at five dollars, to 
 whom shall I say ? " 
 
 " Richard Folio," was called out from the 
 corner. 
 
 " What does all this mean ? " said Mrs. Lim 
 ber, who, supposing that the auction was ended, 
 had been giving her attention to something else 
 for the moment. 
 
 " It is Dick Folio," said Mrs. Chancel, who 
 was at her elbow; "he has had the list of sub 
 scribers to the raffle set up at auction and has 
 bid it off for five dollars." 
 
 "He hasn t five dollars to his name," said 
 Mrs. Limber. " He was Mr. Calendar s office-boy 
 
82 
 
 or clerk, and I don t believe he has made a cent 
 since he set up for himself." 
 
 "Perhaps it is his way of advertising. He 
 gets his name before the very best people in 
 Spindle, in connection with the respectable sum 
 of five dollars, attracts attention, makes a sensa 
 tion, and gets himself discussed." 
 
 " I should hardly think any one would stop to 
 discuss Dick Folio." 
 
 " But, my dear, we are discussing him." 
 
 " Well," said Mrs. Limber, " he will never 
 pay the five dollars." 
 
 " But he is paying it now." 
 
 And, sure enough, Mr. Folio was, at this very 
 moment, handing to Sam, in full view of the two 
 ladies, a veritable five-dollar bill of the unim 
 peachable issue of the First National Bank of 
 Spindle. 
 
 " Did you ever 1 " exclaimed Mrs. Limber. 
 She could not tell why, but she felt a shiver of 
 uneasiness, as she saw the transaction closed, to 
 the evident satisfaction of the purchaser. 
 
 There was no time for further remark on this 
 episode, as the drawing of the raffle was about to 
 begin. 
 
 To insure absolute fairness in this important 
 proceeding, two highly - respectable gentlemen 
 
THE FATE. 83 
 
 carefully examined the counters, on which were 
 inscribed the numbers, from 1 to 100, and then 
 deposited them in the bottom of a tall, china 
 vase, after duly inspecting it to ascertain that it 
 was entirely empty. The counters were then 
 well shaken up by the same impartial hands. 
 A very young lady, in white muslin, with bare 
 arms, was then blindfolded, and, after having 
 been turned round several times, to her utter 
 confusion, was led to the vase, into which she 
 was directed to plunge her arm five successive 
 times, and each time to bring up from its depths 
 a single counter, the fifth to be the winning num 
 ber. This fivefold trial of fortune was in order 
 to prolong the excitement of the drawing, and 
 to give the additional zest of showing how tan 
 talizing, as well as capricious, the blind and fickle 
 goddess may be. 
 
 The little bare arm went deftly down into the 
 vase, and brought up the first counter. The 
 brace of respectable gentlemen examined it, and 
 one of them called out the number, and then the 
 good-humored and good-looking auctioneer with 
 the magnetic voice read from the list the name 
 of the owner. This happened to be one of the 
 belles of Spindle, who thereupon received a round 
 of condoling applause. The second name was 
 
84 MRS. LIMBER S BAFFLE. 
 
 that of an elderly maiden lady, who gave a little 
 scream when her name was called, which set 
 everybody laughing, to her great displeasure, as 
 the one thing she never could put up with, under 
 any circumstances, was to be laughed at. There 
 was no time for explanation or apology, as the 
 next name was waited for with an impatience 
 which increased as the drawing progressed. The 
 third name was that of a young gentleman who 
 declared that his chance was guaranteed by the 
 young lady who took his money, so that he didn t 
 care whether he won or lost. The fourth was 
 none other than the good-humore d and good- 
 looking auctioneer himself. This made a hub 
 bub of laughter and applause, during which he 
 pretended to faint, and was brought to by the 
 aid of the parlor-bellows. 
 
 This performance was very exciting, and even 
 Mr. Limber, who was watching it from a remote 
 corner, caught something of the infection and felt 
 a genuine thrill of expectancy as the little bare 
 arm went down for the fifth time, and, in the pro 
 found silence, drew from the vase the lucky num 
 ber. The two respectable gentlemen examined 
 it, and then one of them read it aloud, " Sixty- 
 three" The good-humored and good-looking 
 auctioneer glanced at the list and looked up with 
 
THE FAIK. 85 
 
 a puzzled air. The pause heightened the sus 
 pense. He seemed for the first time a trifle dis 
 concerted, but the writing was plain and so was 
 his duty, and the magnetic voice read " Number 
 /Sixty-three Bridget Looney ! " 
 
 There was dead silence, then a titter and a 
 sudden disappearance of a little group of house 
 maids, who had slyly gathered at the door leading 
 from the butler s pantry into the dining-room 
 and then a general murmer, as if something had 
 gone wrong and a universal grievance had been 
 distributed among the guests. The idea that this 
 name, so wholly unknown to fame and to the 
 select circles of Spindle, was the alias of some 
 lucky subscriber, who had sailed into success 
 under false colors, was freely suggested, while the 
 imputation that Mrs. Limber would permit any 
 one but her guests to compete in the raffle was 
 indignantly rejected. And yet it was a mystery 
 which no one volunteered to solve. Evidently 
 the good-looking auctioneer, with all his humor, 
 had no joke in reserve for such an emergency as 
 this, and he looked a little foolish. Mrs. Lim 
 ber s quick eye had turned at once on Bessie, 
 whose face wore the deep crimson of detected 
 guilt. Sam caught a glimpse of the truth and, 
 with ra^-e presence of mind, signaled the band. 
 
86 
 
 which immediately struck up "Homo, Sweet 
 Home," a loud hint for leave-taking. 
 
 " For once," thought Sam, " a brass band is a 
 blessing." 
 
 Mrs. Limber, whose forebodings were only 
 too clearly defined, drew Bessie into the bay- 
 window of the library. 
 
 " What is the meaning of this ? How in the 
 world did that odious Bridget s name get on the 
 list ? We are all disgraced ! " 
 
 " Dear mamma, it is my fault, but I really 
 could not help it. I will tell you how it was. 
 Bridget came to me the night she left us. I did 
 not know until then that she was to be married, 
 and she reminded me that I had promised her, 
 ever so long ago, and I had, that whenever she 
 was married I would give her a wedding present. 
 Now, Miss Bessie, said she, it is only a little 
 trifling thing I want you to do for me ; your pa 
 and ma have been good to me, and yourself, and 
 it s no present I m asking. I told her, without 
 thinking, that I would do anything I could for 
 her, and she kept saying, l Oh, it s easy enough, 
 and so I pretty much promised her, just as we do 
 sometimes, you know, with the children when 
 they tease. But what is it, Bridget ? I asked 
 her over and over. Then, when she had got the 
 
THE FAIR. 87 
 
 promise, she said : * It is just nothing at all but 
 a chance in your ma s lottery. Of course, then, 
 I told her she must not call it a lottery, and I 
 tried to put her off, and proposed that I would 
 take an extra share in the raffle, and pay for it, 
 and if I drew the prize it should be hers ; but, 
 6 Oh, no, miss, that wouldn t do at all, it must 
 be her own money that pays, and her own name 
 and number, or it wouldn t be no good. Then 
 I said, * Nonsense, Bridget, why waste your mon 
 ey just when you want it ? Never you fret 
 about my money, Miss Bessie, said she, but if 
 you will break your word to a poor girl, and you 
 a fine lady, it s easier breaking than keeping. 
 Now, mamma, what could I do ? What I did 
 was this : Bridget, said I, you are a silly goose, 
 but pick out your number. The number is 
 picked already, said she ; it s Pat s lucky num 
 ber, and a happy wife it will be making me, and 
 it s number 63, it is. I knew there was only 
 one chance in a hundred of her winning, so I 
 kept it to myself, and said nothing to you or to 
 any one else." 
 
 " But I did not see her name on the list. I 
 looked over it only fifteen minutes before the 
 drawing." 
 
 " No. I just wrote taken, opposite the num- 
 
88 
 
 her, and, a few minutes before they put the coun 
 ters in the vase, I wrote the name, * Bridget 
 Looney, in the list. I never supposed that any 
 one would see it or hear of it, and I don t know 
 now what she meant by its being Pat s lucky 
 number and making her a happy wife. She just 
 threw the dollar in my lap and kissed my cheek, 
 and ran off. Dear mamma, are we all rained? 
 I wish I had never heard of the fair, nor the 
 raffle." 
 
 Hysterics were imminent. Mrs. Limber was 
 frightened into comparative self-possession, and 
 she said as quietly and as assuringly as she could : 
 
 " Never mind, Bessie, it is my fault for not 
 telling you what I knew, and putting you on your 
 guard. Bridget has married a bad man, a gam 
 bler who deals in lottery -tickets and everything 
 that is wicked, and I told her plainly she was 
 ruined and lost if she married him, and this is 
 her revenge and his." 
 
 " They would have had no revenge, mamma, 
 if number 63 had not drawn the doll." 
 
 "But number 63 has drawn it," said Mrs. 
 Limber. " No matter, darling ; here comes Mrs. 
 Chancel, and we must not wince even if we are 
 hurt. She knew Bridget, but she never heard 
 of her by her husband s name, and does not mis- 
 
THE FAIR. 89 
 
 trust that it is she who has drawn the French 
 doll. Run and take a breath of fresh air and 
 drink a glass of water, but not too cold, for your 
 blood is all in your face." 
 
 " Pray, my dear Mrs. Limber," said Mrs. Chan 
 cel, in her biting little way, " how long have you 
 known the Looneys, and who is the fortunate 
 Miss Bridget who walks off with Centuria, as 
 Sam calls her?" 
 
 " She seems to be a person who has paid her 
 money," said Mrs. Limber, determined not to be 
 drawn into any explanations, arid putting the best 
 face she could on the catastrophe. 
 
 "Oh! it s a genuine she, then? I thought 
 that perhaps it might be some incognita who had 
 turned Biddy for to-night and stooped to conquer. 
 Is she a princess of Fenia ? " 
 
 " Perhaps she is," said Mrs. Limber, evidently 
 disconcerted and without an arrow in her quiver. 
 
 " You look so very, very tired," said Mrs. 
 Chancel, compassionately, " we ought all of us 
 to go ; and Mr. Chancel is waiting in the cold for 
 me. He was having a good laugh over what he 
 was sure must have been a fictitious or symbolical 
 Bridget, but I must go and stop it. What a pity ! 
 a spoiled joke is so very disagreeable." 
 
 Fortunately, the leave-takings of other and 
 
90 MKS. LIMBER S BAFFLE. 
 
 less satirical guests interposed to cut Mrs. Chan 
 cel short, and their congratulations and good 
 wishes went far toward restoring Mrs. Limber s 
 equanimity. The necessity of giving her final 
 directions for the night and of seeing that some 
 order was brought out of the chaos of the fair, 
 was a more effectual restorative, and she strove 
 to dismiss, for the present at least, the disagree 
 able result of the raffle. 
 
 " Sam, my dear boy," said she, " take the doll 
 and put it with all its belongings in one of those 
 large paper boxes and leave it on the top shelf 
 of my cedar closet ; lock the door and bring me 
 the key. I shall be in my dressing-room. Every 
 thing else here is to be placed in the refreshment- 
 room and disposed of to-morrow. I have sent 
 Bessie to bed, and your father went up-stairs half 
 an hour ago." 
 
 " I wonder what possessed Dick Folio to buy 
 that subscription-list ? " said Sam, as he set about 
 obeying his mother s instructions. " Dick is 
 pretty sharp, and five-dollar bills do not grow on 
 every bush, at least not in a young lawyer s 
 shrubbery." 
 
 When Sam brought the key to his mother, 
 she was closing the blinds of her window, accord 
 ing to her custom, and pausing as she did so for 
 
THE FAIR. 91 
 
 a glance into the cold, dark night. Sam looked 
 out with her upon the quiet village. 
 
 " What is that bright light in the tall window 
 down there?" asked his mother. "It is after 
 half-past twelve, and everybody who has not had 
 a fair in the house ought to be sound asleep." 
 
 " That," said Sam, after a moment s observa 
 tion, " is the printing-office of the Spindle Free 
 booter. They are doing night-work ; very likely 
 setting up some libel against an honest man 
 who is in bed and asleep. Slander is the chief 
 resource of the press, nowadays." 
 
 "That is very true," said Mrs. Limber, ac 
 quiescing easily in Sam s off-hand, midnight de 
 preciation of the greatest of the powers that be ; 
 and she added with a sigh, as she closed the 
 blinds and fastened her window, " Dear me ! what 
 shall we do with these newspapers ? " 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE DAY AFTER THE FAIR. 
 
 IN spite of the fatigues and excitements of 
 the fair, the Limber family assembled in full 
 force at the breakfast-table the next morning. 
 Mrs. Limber and Bessie were unusually quiet, 
 and their appetites were evidently below the or 
 dinary standard. Sam was in unabated spirits, 
 and Mr. Limber, according to his wont, serenely 
 cheerful. 
 
 The door-bell rang. 
 
 " That," said Mrs. Limber, " is the man from 
 Delf s. He was to come early this morning to 
 take away the extra china." 
 
 The man from Delf s proved to be a boy from 
 somewhere else. 
 
 " He is in the hall," said the waiting-maid, 
 " and wants to see Mr. Limber very particular." 
 
 " Let him come in here," said Mr. Limber. 
 
 " And see that he wipes his feet on the out 
 side door-mat, and leaves his cap in the hall," 
 
THE DAT AFTER THE FAIR. 93 
 
 said Mrs. Limber. " But why not let him wait, 
 husband ? you never know what kind of places 
 these boys come out of." 
 
 But the boy was already at the dining-room 
 door. It was plain enough that the place he had 
 come out of was a lawyer s office. He had in his 
 hands a big bundle of papers, unmistakably legal, 
 tied with red tape, and arranged with evident 
 precision ; and he was equipped with a memo 
 randum-book and a pencil. He was a chunky 
 boy, rubicund of hair and face, somewhat belliger 
 ent in his general aspect, and looked as though 
 he might have been, as perhaps he was, the line 
 al descendant of several generations of deputy- 
 sheriffs. A view of his side-pocket disclosed the 
 fact that he had been engaged in eating a large 
 apple, upon which he had temporarily staid pro 
 ceedings in order to attend to the business in 
 hand. 
 
 " David Limber, Martha Limber, Samuel Lim 
 ber, Bessie Limber," said the boy, as if he were 
 calling the roll of the entire family, " I have got 
 summonses and complaints for all of you," and 
 he evidently knew by sight the respective per 
 sons whose names he had pronounced, for he pro 
 ceeded, in the most deliberate manner, to draw 
 certain papers from his bundle and to deliver one 
 V 
 
to Mr. Limber and another to Sam, who was seat 
 ed at his father s left hand. He then crossed, as 
 formally as though he were following a stage di 
 rection, to Mr. Limber s right, and, after a delib 
 erate survey of Bessie, thrust a third paper at 
 her, which he put into her hand without any co 
 operation on her part, very much as packages of 
 prize-candy and other light wares are devolved 
 on unwilling recipients in railway-cars. 
 
 " I would like to know," said the aggressive 
 boy, as the paper fell on Bessie s lap, " whether 
 you are a minor, under the age of fourteen 
 years ? " 
 
 " What an impudent boy 1 " said Bessie, turn 
 ing to her mother. 
 
 " Oh, very well ; if you decline to answer, I 
 will make sure, and serve a copy on your father, 
 mother, or guardian. I ve got plenty of them." 
 
 " Oh, I am over fourteen seventeen last 
 March," cried Bessie, fearing lest she had in 
 volved the family in some new trouble by not 
 telling the whole truth instantly, and yet en 
 tirely unable to comprehend the behavior of her 
 strange interlocutor. 
 
 Mrs. Limber had made up her mind at an early 
 stage of this proceeding that it was in some way 
 connected with the taking of the census, and had 
 
THE DAT AFTER THE FATE. 95 
 
 rather enjoyed Bessie s evident alarm ; but there 
 was something in the tone and manner of this 
 domineering boy which inspired her with a vague 
 dread, as he left Bessie after making a careful 
 note in his memorandum-book, and invaded the 
 side of the table sacred to the breakfast-tray and 
 the coffee-urn, and thrust a fourth paper in the 
 direction of her own proper person. In her re 
 peated experiences of census-takers, she had al 
 ways found them, though of an inquiring turn of 
 mind, very affable in their manners and disposed 
 to deal gently with the subjects of their in 
 quisition so long as they were liberally plied 
 with family statistics. But this disagreeable 
 youth had a malevolent look which roused all her 
 antipathies and apprehensions ; she pushed back 
 her chair, and, spreading out her napkin, as if to 
 guard against the danger of personal contact, 
 gave him what she was in the habit of describing 
 as " one of her looks." All of no avail ; the un- 
 terrified boy would have served process on Medu 
 sa herself. Mrs. Limber receded an inch farther. 
 " How dare you intrude into a gentleman s house 
 and behave in this indecent way ? I will have 
 none of your papers," said she, in her most for 
 bidding tone ; " you must leave the room and the 
 house instantly. Jane, run to the stable and call 
 
96 
 
 Thomas. Mr. Limber, I am amazed that you al 
 low such impudence to go on ; this boy ought to 
 be punished." 
 
 " I ve delivered a copy of the summons and 
 complaint to you personally and left it with you," 
 said the boy, deliberately, as he jerked the paper 
 on Mrs. Limber s napkin ; "and you are known 
 to me to be the person named therein as the de 
 fendant, Martha Limber, and that s good service 
 whether you choose to take hold of the paper or 
 not; that s all, yoif needn t call Thomas, he isn t 
 a defendant. Good-morning," and the boy depart 
 ed, taking an enormous bite of the apple as he 
 left. 
 
 Mrs. Limber sat in silence, with her chair still 
 pushed back from the table, the rejected docu 
 ment at her feet, whither the law of gravitation, 
 to which even the processes of justices courts 
 are subject, had taken it, under the impulse of a 
 little shake of the napkin on which it had lodged. 
 So near an approach to a personal insult she had 
 never experienced as at the hands of this shame 
 less boy, and she was speechless under the shock. 
 
 " I declare," said Sam, who all this time had 
 been busily engaged in reading the document 
 handed to him, and also the one which had been 
 served on his father " I declare this is the coolest 
 
THE DAY AFTER THE FAIR. 97 
 
 thing yet ! There never was anything like it in 
 this world." 
 
 " Sam," said Bessie, " what is it ? Is it any 
 thing dreadful ? " 
 
 " Dreadful ? I guess you will think so 1 It 
 is all about the raffle." 
 
 " Then, don t tell me anything more the 
 very thought of that raffle is perfectly awful. 
 But I suppose I must. Do go on, Sam, tell me 
 all, tell me the very worst oh, why do you keep 
 me in this fearful suspense ? " 
 
 " It is a suit at law," said Sam ; " the over 
 seers of the poor of the town of Spindle have sued 
 papa and mamma in Justice Hazey s court for 
 three hundred and ten dollars. Just hear this, 
 will you it is all printed : it says that the de 
 fendants that s papa and mamma did, hereto 
 fore, on the fifteenth day of December in this 
 present year that s short for yesterday, you 
 see at the village of Spindle, in the town of 
 Spindle, set up and propose a certain chattel, to 
 wit oh, do listen to this ! an image or effigy 
 of the female, human form, composed, as to the 
 head and neck thereof, of wax, and as to the rest, 
 residue, and remainder thereof, of muslin stuifed 
 with bran, sawdust, or other minute particles 
 there s a legal description of a doll for you to 
 
98 
 
 be raffled for to certain persons who then and 
 there respectively paid, or contracted to pay, the 
 sum of one dollar for the chance of obtaining the 
 same, there being in all one hundred chances, and 
 the value of the said chattel so set up being then 
 and there one hundred dollars that s a whop 
 per," said Sam " contrary to the provisions of 
 the Revised Statutes of this State ; wherefore, the 
 said plaintiffs that s the overseers of the poor," 
 added Sam " demand judgment against the said 
 defendants that s papa and mamma, you know 
 for the sum of three hundred dollars, being 
 three times the value of the article so set up 
 I should think it was 4 together with the further 
 sum of ten dollars, making in all three hundred 
 and ten dollars and the costs of this action hol 
 loa ! Richard Folio, plaintiff s attorney. " 
 
 " So, Dick Folio is at the bottom of all this," 
 said Mrs. Limber. How utterly contemptible ! 
 Of course, husband, you will take no notice of 
 it." 
 
 " But dear mamma," interposed Bessie, " why 
 did he make Sam and me take these horrid pa 
 pers?" 
 
 " Wait a minute," said Sam ; " that s only 
 one suit. Now here is another against me, and 
 if your paper is like mine Bessie, I guess there is 
 
THE DAT AFTER THE FAIR. 99 
 
 another against you. Let me read : The over 
 seers of the poor complain of the defendant 
 that s me this time and show that heretofore 
 just the same as in papa s c he raffled for a cer 
 tain chattel, to wit and then it goes on and de 
 scribes Centuria, just the same, bran, sawdust, 
 and all * wherefore they demand judgment for 
 ten dollars and costs Richard Folio, plaintiff s 
 attorney. Now, Bess, yours is identically the 
 same, and they are after you for ten dollars." 
 
 " But I have not got ten dollars," said Bessie. 
 " I spent all my allowance at the fair." 
 
 " Then you will have to go to jail," said Sam, 
 remorselessly. 
 
 " Sister Bessie sha n t go to jail," shrieked 
 little David Limber, aged six, suddenly aroused 
 from his oatmeal-porridge to a sense of the ca 
 lamity impending over the family, and giving a 
 sympathetic howl, and exhibiting incipient symp 
 toms of strangulation. His mother rushed to his 
 rescue, and jerking his arms suddenly over his 
 head a process by which she had saved many 
 infantile lives, and repeatedly entitled herself to 
 the medal of the Humane Society averted the 
 catastrophe. Sam was duly reproved for his 
 heartless remark, and after a penitent disclaimer 
 on his part and a positive assertion that BfeftAU* 
 
100 MRS. LBIBEE S RAFFLE. 
 
 should not go to jail, David was consoled and re 
 sumed his porridge, while his elder brother pur 
 sued his researches into the papers. 
 
 " This thing is all printed," said Sam, " ex 
 cepting the names, and they are written in ; my 
 name is written in mine, and your name in yours. 
 I do believe they have gone and sued every one 
 of the whole hundred subscribers just think of 
 that ! " 
 
 " That is why Dick Folio wanted the sub 
 scription-list," said Bessie, with a sudden access 
 of light. " It was to get the names to write in 
 these frightful summonses, or whatever they are 
 called." 
 
 " No wonder he was willing to bid five dol 
 lars for it," said Sam; " why, he has got a hundred 
 suits for ten dollars apiece, besides this big one 
 against papa and mamma for three hundred and 
 ten dollars, that makes a hundred and one suits 
 in one day. And now, mamma," said Sam, still 
 pushing his discoveries, " don t you recollect we 
 saw the Freebooter office lighted up last night, 
 and wondered what they were doing there ? It 
 is plain as day, now, that they were busy print 
 ing off these very papers, and Dick Folio had 
 only to write the names in from the list. Just 
 think of that boy going all over Spindle this 
 
THE BAY AFTER THE FATE. 101 
 
 morning, eating apples and serving everybody 
 with these papers ! It was mighty smart in Dick 
 Folio, though." 
 
 Mrs. Limber was in a white heat. The truth 
 had slowly dawned upon her. " David," said 
 she, "do you really imagine that all the people 
 who took shares in the raffle are sued for ten 
 dollars a piece by this impertinent Dick Folio ? " 
 
 " So it would seem, my dear," said Mr. Lim 
 ber, who was quietly plodding through his break 
 fast. 
 
 "It is too disgraceful to think of," said Mrs. 
 Limber. "You must put a stop to it immedi 
 ately. Is there no way of having him arrested ? 
 And that boy too ? " 
 
 " Really," said Mr. Limber, " it looks more like 
 his having us arrested." 
 
 " And to think," continued Mrs. Limber, " that 
 this same Richard Folio was once a boy in my 
 Sunday-school class, when he was no bigger than 
 our Davy. Of course, he can never, never cross 
 the threshold of this house again." 
 
 " It is thirteen hundred and ten dollars, all 
 told," said Sam, still absorbed in the legal docu~ 
 ments on which he was making marginal notes 
 and calculations ; " and costs besides in one hun 
 dred and one suits. Now costs are something 
 
 
 TJiri7BE3ITT| 
 
 03T 
 
102 
 
 that you can t calculate. There is no telling 
 what they may run up to." 
 
 "Thirteen hundred and ten dollars," said 
 Bessie, despairingly, "is more than the whole 
 profits of the fair." 
 
 " There is one consolation," said Sam ; " I paid 
 over all the cash, last night, to Mr. Mix, the treas 
 urer, and they cannot stop that : it was twelve 
 hundred and sixteen dollars and one cent. I have 
 got his receipt for it." 
 
 " What on earth have the overseers of the 
 poor got to do with all this ? " demanded Mrs. 
 Limber ; " do they oversee everybody, and do 
 you suppose that Dick Folio has any right to 
 bring them into his impudent schemes ? " 
 
 " I believe," said Mr. Limber, " by the law 
 any one who sets up a thing at a raffle is liable 
 to pay a penalty to the overseers of the poor of 
 three times its value and ten dollars besides, just 
 as Sam has read from the paper, and everybody 
 who takes a chance in the raffle is liable to pay a 
 penalty of ten dollars." 
 
 " What an infamous law ! " said Mrs. Limber, 
 " and then to start it up and set it agoing, be- 
 tweeen night and morning, against respectable 
 people like us, while thieves, and drunkards, and 
 murderers, and burglars, go scot-free ! Who in 
 
THE DAY AFTER THE FATE. 103 
 
 the world would ever suspect that there were 
 any such penalties kept concealed like traps to 
 be sprung upon honest people in their own 
 houses, and at the breakfast-table, and by boys 
 too ? " 
 
 " My dear," said Mr. Limber, " every one is 
 supposed to know the law, and I told you long 
 ago that I believed the raffle was against the law, 
 and I warned you to take care, but you went on, 
 and now it appears that the law is going to be 
 enforced against us. Respectable people are just 
 as good defendants as thieves or drunkards, and 
 at all events those who dance must pay the 
 piper. That s good law." 
 
 " But, papa," interposed Bessie, " why should 
 they sue you, as well as mamma and us ? We 
 had the raffle, and not you. I thought married 
 women had everything separate nowadays. I 
 mean property, and debts, and all that." 
 
 " Yes, Bessie, but a husband still has the 
 privilege of paying for his wife s wrongful acts 
 when they are done in his presence. I learned 
 that when I was on the jury, last winter. If a 
 married lady should, of her own sweet will, but 
 in presence of her husband, bite off the nose of 
 another lady, the law would presume that the 
 biting was his act, and not his wife s, and he, and 
 
104 MES. 
 
 not she, would have to pay the market value of 
 the lost nose. That s what they call the common 
 law, I believe." 
 
 " It seems very uncommon to me," said Bes 
 sie, " but I suppose I don t know anything about 
 it ; but, dear papa, another thing," and here she 
 brightened suddenly, " how can they sue me ? I 
 am only an infant, Sam keeps telling me, and 
 he says I am incapable of making a con 
 tract." 
 
 "So you are," said Sam, "but I never said 
 you were incapable of committing a tort." 
 
 " What in the world is a tort ? " 
 
 "A tort," said Sam, solemnly, u is any naughti 
 ness for which you can be made to pay damages. 
 If you were to hire Jack Rumble s pony and 
 phaeton, to go from here to Shuttleville, he could 
 not sue you for the price, because you are an 
 infant; but if you over-drove the pony, as you 
 probably would, and killed him, that would be a 
 tort, and he could sue you and make you pay 
 damages, just the same as if you were as old as 
 Methusaleh." 
 
 " But, Sam," persisted his sister, " if I am an 
 infant, how can I know the law ? and, besides, in 
 fancy ought to excuse a great deal of tortiness or 
 whatever you call it." * 
 
THE DAY AFTER THE FAIK. 105 
 
 " Oh, we have a legal maxim that disposes of 
 any such plea c malitia supplet cetatim? " 
 
 " And what does that mean ? " 
 
 " It means that, in the eye of the law, the 
 younger you are the worse you are so there s 
 no help for you, Bessie ; you must pawn youi 
 furs and pay up." 
 
 " Our trip to New York may as well be given 
 up," said Mrs. Limber, in a coldly-despairing 
 tone ; " we are doubly disgraced. Last night s 
 experience was bad enough, but this is a hundred 
 times worse. We shall be the talk of the whole 
 town." 
 
 " The trip to New York must not be given 
 up," said Mr. Limber, cheeringly. " We will go 
 as we have arranged, and better there than here. 
 I will put this affair in Mr. Calendar s hands, and 
 it will keep till we come back. Sam, when is the 
 summons returnable? " 
 
 " Monday week, eight days ; this is a justice s 
 court, you see, and the time is short. But we 
 shall be home on Saturday night, and, if old Cal 
 endar doesn t get up some defense, it will be the 
 first time he has failed to do it. Who knows but 
 the law is unconstitutional ? " 
 
 Mr. Limber shook his head. " There is one 
 comfort," said Mrs. Limber, after her husband had 
 
106 
 
 gathered up the papers and taken his departure. 
 " Bridget Looney will have to pay ten dollars as 
 well as the rest." 
 
 " She can well afford it," said Bessie ; " she 
 gets the doll." 
 
 " I did not think of that," said her mother. 
 
 " And besides," said Sam, " she has gone off 
 to parts unknown and can t be served." 
 
 " I did not think of that either," said Mrs. 
 Limber. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PUBLIC OPINION IN SPINDLE. 
 
 THERE was hardly a house in Spindle in 
 which there was not a defendant. If Mr. Rich 
 ard Folio s object was to make a sensation, he 
 certainly had succeeded, and, if it is an advantage 
 to be discussed, he was enjoying it to the fullest 
 extent. Public opinion, with its usual disdain of 
 fact and law, made up its own case. Dick Folio 
 was denounced as a designing scamp of an at 
 torney, whose innocent victims (a rather ignoble 
 army of martyrs) were walking about Spindle, 
 to the number of nearly fivescore, each suffering 
 under the same summons and complaint, and 
 without an available remedy or defense. 
 
 Even those who had taken no chances in the 
 raffle, and who had not been at the fair, were in 
 dignant that so many people should be sued. A 
 hundred actions in a forenoon seemed as great an 
 outrage on the community as a corner in grain or 
 an over-issue of stock. Nothing but a criminal 
 
108 MRS. LIMBER S RAFFLE. 
 
 design on the peace of society could have in 
 volved a whole population in such a sudden and 
 unparalleled vortex of litigation. Some of the 
 more aggressive defendants talked loudly about 
 blackmail, and hinted that, if the grand -jury were 
 in session, a case of conspiracy might be made 
 out and the tables turned on the prosecutors. 
 
 With such voices in the air and on the street- 
 corners, Mr. Folio s personal safety would have 
 been imperilled, had he been within reach. But 
 it happened that he had left Spindle, on a busi 
 ness errand, early the same morning on which 
 he woke up and found himself infamous. After 
 satisfying himself that the raffle-suits were all 
 properly launched, he had gone about his other 
 business, which had been delayed a day for the 
 express purpose of enabling him to attend to 
 this exigent prosecution. Rumors of his sudden 
 unpopularity reached him on his way to the sta 
 tion, in the gray of the dawn, but he had time 
 only to send a hurried line in pencil, by the vigi 
 lant boy, to his clients, the overseers of the poor, 
 committing his injured reputation to their keep 
 ing, before the whistle of the express-train 
 warned him to purchase his ticket and begin his 
 journey. 
 
 Mr. Folio s office was on a prominent part of 
 
PUBLIC OPINION IN SPINDLE. 109 
 
 the main street of Spindle, on the ground-floor, 
 and the door was reached by a single step. 
 During his absence the indefatigable boy kept 
 watch and ward over all his interests and posses- 
 sions. Under Mr. Folio s training he had becomo 
 well versed in the arts, offensive and defensive, 
 belonging to his important though subordinate 
 sphere, and had been specially instructed as to 
 his personal behavior and well drilled in a sort 
 of manual adapted to every emergency of an 
 office-boy who, in his intercourse with chance 
 visitors, might be entertaining clients unawares. 
 
 Toward the close of the afternoon this vigi 
 lant custodian, tired of watching the leisurely 
 snow-storm which was in progress, and having 
 completed a course of light gymnastics, to the 
 detriment of Mr. Folio s office furniture, was 
 quietly engaged in a corner of the room, polishing 
 his shoes. He varied the monotony of this occu 
 pation by eating an apple and conducted the two 
 pursuits, wholly at his ease, discovering no in 
 compatibility between them, except the slight 
 flavor of blacking occasionally imparted" to the 
 fruit. 
 
 While thus engaged he was suddenly inter 
 rupted by an octavo volume, bound in law calf, 
 which described a curve from the table in the 
 8 
 
110 MKS. LIMBER S BAFFLE. 
 
 centre of the room to the side of his head, strik 
 ing it a glancing blow which, without seriously 
 disturbing his equilibrium, roused him to the con 
 sciousness that a visitor required his attention. 
 
 " Holloa ! " shouted the boy, not speaking 
 from the manual, " what do you mean by heaving 
 Blackstone at me, like that?" 
 
 " I wish it was a paving-stone," said the 
 caller, a stout gentleman in a crimson cravat, 
 with a mottled complexion, whom the observant 
 boy immediately recognized as Mr. Bender, a 
 gentleman of sporting proclivities and a perma 
 nent boarder at the Spread-Eagle Hotel, who 
 kept three horses and a dog at Rumble s livery- 
 stable. " Where s your boss ? " 
 
 " Gone to Albany, to the Court cf Appeals," 
 said Mr. Folio s representative, this time accord 
 ing to the letter of the manual. " If there s any 
 word to leave please write it down, and if it s 
 money I ll receipt for it." 
 
 " I called in to punch his head, that s all," 
 said Mr. Bender, turning toward the door. 
 
 " If you ll fix a time I ll put it in his diary, 
 and he ll call and save you the trouble of coming 
 again," said the faithful youth, still adhering to 
 the text of the manual. 
 
 Mr. Bender looked at him with a vengeful 
 
PUBLIC OPINION IN SPINDLE. Ill 
 
 eye. " I say, you must be the young rascal," he 
 bawled out, " who got me out of bed yesterday 
 morning on false pretenses and poked papers at 
 me through the crack of the door, making be 
 lieve it was a telegram." 
 
 "I guess I am," said the boy, keeping the 
 table between himself and the self-disclosed de 
 fendant, with his hand on the inkstand as an 
 available projectile in case of need. " You was 
 the only one out of the whole lot I wasn t sure of, 
 because you look such a heap different when you 
 ain t fixed up. I didn t know but I had waked up 
 your great grandfather and served him by mis 
 take, but you have admitted service and now I m 
 all right." 
 
 Mr. Bender had not been unobservant of the 
 advantage which the inkstand gave to the inter 
 esting and ingenuous lad, and contented himself 
 with casting a withering look upon him, and say 
 ing in a lofty tone with a few familiar maledic 
 tions, that both he and his master had better keep 
 out of his way, especially if he happened to have 
 a horsewhip in his hand ; and so, keeping his eye 
 warily on the inkstand, Mr. Bender backed out 
 of the door. 
 
 He had proceeded along the street about a 
 dozen yards, when he became suddenly conscious 
 
112 
 
 that a well-packed snowball had flattened itself 
 on the nape of his neck, at the summit of the ver 
 tebral column, and was taking a downward course 
 along the same manly portion of his frame. He 
 executed a rapid right-about face, to the infinite 
 amusement of a crowd of schoolboys, who were 
 disporting on the sidewalk in the new-fallen snow, 
 and whom he immediately denounced as the per 
 petrators of this gross personal outrage. They 
 shouted a chorus of denial, and were unanimous 
 in attributing it, by significant gestures, to an 
 elderly gentleman with an umbrella and a carpet 
 bag, who was making his way along the slippery 
 pavement near Mr. Folio s office with great dif 
 ficulty. Mr. Bender instantly and profanely re 
 jected this glacial theory. After a moment of 
 hesitation and with a spasmodic effort, only par 
 tially successful, to rid himself of so much of the 
 snowball as remained accessible on the top of 
 his collar, he retraced his steps in the direction 
 of Mr. Folio s office, to find, on reaching it, the 
 door securely locked, and the legend conspicu 
 ous on the outside " Gone to supper." 
 
 The next morning public opinion faced about, 
 as rapidly as Mr. Bender had done. The Spindle 
 Freebooter made its weekly appearance on that 
 day, and in a conspicuous column appeared the 
 following : 
 
PUBLIC OPINION IN SPINDLE. 113 
 
 " CAED TO THE PUBLIC. The overseers of the poor 
 of the town of Spindle think it proper, in the ahsence 
 of their attorney, Mr. Richard Folio, to state that the 
 suits brought hy them against the parties concerned in 
 the recent raffle wero not, in any manner, directly or 
 indirectly, instigated or set on foot hy that gentleman. 
 On the contrary, Mr. Folio had no knowledge of the 
 subject until he was employed as the attorney of the 
 overseers, who are solely responsible for the prosecution 
 of the suits, and who intend to enforce the law. 
 HUGH BOULDEE, 
 
 Overseer, for Self and Associates" 
 
 Mr. Boulder was a well-known contractor who 
 had built most of the roads radiating from Spin 
 dle Court-House, and bridged all the streams in 
 the town. He stood over six feet in his stockings, 
 arid reckoned his weight by the stone instead of 
 the pound. At convivial gatherings he was ac 
 customed to break pokers over his arm, and at 
 primary meetings he was relied upon to preserve 
 harmony by putting refractory delegates out of 
 the most convenient window. A card from such 
 a source carried conviction. Besides its intrinsic 
 weight, it was aided by a brief editorial comment 
 at the foot. The editor of the Freebooter had put 
 his paper to press with a naming editorial, re 
 flecting public sentiment in the convex mirror of 
 
1H 
 
 journalism, with the flagrant heading, "BLUE 
 LAW IN SPINDLE. Have we a Blackmailer among 
 us ? " But Mr. Boulder s opportune appearance, 
 with his official card, accompanied by an adver 
 tisement for certain proposals for building, signed 
 by the overseers, immediately metamorphosed the 
 Freebooter into an organ for the prosecution. 
 The projected editorial was suppressed, and the 
 press stopped to replace it with the overseers 
 card and the following paragraph double lead 
 ed: 
 
 " The above official announcement will effect 
 ually annihilate any disparaging and unfounded 
 rumors reflecting upon our esteemed fellow-citi 
 zen, Mr. Richard Folio, who is universally re 
 spected as one of the brightest luminaries of the 
 Spindle bar. It also sheds new lustre on our dis 
 tinguished overseers of the poor. Spindle is a 
 law-abiding community. While, as a manufact 
 uring centre, we claim that the primary object of 
 all law is the protection of home industry, we 
 concede that incidental protection to the public 
 morals is properly within its province. Let the 
 avenging bolts fall where they may, the Free 
 hooter stands immovably on the ancient maxim, 
 Fiat justitia, ruat coelum ! " 
 
 A copy of the Freebooter found its way, with 
 
PUBLIC OPINION IN SPINDLE. 115 
 
 Mr. Limber s letters, to his hotel in New York. 
 It contained, in addition to the important matter 
 we have already extracted from its columns, an 
 elaborate description of the fair, in a style more 
 worthy of the genius and gallantry of the metro 
 politan press than of a rural sheet, and discreetly 
 free from any allusion to the raffle. The compli 
 ments showered on the lady managers were pro 
 fuse, and Mrs. Limber perused the article with a 
 sense of relief and satisfaction. But the card 
 of the overseers failed to convince her of Dick 
 Folio s innocence. She tersely remarked in ref 
 erence to it that " you couldn t believe anything 
 you saw in a newspaper." This, it is true, was 
 immediately, after she had indorsed the article 
 touching the fair as thoroughly accurate, but this 
 slight inconsistency gave her no trouble. If any 
 body else was imposed upon, she was not, and if 
 she was certain of anything it was that the hun 
 dred-headed hydra of litigation which was de 
 vastating Spindle had been warmed into life by 
 the cupidity and malevolence of greedy Dick 
 Folio. 
 
 Bessie, who was bent on having "a good 
 time " in New York, even if, on her return home, 
 she was to go straight from the station to the 
 Spindle jail, read the account of the fair with 
 
 J> f * * 
 
 
 
116 
 
 sparkling eyes, and fully accepted Mr. Folio s 
 vindication at the hands of the overseers. 
 
 " I never thought for a moment Dick would 
 do anything mean," she said ; " but, dear Sam, 
 what does fiat justitia, mat something, mean?" 
 
 "It means," said Sam, "that, when the sky 
 falls, the lawyers will catch all the larks." 
 
 There was still another and less conspicuous 
 paragraph in the Freebooter which escaped the 
 notice of Mrs. Limber and the young people, but 
 which, later in the day, and when alone in his 
 parlor, Mr. Limber read with a quiet satisfaction. 
 It ran thus : 
 
 " We call attention to the advertisement, 
 in another column, of the overseers of the poor, 
 for proposals for building a hospital-wing. It 
 is to be erected at once, and we have the very 
 best authority for saying that the expense is 
 already provided for without calling upon the 
 tax-pa} r ers. At this Christmas season, such an 
 announcement is specially timely and gratify- 
 ing." 
 
 As Mr. Limber cut this editorial notice from 
 the newspaper, and then looked up the adver 
 tisement to which it referred, and cut that also 
 from another page, and folded both away in his 
 pocket-book, he seemed well pleased. His in- 
 
PUBLIC OPINION IN SPINDLE. 117 
 
 ventive expression pervaded his face, and gave it 
 a bright and satisfied air. 
 
 " So far, so good," was his brief soliloquy, 
 and he went to his dinner with a complacent 
 smile and a good appetite. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FIAT JUSTITI A. 
 
 JUSTICE HAZEY S court-room had never be 
 fore been so thronged as on the return-day of 
 the " raffle-suits," as they had come to be popu 
 larly designated. The first resentments had sub 
 sided ; misery loves company, and the great ma 
 jority of the defendants were reconciled to a 
 calamity in which there was so large and respect 
 able a companionship. It was generally under 
 stood that Mr. Calendar would represent Mr. 
 Limber, the chief victim of the prosecution, and, 
 as he was sued for the considerable sum of three 
 hundred dollars, it was expected that all the re 
 sources of the law would be availed of in his be 
 half. He was known to be a good fighter, and 
 to have succeeded in all his patent-suits. Every 
 defense interposed by Mr. Limber would, of 
 course, inure to the benefit of the other defend 
 ants, of whom there were ninety-and-nine, process 
 having been served on every one of the subscrib- 
 
FIAT JUSTITIA. 119 
 
 ers to the raffle, with the single exception of 
 Bridget Looney, who was enjoying her honey 
 moon beyond the jurisdiction of the Spindle jus 
 tice. There was a natural desire on the part of 
 the ninety-and-nine that Mr. Limber s should be 
 made a test-case, to be carried through all the 
 courts of the State, at his individual expense and 
 risk, and, if possible, to the Supreme Court of 
 the United States at Washington, a distant and 
 dimly-comprehended tribunal which disappointed 
 suitors in State courts are very apt to imagine 
 would redress all their wrongs, could it once get 
 cognizance of them on appeal. 
 
 Besides the parties immediately concerned, 
 a large body of spectators had gathered in the 
 court-room village loungers and do-nothings, 
 old vagabonds who came to court every day, in 
 winter to keep warm at the expense of the town 
 a crowd of young people, anxious to see how 
 their impleaded acquaintances would figure as 
 violators of the law and a respectable number 
 of elderly gentlemen, who sustained the action 
 of the overseers in the interest of a strict moral 
 ity. In addition to these, the legal profession 
 was represented by every one in and around 
 Spindle who had any connection with the prac 
 tice of the law, a collection of worthies for whom 
 
120 
 
 nothing could be more attractive than the nov 
 elty of a hundred suits, and the prospect of a 
 hundred trials. 
 
 Mr. Limber and Mr. Calendar were among 
 the earliest comers. Mr. Folio, with his papers 
 in good order, was seated at the table in front of 
 the justice s desk. Behind him waited the in 
 dispensable and now historic boy, furtively en 
 joying a large pippin, and eying the numerous de 
 fendants grouped about him, with the keen satis 
 faction of a sportsman who has bagged his game. 
 
 Sam and Bessie were ensconced in a distant 
 corner, trying to look perfectly innocent and un 
 concerned. Their mother, whose return to Spin 
 dle had revived her earlier sense of mortification, 
 had begged Bessie to remain at home with her, 
 feeling that a stigma rested on the fair name of 
 Limber, which the proceedings in court might 
 deepen into an ineffaceable brand. But Bessie s 
 curiosity was stronger than her mother s fears, 
 and Mrs. Limber finally yielded, parting with 
 her, as Bessie said, as if she were on her way to 
 the block. 
 
 The justice had never before been over 
 whelmed with so large a docket or such an array 
 of parties. He had begun life as a blacksmith, 
 and in his experience at the forge, having never 
 
FIAT JTJSTITIA. 121 
 
 known a horse brought to he shod which did not 
 require shoeing, he assumed, on the bench, that 
 no plaintiff came into court who was not entitled 
 to relief. Accordingly, he administered the law 
 oy the universal application of the single, simple 
 principle that judgment must be given in favor 
 of every plaintiff and against every defendant. 
 This rule was ordinarily most easy of enforce 
 ment, but now he was sorely puzzled. Here was 
 but one set of plaintiffs and a hundred defend 
 ants ; his term of office was about to expire, and 
 he was a candidate for reelection. He took his 
 seat, quite willing that there should be a post 
 ponement, and half inclined to exercise the right 
 which the law gave him, of adjourning the case 
 for eight days, without reference to the wishes 
 of the parties. Nevertheless, being a somewhat 
 pungnacious justice, he showed no signs of 
 alarm, and looked as learned as Lord Mansfield, 
 while he called the first case, " The Overseers of 
 the Poor of the Town of Spindle against David 
 Limber and wife." 
 
 No adjournment was asked for. Both sides 
 were apparently ready, and the perplexity of the 
 justice was momentarily increasing, when Mr. 
 Calendar rose, with his most forensic air, and 
 pronounced the opening formula of " May it 
 
122 MRS. LIMBER S RAFFLE. 
 
 please the court," with as much suavity and 
 gravity as if he had been addressing the Court 
 of Appeals. There was something in his tone 
 and manner which inspired half the defendants 
 with the hope that the overseers and Dick Folio 
 were to be demolished at a single blow. A dim 
 foreboding crossed the mind of the aggressive 
 boy, and he lingered on his apple with a vague 
 sense of terror. Mr. Calendar seemed to enjoy 
 the sensation he was making, and dwelt upon 
 his words. At last he proceeded : 
 
 " It appears, your honor, that the plaintiffs, 
 the overseers of the poor, besides serving the 
 summons in this case, which was all the law re 
 quired, have furnished the defendants with a copy 
 of the complaint. This they were not obliged 
 to do, but I presume there is no objection to it, 
 and it fully apprizes us of the claim of the over 
 seers, so that we could answer at once, if it were 
 necessary to answer at all. But I think there 
 is a fatal defect in the proceedings, and that, 
 owing to this defect, neither my clients nor any one 
 of these numerous defendants is properly in court." 
 
 " Dear Sam," whispered Bessie to her brother, 
 " how can Mr. Calendar tell such a fib ? We are 
 defendants, and we are in court, and so are all 
 the others." 
 
FIAT JUSTITIA. 123 
 
 " He means, Bess, that we are not in court in 
 the eye of the law." 
 
 " The law must be dreadfully near-sighted," 
 said Bessie, very much puzzled, " not to be able 
 to see its own court-room full of defendants ; but 
 perhaps I know now why Justice is always 
 painted blindfold." 
 
 "The statute," said Mr. Calendar, after a 
 pause, and measuring his words with even more 
 solemnity than at the outset of his remarks, " re 
 quires that the summons shall be served by a 
 constable, but provides that the justice may, 
 when he deems it expedient, upon the request of 
 a party, by a written authority endorsed on the 
 summons, empower any proper person, being of 
 lawful age, and not a party in interest, to make 
 the service. Now, I see, by looking at the sum 
 mons, that your honor did, at the plaintiff s re 
 quest, depute a person who is not a constable 
 to serve it, and I am informed that this person is 
 not of lawful age, but is in fact a " here Mr. 
 Calendar paused again to give due emphasis to 
 his final word " a boy ! " 
 
 " How do I know that, Squire Calendar ? " 
 said the justice ; " the summons is here, and the 
 return is on to it, and it shows good service on 
 its face." 
 
124: MRS. 
 
 " I believe the boy is in court," said Mr, Cal 
 endar, " and I might say that he shows bad ser 
 vice on his face, for it is a very juvenile one ; 
 but, if the fact must be proved, as I suppose it 
 must be, we will prove it. There can be no diffi 
 culty in showing who served the paper." 
 
 " I will swear to the boy ! " called out a sten 
 torian voice, in the outer edge of the crowd, near 
 the door of the court-room. 
 
 <; Silence!" shouted the justice; "this isn t 
 town-meeting." 
 
 " Sam," whispered Bessie, " what horrid man 
 is that who called out to the judge ? " 
 
 " It is Mr. Bender," said Sam, " and it will be 
 hard enough to silence him if he once begins to 
 talk ; but don t speak, just now, Bessie I want 
 to hear what will come next." 
 
 " We will prove," said Mr. Calendar, " that 
 the service of the summons and complaint was, 
 in every instance, made by this boy, unless the 
 fact is admitted, and we will follow it up by prov 
 ing that he is not twenty-one years of age." 
 
 " You can t do it, squire," said the justice ; 
 " that dodge has been tried before now, and it 
 won t work. No defendant has ever been able to 
 make out that that boy is under twenty-one." 
 
 " But has any one ever been able to make out 
 
FIAT JUSTITIA. 125 
 
 that he is over twenty-one ? " asked Mr. Calen 
 dar. 
 
 " That ain t the pint, squire," said the jus 
 tice ; "I take it the law presumes everyone to 
 be of lawful age until the contrary appears, and 
 the contrary doesn t appear. The court knows 
 this boy, and his uncle being the constable and 
 having but one leg, he can t serve summonses 
 when there s any call to be spry, so this here boy 
 is deputized, and he does it, and it s the law of 
 this court that he is of lawful age, and that makes 
 it lawful ; and what s more, Squire Calendar, as I 
 have to tell them that practises here, which you 
 don t, a defendant in this court who has got a 
 defense had better put it in, and not go fooling 
 round on technicalities. If you are into a court, 
 what odds does it make how you got into it ? 
 So jine issue, squire, if you are going to jine, 
 and if not I ll enter judgment." 
 
 " Very well," said Mr. Calendar, good-natured 
 ly, " if such is the law of the court, I must bow 
 to it, and all I can do is to put in a written plea 
 to the jurisdiction; alleging the fact that the 
 summons was served by a minor, and then I will 
 offer to prove the fact. This will save all our 
 rights on appeal." 
 
 He sat down to prepare the plea. The silence 
 9 
 
126 MRS. LIMBER S RAFFLE. 
 
 which followed for a moment was broken bv a 
 crimson-nosed, irascible old lawyer, long since re 
 tired from practice, who had hobbled into the 
 court-room and seated himself close to the bench, 
 determined to enjoy the legal tilt to the utmost 
 of his capacity. Mr. Calendar s plea to the juris 
 diction delighted him ; and he turned to the jus 
 tice and growled out his satisfaction. 
 
 " Calendar has got you, judge; there will be 
 a venire de novo sure." 
 
 " Sam, Sam," said Bessie, shocked at an inter 
 ruption which the justice disregarded ; " what is 
 that awful old man saying ; is it any thing disre 
 spectful to papa ? " 
 
 " No," said Sam, " it is something disrespect 
 ful to Justice Hazey." 
 
 " Well, do tell me what venire de something 
 means. Oh, dear 1 I wish I wasn t so ignorant. * 
 
 "It means a rap over the knuckles by a 
 higher court to a lower court, and that is what 
 lower courts are getting all the time, and what 
 old red nose there thinks this court will get, and 
 so do L" 
 
 " What a queer queer thing law is 1 " solilo 
 quized Bessie. 
 
 But Justice Hazey s court was not doomed to 
 experience the predicted rap over the knuckles. 
 
 
FIAT JTJ8TITIA. 127 
 
 Mr. Limber had interrupted the preparation of 
 Mr. Calendar s plea by a hurried whisper, and, 
 after a brief consultation with his client, the law 
 yer quietly dropped his pen, and, without rising, 
 said to the justice that Mr. Limber preferred to 
 raise no question as to the service. He would 
 therefore waive that point and put in a general 
 denial, and let the overseers of the poor produce 
 their witnesses, and prove their case, if they could. 
 He should be very glad to have them show, by 
 competent testimony, the actual value of the 
 bran and sawdust, and other particles which 
 figured so largely in the complaint, and, in order 
 to relieve his honor from the responsibility of 
 deciding so difficult a question of fact, he de 
 manded a jury. 
 
 The testy old lawyer was thoroughly dis 
 gusted at this sudden extinction of Mr. Calen 
 dar s plea. 
 
 " Why, Calendar, what a fool you are ! Why 
 don t you go to the country, without waiving 
 your plea to the jurisdiction ? " 
 
 " Dear Sam," said Bessie, trembling with 
 alarm, " is that old man crazy ? He is talking in 
 the wildest way ; what does he mean by telling 
 Mr. Calendar to go to the country, when he and 
 all of us are in the country now ? " 
 
128 MRS. LIMBER S BAFFLE. 
 
 "Going to the country, Bess, is a law-term 
 for submitting a case to a jury." 
 
 " That is the queerest thing yet," said Bes 
 sie ; " why do they call it going to the coun 
 try?" 
 
 " Because," said Sam, " when your case goes 
 to a jury, you are literally c all abroad. " 
 
 " If you want a jury, Squire Calendar," said 
 the justice, proud of his triumph, but very glad 
 of the opportunity of getting rid of the case for 
 the present, " I will summon one, and the case 
 will stand adjourned to this day week." 
 
 But Mr. Limber again whispered to Mr. Cal 
 endar, and with increased earnestness of manner. 
 After a few minutes delay, Mr. Calendar rose 
 and said, with his imperturbable smile, that how 
 ever perfect his defense in law and in fact, he 
 was of course bound to obey implicitly his client s 
 instructions, and these were to waive a jury, and 
 indeed to waive every defense. " Mr. Limber," 
 he continued, " declines to contest the suit, and 
 desires me to say, that he admits all the facts 
 stated in the complaint, and is ready to pay the 
 penalty, or, rather, the sum of two hundred dol 
 lars the largest sum for which the justice could 
 give judgment." 
 
 There was a general movement and murmur 
 
FIAT JUSTITIA. 129 
 
 of surprise. The relieved boy took a big bite of 
 his apple. Justice Hazey, with great alacrity, 
 wrote " Settled," in large letters on the summons, 
 while the abusive old lawyer growled out : 
 
 " What a pack of fools I why, Calendar, that s 
 afelo de se" 
 
 " Sam, dear," said Bessie, " what is a felo de 
 se?" 
 
 " A fellow who commits suicide, and that is 
 what papa has gone and done," replied Sam, who 
 could not conceal his disappointment and chagrin 
 at this unexpected surrender to the enemy. 
 
 " O Sam, what do you mean ? " 
 
 " I mean he has cut his own throat, but figura 
 tively, Bess, of course don t start so you can 
 see he is bleeding now." 
 
 " Oh, if you mean papa is paying the money, 
 I understand it ; dear me, if paying will only end 
 this dreadful law business, I shall be only too 
 happy. But, Sam, what is Dick Folio going to 
 do now?" 
 
 Dick Folio was going to do a very popular 
 thing. As Mr. Limber counted out the two hun 
 dred dollars, he rose and said that of course this 
 prompt settlement ended the case against Mr. 
 Limber, and no judgment need be entered ; so 
 far as the costs were concerned, he preferred to 
 
130 
 
 waive them. Then, raising his voice, and locking 
 round upon the audience, he added that he was 
 prepared to do the same in every case in which 
 the defendant would pay the penalty. The cost 
 of printing the papers he should wish to collect, 
 as the Freebooter office had kept its men at work 
 nearly all night, and this expense, though not 
 taxable, ought to be provided for, but, bej T ond 
 this actual outlay, he would relinquish all the 
 costs if, by so doing, he could, at a personal sac 
 rifice, aid in bringing an unpleasant matter to a 
 satisfactory conclusion." 
 
 The general effect of this little speech was 
 very favorable, but the irate old lawyer was now 
 trebly disgusted. 
 
 " Why, Folio, I thought you had some sense. 
 "What a goose you are to throw away your costs 1 
 You ought to be thrown over the bar. It s five 
 dollars by statute in every case, and an execution 
 against the person ; you can have the money, or 
 a cepi corpus, sure." 
 
 " Dear, dear, Sam ! " whispered Bessie, now 
 thoroughly alarmed, " who is cepi corpus is it 
 law Latin for undertaker, and will Dick Folio be 
 killed if they throw him over the bar ; is it a very 
 high bar? O Sam, Sam, I shall die if I stay 
 here any longer." 
 
FIAT JU8TITIA. 131 
 
 " Cepi corpus" said Sam, laughing, " isn t a 
 person, though old Sheriff Pounder thought so, 
 and used to say that he had searched all through 
 the county for him ever since he was sheriff, with 
 out finding him anywhere. It means bail or jail, 
 and perhaps jail anyhow." 
 
 " What gibberish you talk I but about throw 
 ing Dick Folio over the bar, or whatever it is, 
 will he be hurt?" 
 
 "No, no, Bess, that s all metaphorical. A 
 lawyer is thrown over the bar when he gets too 
 wicked to practise in court with all the other 
 lawyers." 
 
 " I should hardly think any one could ever get 
 so wicked as that," said Bessie, very innocently. 
 
 By this time the two hundred dollars had been 
 paid and receipted for, and Justice Hazey was 
 beginning to be in mortal fear lest he should 
 have something to decide in the next case, when 
 Mr. Calendar again took the floor and begged to 
 express his appreciation of the liberal and gener 
 ous offer of his learned young friend Mr. Folio, 
 and to say further that while " All s well that 
 ends well " was not exactly a legal maxim, unless 
 indeed Lord Bacon, and not Shakespeare, was 
 entitled to the credit of originating it, it rarely 
 received a happier application than when lawsuits 
 
132 MKS. LIMBER S BAFFLE. 
 
 were settled and lawyers dispensed with. Hav 
 ing finished this little preface, Mr. Calendar went 
 oti to say that he had great satisfaction in an 
 nouncing the further instructions lie had just re 
 ceived from his client, Mr. Limber, who proposed, 
 as the penalties for which the other ninety-nine 
 defendants were sued, were all incurred at his 
 own house, and in the course of an entertainment 
 intended to contribute only to the pleasure of 
 those who participated in it, to pay the penalty 
 himself in every case, together with the expense 
 of printing to which Mr. Folio had alluded, and 
 he was ready to pay the money on the spot. 
 
 There was a general burst of applause. In 
 wardly, Justice Hazey was delighted, and visions 
 of a third term floated before his fancy. Out 
 wardly, he hammered on his desk, and reminded 
 his audience again that they were in a court 
 room, and not at a town-meeting. The abusive 
 old lawyer was in a fourfold rage. 
 
 " Why, Limber, you are the biggest fool in 
 Spindle. Do you want me to sue out a writ de 
 lunatico f " 
 
 " Sam," said Bessie, with fresh alarm, " what 
 under the sun is a writ de lunatico f " 
 
 " It is a way the courts have of writing a man 
 down an ass at the request of his friends and rela- 
 
FIAT JUSTITIA. 133 
 
 tives, but which old red-nose there seems to think 
 papa lias done without any assistance." 
 
 " I wish they would take the old wretch out 
 of the court-room ; he is a perfect torment. But, 
 Sam, who is this that is going to speak now. I 
 declare if it isn t Mr. Bender." 
 
 It was indeed Mr. Bender, who, upon the con 
 clusion of Mr. Calendar s remarks, had forced his 
 way from a position near the door, where, in 
 company with a friend, he was obscurely nursing 
 a newly-lighted cigar, to the table in front of the 
 justice. He was evidently greatly excited, and 
 not a little embarrassed ; but he was bent on dis 
 charging his mind. Mr. Calendar and Mr. Folio 
 politely made way for him, while the boy silently 
 stole away at his approach, and took a safe posi 
 tion on the side of the table nearest the justice, 
 with his eye on the inkstand, and his heart, as 
 well as his apple, in his mouth. 
 
 " Judge your honor " said Mr. Bender, " I 
 am entered here, so to speak, as a defendant, arid 
 and it is my intention to come to time as always 
 when called." Here Mr. Bender deposited his 
 hat and gloves and cigar on the table with great 
 deliberation, also his cane; after doing which, 
 he divested himself of his overcoat, adjusted 
 his crimson necktie, and continued as follows : 
 
134 
 
 " I suppose, judge your honor fair play is 
 a jewel, even if you are in a court-room, and 
 whatever is rulable I abide by, and the referee s 
 decision, or judge s, or umpire s, as the case may 
 be, all of which your honor is or are, so to speak 
 and I did suppose and others as this being a 
 general entry of all weights and ages against the 
 overseers, we would pool our pleas or defenses, 
 so to speak which your honor well understands 
 though not exactly expressed in legal forms but 
 while waiting for the call and ready for a fair 
 start here comes Mr. Limber and pays forfeit, 
 and, so to speak, withdraws the whole ninety- 
 and-nine entries, colts, fillies, and all, and the 
 overseers not so much as called, and optional with 
 them to walk over the course. Now the ring is 
 the same as the turf: if a man s seconds or backers 
 throw up the sponge, all right ; but so long as he 
 comes to the scratch and time not up, the same 
 as I and other defendants here, there is no such 
 thing as giving the stakes to the other side, and 
 what we want, judge your honor so to speak 
 is to throw up our own sponges when whipped 
 and not before, and not to be jockeyed out of our 
 defenses. Now, judge, I put into the raffle, 
 which I believe was drawn regular and on the 
 square, not being present myself, but a friend 
 
FIAT JUSTITIA. 135 
 
 took it in my name, likewise in his own, in aid of 
 charity also persuaded by a young lady but 
 seemingly some one has gone back on us, age and 
 weight unknown and now comes the poor over 
 seers and say it s all against the law which we 
 supposed as between man and man and the com 
 munity in general was so to speak a dead 
 letter, but says you the Revived Statues have 
 brought it to life and set it a-going supposing 
 it can be set a-going by boys which Mr. Calen 
 dar says it cannot being infants, but Mr. Limber 
 waives the boy ; so then if I have had my chance 
 in the raffle and the consequence is I must cover 
 my card here, so to speak, with ten dollars, why, 
 judge, your honor, it s my own ten dollars I want 
 to pay and not another man s, and if it comes to 
 that let each one pay his own score, say I, and 
 pay it in cash, and if it goes to the poor where s 
 the odds?" 
 
 Here Mr. Bender stopped short, and sat down 
 suddenly, in the seat vacated by the wary boy, in 
 the midst of a burst of applause which the jus 
 tice vainly tried to hammer into silence. Mr. 
 Bender s speech had proved a word in season, 
 whether fitly spoken or not. It turned the tide 
 of public opinion, and gave a new impulse to the 
 ninety-nine who hitherto had thought only of 
 
136 
 
 avoiding their liability. Defendants who had 
 come to plead now wanted to remain to pay. 
 The doctrine that every man should pay his own 
 score, and pay it in cash, so forcibly put by Mr. 
 Bender, was accepted as heartily as if it had 
 been a new discovery instead of an old truth set 
 in a new light. 
 
 But now David Limber was on his feet again, 
 waving his hand in a deprecatory way, and evi 
 dently meaning to be heard. He was not a man 
 of fluent speech, but, knowing what he wanted, 
 and being bent on carrying his point, he was as 
 good an orator for the occasion as ever Brutus 
 was, or Mark Antony, or even Mr. Bender. 
 
 " My friends," said he, quite forgetting that 
 whoever was entitled to the last word, Justice 
 Hazey was entitled to the first, " I agree with 
 Mr. Bender that every one should pay his own 
 score, and the reason why I insist on paying all 
 these penalties is simply that they are my score, 
 and no other man s. As Mr. Calendar has said, 
 the raffle was in my house, and you were all 
 there on my invitation. Now, in old times, as 
 we have read in books, and perhaps some one 
 here, m his younger days, may have seen, when, 
 late at night, a party of good fellows would lock 
 the doors and drink their toasts, they had a wild 
 
FIAT JUSTITIA. 137 
 
 way of throwing their glasses over their shoul 
 ders and letting them break on the floor. I don t 
 believe any of them got a bill next day from 
 their host for broken glass. Now, you came to 
 my house to have a merry time, and it seems 
 while you were there you broke the law. Well, 
 that s my affair, not yours, the same as if I had 
 set you at a game of blind-nxan s-buff instead of 
 the raffle, and you had run against a mirror or a 
 vase and broken it, instead of running against 
 the Revised Statutes and breaking them. What 
 is done under my own roof, by my own guests, 
 is my loss, and I must bear it. And besides, I 
 might have known, and perhaps I did know, you 
 were running just this risk, and, if I let it go on, 
 who else should stand in the gap ? One thing 
 you may take my word for, no one has done any 
 thing mean in setting the overseers against you, 
 as Mr. Bender seems to think. They could not 
 have done differently, and they need this money 
 for a new hospital for our poor, and it s a thing 
 I ve long had in mind to do, and if I do it in this 
 way it isn t paying your debts, but only giving 
 a Christmas-present to the poor; and, for the 
 chance to do it, I owe you all my thanks." 
 
 Mr. Limber s tone and manner showed plainly 
 that he meant every word he said, and it would 
 
 rXYlftSX TT 
 
138 
 
 not do to disappoint him. Mr. Bender was 
 shaken, but not convinced. He had lost breath 
 in his long speech, and, after Mr. Limber s re 
 joinder, he was by no means certain of his 
 ground, though he had no idea of giving it up. 
 But, before he could get on his feet or say a 
 word, Mr. Folio jumped up and informed the 
 court that, while Mr. Limber was speaking, Mr. 
 Calendar had passed over to him his client s 
 check for the nine hundred and ninety-nine dol 
 lars, and had settled with him for the expenses, 
 so that all the penalties were paid and the suits 
 ended, and the overseers had no claim against 
 any one. 
 
 Mr. Bender had just recovered his breath. 
 " Is that rulable ? " he began ; but the justice 
 was having a word with Mr. Calendar, and paid 
 no heed to the question. 
 
 The irascible old lawyer, who felt that he had 
 been cheated out of his day s sport, answered it 
 for him* " Rulable ? yes with such a nest of 
 ninnies; put up your money, Bender, and it will 
 be the most sensible thing that has been done in 
 this court-room to-day. 
 
 " Then must I let another man pay my for 
 feit ? " said Mr. Bender, trying to work himself 
 into a passion. 
 
FIAT JUSTITIA.. 139 
 
 " Yes," said the old lawyer, " its damnum 
 absque injuria" 
 
 " Dear Sam," said Bessie, " that dreadful old 
 man is beginning to swear. Why does the judge 
 allow it? The constable ought to put him out." 
 
 " He is very much put out as it is," said Sam; 
 " but, Bess, he wasn t swearing that was some 
 more of his law Latin." 
 
 " It sounded very profane. What did it all 
 mean ? " 
 
 "It meant that people are sometimes more 
 frightened than hurt, and that is the condition of 
 Mr. Bender, and all these other ninety-and-nine, 
 thanks to papa." 
 
 " Sam," said Bessie, after a moment s pause, 
 " isn t papa perfectly splendid ? " 
 
 " He has paid out a lot of money," said Sam, 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 " For all that," said Bessie, " it is gorgeous 
 oh, I do want to kiss papa ever so much ! " 
 
 " There is nothing to hinder," said Sam ; 
 " everybody is going away and we will go too, 
 and let mamma know how this has turned out." 
 
 Bessie was by her father s side in a moment, 
 and her arms were around his neck. David Lim 
 ber was a hero to his daughter, and she wanted 
 to give him an ovation. Her feeling was largely 
 
1-10 
 
 shared by many others, who thronged around him 
 and were loud in their expressions of satisfaction 
 at the unlooked-for turn which his liberality had 
 given to the proceedings of the day. 
 
 Mr. Calendar waited for the excitement to 
 subside, and then said to his client, in the hearing 
 of Mr. Bender, who seemed half disposed to 
 remonstrate against the injustice which he had 
 suffered : 
 
 " You have had your own way, Limber, as you 
 generally do, and I congratulate fyou. There is 
 one thing you must see to in order to vindicate 
 the majesty of the law. There is a section of 
 the statute which I did not read to you, declaring 
 all raffling contracts void, so that the winner is 
 not entitled to the prize. She may have her dol 
 lar back, but not the doll. Tell Mrs. Limber this. 
 I think you told me the girl had gone away." 
 
 " Yes, and the doll is in Mrs. Limber s cus 
 tody." 
 
 <k By all means let her keep it safely ; it would 
 be a thousand pities if she slipped through j Our 
 fingers now." 
 
 " Come with me, Calendar, and take your din 
 ner with us, and explain this and all the rest to 
 my wife. I want Folio, too," and Mr. Limber 
 hurried to arrest the successful attorney for the 
 
FIAT JUSTITIA. 141 
 
 overseers, who was descending the steps with 
 Sam, and vainly endeavoring to answer the ques 
 tions with which he was plying him. 
 
 Mr. Bender lingered with his Mend in the 
 precincts of the temple of justice. He was in an 
 uncomfortable frame of mind. The ten-dollar 
 note which he had taken from his pocket as he 
 closed his address, for the purpose of paying his 
 score, and which the old lawyer had advised him 
 to put up again, was twisted around the fore 
 finger of his right hand and he looked at it with 
 an uneasy expression. He was the last man to 
 quit the court-house. He paused in the vesti 
 bule to relight his cigar, saying to his companion 
 as he did so 
 
 " I ve half a mind to light it with this green 
 back ; let s go to the Shades and take a drink." 
 
 The Spindle Shades, although a tippling-house 
 and justly under the ban of reputable society, 
 was a comparatively decent and quiet place of 
 resort, frequented by a better class of drinkers 
 than those who haunted the lower dram-shops of 
 Spindle. Mr. Bender and his friend were evi 
 dently not chance customers, and a certain degree 
 of familiarity with their tastes was exhibited 
 by the bar-tender, as he anticipated their wants 
 in a manner satisfactory to both, 
 10 
 
142 
 
 " Been to court ? " asked the bar-tender as the 
 empty glasses were set down. 
 
 "Just come from there," said Mr. Bender, 
 " and you don t catch me in another. It s a kind 
 of game where an honest sport has no chance." 
 
 " I can tell you something that likely you 
 don t know," said the bar-keeper, polishing the 
 surface of his counter ; " that church doll, as they 
 call it, belongs here and is a-coming here." 
 
 " How is that ? " said Mr. Bender, with evi 
 dent surprise and no little curiosity. 
 
 " Just this way. It was won in the raffle by 
 Bridget Looney, Mrs. Looney that is, you know, 
 Pat s wife, and she writes a letter from New 
 York, it s Pat s writing be sure, and he was al 
 ways a bit of a scholar, and her name is signed 
 to it, and she gives the doll over to the Spindle 
 Shades ; and this morning the letter came, and 
 the boss has sent two of us up to Limber s to fetch 
 it. They ll be here pretty soon." 
 
 " What do you want of a doll here ? " said 
 Mr. Bender. 
 
 " Why, you see it s Pat Looney s luck, they 
 call it, for his number carried it off from all the 
 big folks, and Pat promised it and his wife to set 
 it up here as a kind of memory-piece, seeing he s 
 gone away for good ; and we are going to put it 
 
FIAT JUSTITIA. 143 
 
 just here," said the bar-tender, pointing to a 
 wooden shelf projecting from the base of the mir 
 ror behind him, a bad eminence on which Centu- 
 ria might rest, her form reflected at full length 
 4n the polished surface at her back, with transient 
 glimpses of her face and front in the silver-plated 
 mountings of the ale-pumps at her feet, flanked 
 on either side by the tall glasses whose reversed 
 bases supported lemons of enormous size, while 
 brilliant tankards and colored bottles of various 
 hues formed a resplendent pyramid, on whose 
 apex she would seem to stand or soar. 
 
 u Pat Looney s luck ! " sneered Mr. Bender ; 
 " she has brought bad luck to whoever has had 
 to do with her." 
 
 " Not to Pat," said the bar-tender, as he swept 
 his cloth over the smooth surface of his counter, 
 for a final polish, " he always comes out ahead ; 
 bless you, if he was run for guv ner he d be elected. 
 He is up for Assemblyman now, and sure to win." 
 
 "Who has gone for the doll?" asked Mr. 
 Bender, twirling the still unpocketed bank-note 
 in his fingers. 
 
 " The twins. They were sitting around here 
 and the boss gave them the letter, and they 
 started half an hour ago. It s a bit of a walk c ut 
 to Limber s and back." 
 
144 MRS. LIMBER S BAFFLE. 
 
 " The twins " was the familiar designation of 
 a couple of good-for-naughts, in no way related 
 to each other, except by the natural tie of deprav 
 ity, who made the Spindle Shades their head 
 quarters, and were proud of being regarded as 
 its most faithful allies. 
 
 " Mr. Bender, without a word further, paid 
 his reckoning and left the place. When he gained 
 the street he paused, took a few slowly-drawn 
 whiffs of his cigar, and then said to his com 
 panion, in a solemn tone: 
 
 " It s my judgment these fellows are not en 
 titled to that doll. The raffle is broke up by law, 
 the forfeits paid, the stakes can t be paid over. 
 It ain t rulable. There s no law for it." 
 
 " What s all that to you ? " said his friend. 
 " Haven t you had law enough about that blessed 
 raffle ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. Bender, " too much law and 
 no justice. Come along, and we will make things 
 right yet. You and I can meet these precious 
 twins half-way, and take the doll from them and 
 return it to the owner. Pat Looney s wife has 
 no right to it, no more than you or I. She can 
 have her dollar, but not the doll ; these were 
 Squire Calendar s very words, and I ll swear to 
 them." 
 
FIAT JU8TITIA. 145 
 
 " I heard all that," said his friend, " but what 
 gives you the right to take it away from them 
 that has it ? It will be grand larceny, or assault 
 and battery, and that boy or somebody will be 
 after you, sharp." 
 
 Mr. Bender untwisted the greenback, and 
 folded it so as to display its figures. 
 
 " Seems to me," said he, " as though this ten 
 dollars was owing to some one, I don t know 
 who. When we meet the twins, we ll tell them 
 the raffle is off, and they ve got stolen property 
 in hand, and it ll be six months in the county jail 
 for each of them, and they had better get rid of 
 it, and take ten dollars in exchange, and who 
 should ever know that they got the doll, if they 
 have got it, seeing there s no right to have it ? 
 Come on," repeated Mr. Bender, as the success 
 of his project seemed all the clearer from his lucid 
 statement of it. 
 
 " But there s a lady in the case," urged his 
 cautious friend, " even if her name is Bridget." 
 
 " The lady in the case," said Mr. Bender, " is 
 Mrs. Limber. You may come or not, as you 
 please, but I am going. I ll see justice done. 
 Oh, you are coming. Well, we are on the home 
 stretch now and a clear field." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 APOTHEOSIS OF CENTUBIA. 
 
 MKS. LIMBER had ample opportunity, after 
 the departure of her husband and children for 
 the court-house, to review the checkered course 
 of events which had its origin in the ill-fated 
 raffle. She saw, clearly enough, that her hus 
 band s warning voice, even though it was but an 
 echo of Mr. Proser s bodements, might better 
 have been heeded. At the same time she found 
 consolation in the purity of her intentions in be 
 half of St. Parvus, and in the certainty that no 
 human being, not even Mr. Proser himself, could 
 have foreseen that the horrid monster of litiga 
 tion, now stalking through the peaceful homes 
 of Spindle, would have been evoked, as by some 
 wicked enchantment, from her innocent scheme. 
 The closing scenes of the fair were an abiding 
 source of discomfort. She had parted from her 
 friend Mrs. Chancel, if not in anger, at least in 
 irritation, and she felt that this too was partly 
 
APOTHEOSIS OF CENTURIA. 147 
 
 due to her own want of candor. She had not 
 dealt fairly with her friend. The more she re 
 flected the more vexed she became with herself, 
 and, at last, yielding to a sudden impulse, she 
 resolved to go at once to Mrs. Chancel, and tell 
 her the whole story of Pat Looney s luck and 
 Bridget s dire revenge, so that, whatever might 
 be the issue of the trial, she should be at peace 
 with her friend. 
 
 A dozen steps from her gate she encountered 
 Mrs. Chancel herself. A corresponding stress of 
 emotions, and the pressure of self-reproach for 
 her parting sarcasm, and, even more than these, 
 the spur of new and startling discoveries, had 
 driven her from the rectory to Mrs. Limber. The 
 two friends embraced each other, and the shadow 
 of their misunderstanding was lost in the sun 
 shine of a cordial greeting, renewed in Mrs. Lim 
 ber s parlor, with fresh demonstrations of affec 
 tion, unhindered by furs and wraps. The two 
 ladies seated themselves, side by side, on a sofa 
 before the fire, and Mrs. Chancel, as her manner 
 was, began the conversation. 
 
 " So it is your husband, my dear, who has 
 gone and turned State s evidence, and given all 
 this information to the overseers of the poor, 
 and got himself, and you, and all of us sued. It 
 
148 MRS. LIMBER S RAFFLE. 
 
 is his latest invention, and surely the newest, if 
 not the most useful. I never imagined he was 
 such a genius ! " 
 
 Mrs. Limber looked unutterable ignorance and 
 unmistakable curiosity. 
 
 " You must know, then ; and, of course, there 
 was no way of your guessing it before, that Mr. 
 Limber has been to the rectory this morning, 
 and confessed all to Mr. Chancel." 
 
 " All what ? " gasped Mrs. Limber. 
 
 " All this," said Mrs. Chancel, w that, after he 
 saw we were fully bent and determined on the 
 raffle and you know, dear, we were fully bent 
 and determined on it and after he had been to 
 my husband to get him to stop it, and he, poor 
 man, couldn t exactly grasp the subject, as he 
 says, then Mr. Limber went to John Calendar, 
 and, without letting him into any of his plans, 
 got from him all the law about raffles and lot 
 teries out of the Revised Statutes and the con 
 stitution, and I don t know how many more 
 musty law-books, all mixed up with John Calen 
 dar s crotchets, I suppose. And then came Mr. 
 Limber s grand invention ; having made the dis 
 covery that the overseers of the poor could sue 
 everybody concerned in the raffle, he devised the 
 plan of having everybody sued, himself included ; 
 
APOTHEOSIS OF CENTTJRIA. 149 
 
 then, to show that it was all his doing, and no 
 one s else, he made Mr. Calendar give him a re 
 ceipted bill, with the date, so that, if need be, he 
 could prove that this was all planned before the 
 raffle, and then off he went to Huge Boulder, as 
 the boys call him, the head-man of the overseers 
 of the poor, and showed him the law, and told 
 him that if the new hospital was ever to be built, 
 here was the way to get the money, and you 
 may be sure he jumped at it, and so did they all. 
 Mr. Calendar was their lawyer, but he mistrusted 
 what your husband was about, and wrote to the 
 overseers of the poor to employ Dick Folio, if 
 they had any suits to bring. So Dick was the 
 attorney, and your husband contrived that he 
 should buy the subscription-list, so as to make 
 sure of the names, and so as to have the papers 
 all printed at night, and everybody caught next 
 morning, as they were, all but Bridget Looney ; 
 and then, last of all, and best of all, what does 
 he do, after letting every one fret and fume for a 
 week, but come into court and pay all the penal 
 ties out of his own pocket, just as he told Mr. 
 Chancel, early this morning, he meant to do, and 
 he has paid the balance of the church debt be 
 sides, and he means to pay whatever more the 
 hospital may cost, though that is a secret, and 
 
150 MBS. LIMBER S RAFFLE. 
 
 all this is Mr. Limber s Christmas-present to the 
 poor of Spindle ! " 
 
 " It is just like him," burst out Mrs. Limber, 
 her eyes as full as her heart. Then she began 
 to cry with all her might. 
 
 Up to that moment Mrs. Chancel had not 
 thought of such a thing as crying over this good 
 news, but she could not resist the contagion, and 
 her tears flowed faster than her friend s. 
 
 Mrs. Limber suddenly stopped crying. 
 
 " I declare we are two fools. He has made 
 you and me and all of us ridiculous. Dear me 1 
 what shall we do with these husbands ? " 
 
 " After all," said Mrs Chancel, with dry eyes, 
 " isn t it just a little bit nearer the truth that we 
 have made ourselves ridiculous ? " 
 
 " Perhaps so," said Mrs. Limber ; " and that 
 is ever so much better than being made ridicu 
 lous by anybody else." 
 
 " Another thing, my dear," said Mrs Chancel, 
 "your husband has converted Mr. Chancel en 
 tirely. He says we and he were all wrong, and 
 Mr. Limber was all right, that the raffle never 
 ought to have been, and that he should have in 
 terfered and broken it up when he was applied to. 
 He is perfectly in love with Mr. Limber. Do you 
 
APOTHEOSIS OF CENTUEIA. 151 
 
 know, I think what won his heart was his com 
 ing, as it were, to confessional." 
 
 " But," said Mrs. Limber, " I thought you 
 said just now that Mr. Chancel confessed he was 
 all wrong, and Mr. Limber was all right." 
 
 " Oh, dear, yes, but he only confessed to me 
 husband to wife and that is a kind of confession, 
 you know, which even Presbyterians believe in." 
 
 " At all events," said Mrs. Limber, " confess 
 ing one to another is Scriptural, and I have a 
 confession to make to you. I was coming to 
 make it when we met at my gate ; " and then 
 Mrs. Limber unburdened her conscience and told 
 the whole story of her encounter with Bridget, 
 and of the subsequent plots and machinations of 
 that unblushing bride. 
 
 " I never felt easy about the raffle," said Mrs. 
 Limber, " from the moment of my scene with 
 Bridget ; but who could have dreamed of what 
 has happened ? " 
 
 " Who, indeed ? " chimed in Mrs. Chancel ; 
 " but, my dear child," she suddenly exclaimed, 
 looking in the direction of the front-windows, 
 which opened to the floor, " what in the world 
 are those two men coming here for ? " and in 
 great alarm she pointed out what seemed to her 
 the worst-looking couple she had ever seen in 
 
152 MRS. LIMBER S BAFFLE. 
 
 Spindle. The truth is, that daylight was particu 
 larly unbecoming to the twins, who, like many 
 fashionable young ladies, looked their worst in 
 the morning, and, as they reconnoitred the 
 premises with an aggressive air, intent on their 
 mission as the escort of Centuria to the Shades, 
 the two ladies were on the brink of a panic. 
 
 "What shall we do?" cried Mrs. Chancel; 
 " are there no men in the house ? " 
 
 Mrs. Limber hurriedly closed the inside shut 
 ters and rang the bell. She then ran to fasten 
 the chain of the front-door, but it had so chanced 
 that when the two ladies entered the house they 
 had inadvertently left the door unlatched, and 
 the wind had opened it, so that, as the mistress 
 of the mansion stepped into the hall, she found 
 herself face to face with the invaders. They had 
 paused on the door-step, and taken an attitude 
 sufficiently pacific and respectful to disarm any 
 suspicion that they were the common enemies of 
 mankind. Both were smoking, but it was evi 
 dently the pipe of peace whose odors were waft 
 ed toward Mrs. Limber, as she received the salu 
 tations which were tendered her. One of the 
 two made a slight advance, holding forth a let 
 ter, which Mrs. Limber, with a spasm of courage, 
 actually took. 
 
APOTHEOSIS OF CENTUKIA. 153 
 
 At this juncture, the housemaid appeared in 
 answer to the bell, and motioning to her to re 
 main on guard, Mrs. Limber reentered the parlor, 
 wondering at her own daring, and exciting the 
 equal wonder of Mrs. Chancel by exhibiting the 
 letter of which she had been made the recipient. 
 It was addressed to Mrs. Limber, and under the 
 concentrated gaze of her own eyes, and those of 
 Mrs. Chancel, its contents were soon disclosed as 
 follows : 
 
 NEW YORK, December 15, 18. 
 MBS. DAVID LIMBER : 
 
 If my chance wins, it is number 63, and Miss Bes 
 sie has my money, please will you deliver the doll to 
 the gentleman which brings this, it is in full of all 
 demands, and it is a free Christmas gift to the Spindle 
 Shades from me and Pat, which he sends his respects, 
 baring no malice, and I am the same, no more at pres 
 ent, from your friend, 
 
 BRIDGET LOONEY. 
 
 " Oh, get it, get it quick ! " said Mrs. Limber. 
 " No, stay here and I will go for it." 
 
 "Let me go," said Mrs. Chancel, who saw 
 that any reopening of the raffle gave a new shock 
 to Mrs. Limber s nerves. " Where is it ? " 
 
 "In my cedar-closet, on the top shelf, right- 
 hand side, in a paper box. The key is in the 
 
154: MRS. LIMBER S BAFFLE. 
 
 basket on the bureau in my bedroom. I shall 
 only be too, too glad when it is out of the 
 house." 
 
 Mrs. Chancel mounted the stairs, found the 
 key and the box, and with her own hands de 
 livered Centuria to the twins. She thought of 
 the murderers in the Tower and of the babes in 
 the wood, and of all the braces of stage-villains 
 she had ever read of or heard of or seen, and 
 shuddered at her own temerity. It never oc 
 curred to her to appreciate the involuntary trib 
 ute which the two scamps paid to her sex, in re 
 ceiving the package from her, without scrutiny 
 or question, never doubting that a lady, such as 
 she, was to be trusted with implicit faith. 
 
 The envoys of the winning, if not the win 
 some bride, took their departure, wholly uncon 
 scious of the terror with which they had inspired 
 the ladies, and of the admiration they had excited 
 in the housemaid, who followed their retreating 
 footsteps with her eyes, and with a tender regret 
 that the rapid movements of Mrs. Chancel had 
 nipped in the bud an acquaintance which had 
 progressed no further than the preliminary stages 
 of two winks and a double blush. 
 
 The door had been closed for about half an 
 hour on Centuria and her new custodians, when 
 
APOTHEOSIS OF CENTTJEIA. 155 
 
 Mr. Limber, Sam, and Bessie, accompanied by 
 Mr. Calendar, Dick Folio, and the rector, whom 
 they had overtaken in their rapid walk from the 
 court-house, mounted the steps. Mrs. Limber 
 had recovered from the shock of her last en 
 counter, sufficiently to be in readiness for a meet 
 ing to which her husband had looked forward 
 with no little uneasiness. The presence of Mrs. 
 Chancel at once assured him that his wife knew 
 all, the smiles which greeted him augured well, 
 and in an instant all doubts were dispelled, as her 
 arms were thrown around his neck, and he heard 
 her saying, her voice broken by a succession of 
 little sobs and little kisses, "Do forgive me, 
 dear husband, and and, I will forgive you." 
 
 David Limber was a man of few words and 
 few kisses. He gave his wife a hearty hug, and 
 sat down beside her on the sofa. It was mani 
 fest that, whoever was to forgive, and whatever 
 was to be forgiven, the transaction was com 
 plete. 
 
 While this little interlude was in progress, 
 Mrs. Chancel had been engaged in questioning 
 the new-comers as to the incidents of the trial. 
 Mr. Limber interrupted a graphic description 
 which Dick Folio was giving to his wife of Jus 
 tice Hazey s proceedings, by repeating Mr. Cal- 
 
 &TFoW^ 
 
156 
 
 endar s injunction to keep possession of the 
 doll. 
 
 " You must see to it, Martha, that it is not 
 given up to Bridget Looney. The raffle was ille 
 gal and void. She is to have her money back but 
 not the doll ; so be sure that she does not get it." 
 
 " But she has got it already," shrieked Mrs. 
 Limber. " It is but just now, two dreadful, desper 
 ate men came and demanded it, and took it away. 
 What could we do ? We were alone in the 
 house with the women. Oh, dear ! I am the most 
 wretched creature alive. Is there to be no end 
 to my misery ? " 
 
 " Two men are not Bridget," said Sam ; " we 
 know that she is away and cannot be found." 
 
 " They had her written order," said Mrs. Chan 
 cel, producing it as she spoke. 
 
 Sam took the letter and read it aloud. " It 
 is plain enough, said he, as he folded it again, 
 " Centuria has gone to the Spindle Shades. She 
 is a trophy of the luck of the Looneys. She will 
 be metamorphosed into a divinity of drinks." 
 
 " What a cruel apotheosis for a Christian doll," 
 cried Mrs. Chancel, " and to think that I gave her 
 with my own hands ! " 
 
 " But it was all my fault," sobbed Mrs. Lim 
 ber. 
 
APOTHEOSIS OF CENTUEIA. 157 
 
 A sudden outcry from Bessie, who had turned 
 to the window to hide her vexation, broke in 
 upon her mother s lament. 
 
 " Are they coming- again ? " groaned Mrs. 
 Chancel, before whose mental vision the twins 
 were in constant view. 
 
 " No, but Mr. Bender and another rnan are 
 coming, and I do believe they are bringing Cen- 
 turia back. Oh, it is too good to be true, but at 
 all events they have got the box. Run, Sam ! oh, 
 if it should be empty after all ! " 
 
 Sam was at the street-door in an instant. He 
 threw it wide open. Mr. Bender and his friend 
 conquering heroes evidently made a trium 
 phal entry into the parlor and deposited their 
 burden on the centre-table. No fears now that 
 the box was empty. It was plain enough that 
 there had been a rescue, and the good news, beam 
 ing from every part of Mr. Bender s rosy face, 
 hardly- needed his confirmatory announcement : 
 "There is the stakes, and the bets if any are 
 all off." 
 
 There was a general chorus of applause as the 
 cover was removed from the box, and the assur 
 ance of Centuria s deliverance from the base uses 
 to which she had been destined by the house of 
 Looney was made doubly sure by the sight 
 11 
 
158 
 
 of her waxen face and untarnished Parisian cos 
 tume. 
 
 "Tell us all about it," cried Bessie to Mr. 
 Bender, who was her second hero of the day, and, 
 thus solicited, that gentleman, with modest pride, 
 described his outraged feelings when he heard, 
 during his momentary visit to the Spindle Shades, 
 of the fate which was inpending over Centuria, 
 and his sudden resolve that justice should be 
 done by her summary recapture and restoration 
 to Mrs. Limber, and how he had successfully 
 achieved this result by a little strategy and the 
 outlay of the ten dollars which he had succeeded, 
 in paying as his score, in spite of Mr. Limber. 
 
 " This crowns the day," said Mr. Limber, brim 
 ful of satisfaction. " Mr. Bender and his friend 
 must join us at dinner ; you are all my guests, I 
 cannot spare one." 
 
 Sam was not entirely at ease; he turned to 
 Mr. Calendar with an anxious look, and the ques 
 tion 
 
 " May they not attempt to replevy her ? " 
 
 " Dear Sam," said Bessie, " what do you mean, 
 you are as bad as that awful old man at the court 
 house. What is it to replevy a thing? Is it 
 anything dreadful ? " 
 
 " It is a kind of grab-game, which you play at 
 
APOTHEOSIS OF CENTURIA. 159 
 
 with sheriffs and coroners," said Sam. " If Brid 
 get Looney re pie vies the doll, she will send the 
 sheriff here to claim it as her property, and he will 
 take it off; and then we can send the coroner after 
 the sheriff and take it back as our property ; and 
 then" 
 
 " Sam ! " broke in Mrs. Limber, " is this 
 going to end in a coroner s inquest ? Is there to 
 be a post mortem over this poor victim of the 
 law ? Dear me ! what shall we do with these 
 lawyers ? " 
 
 "No," said Mr/Calendar, "this is the end. 
 Bridget Looney cannot replevy because she never 
 had any legal ownership. The doll belongs to 
 the original owner." 
 
 " And who is the original owner? " asked Sam. 
 
 " I should say Mrs. Chancel," said Mrs. Lim 
 ber. " She is the owner, it was her doll." 
 
 " And I," said Mrs. Chancel, " should say Mrs. 
 Limber, for I gave the doll to her." 
 
 " But it was given for a purpose which has 
 failed," said Sam. 
 
 " Not at all," said the rector; " the church has 
 received her full value." 
 
 " Oh, dear ! " sighed Bessie, " here is another 
 dreadful trouble. It is going to be impossible to 
 find an owner for Centuria." 
 
160 MRS. LIMBER S RAFFLE. 
 
 " Tt is a pure question of law," observed Mr. 
 Folio, sententiously ; " why not leave it to Mr. 
 Calendar s decision ? " 
 
 " There is no . precedent to guide me," said 
 Mr. Calendar, " unless our good friend the rec 
 tor finds one in the judgment of Solomon. We 
 might divide Centuria, and give one half to Mrs. 
 Limber and the other half to Mrs. Chancel." 
 
 " Oh, no, no ! " cried both ladies at once. 
 
 " It would be very easy to settle this," said 
 Mr. Bender, " by a toss up, heads or tails, but, 
 says you, there s the Revived Statues again, and 
 where are we ? " 
 
 " Allow me to make a suggestion," said Mr. 
 Calendar. " Centuria has been rescued from the 
 bar-room by the ingenuity and courage of our 
 friend Mr. Bender; let her be enshrined in the 
 hospital." 
 
 "By all means," exclaimed Mr. Limber; "it 
 is her just due. She is its real founder, and she 
 shall have a niche in the main entrance." 
 
 " It will be a charming symbol," said Mr. 
 Chancel ; " she will represent the angel of chari 
 ty with her wings clipped by the sword of jus 
 tice." 
 
 " Justice Hazey," suggested Sam, in a stage 
 whisper, which luckily the rector did not hear 
 and which Mrs. Chancel forgave. 
 
APOTHEOSIS OF CENTURIA. 161 
 
 " She will perpetuate Mr. Bender s gallantry," 
 said Mr. Limber. 
 
 "And Mr. Folio s legal victory," said Mr. 
 Calendar. 
 
 " And Mr. Limber s benevolence," said Mrs. 
 Chancel. 
 
 " And my folly," said Mrs. Limber. 
 
 " And its surprisingly good results," said 
 Mrs. Chancel. " If folly pays church debts and 
 builds hospitals, it seems like a very good sub 
 stitute for wisdom." 
 
 " Not folly, after all," said Mrs. Limber, " but 
 folly well punished and well forgiven." 
 
 She took the rector s arm and led the way tc 
 dinner. 
 
 Dick Folio and Bessie lingered in the bay- 
 window of the parlor, and were late in taking 
 their places at the dinner-table. What passed 
 between them during that brief interview does 
 not concern our story, but the young lawyer 
 has been heard to declare that the best outcome 
 of Mrs. Limber s raffle was the winning for him 
 self of a lawful prize in the lottery of life. 
 
 " One thing is certain," said David Limber at 
 the close of an evening spent with Mr. Calendar 
 over the plans for the new hospital, which, as it 
 
162 MRS. LIMBER S RAFFLE. 
 
 grew toward completion, grew also in the pro 
 portions of its founder s liberality, and made his 
 Christmas-gift a lasting memorial of his name 
 " one thing is certain, we may have many strange 
 experiences, there may be strikes and floods, 
 fires, pestilence and famine, tornadoes and earth 
 quakes, but there will never be another raffle in 
 Spindle, at least among decent people." 
 
 "Nor would there be anywhere else," said 
 Mr. Calendar, " if every one were told the story 
 of Mrs. Limber s raffle, and would lay to heart its 
 moral, that the devil s edge-tools are sure to cut, 
 no matter how dexterously handled by saint or 
 
NOTE. 
 
 PAGE 67. The aiding of public objects by means of 
 State lotteries has been, in this country, an imitation of 
 the methods of Continental Europe and of Great Britain. 
 Up to the year 1826, lotteries for public improvements 
 and for benevolent purposes were authorized in England, 
 and both the Colonial and State legislatures in America 
 followed the example of the mother country. 
 
 To the institutions mentioned by Mr. Calendar as 
 having been aided by public lotteries must be added 
 Princeton College, which, strangely enough, appears to 
 have had such help from a lottery authorized by the State 
 of Connecticut in 1753. I have in my possession a ticket 
 of this lottery, printed in the style of the pre-Revolution- 
 ary period. It reads as follows : 
 
 " Connecticut LOTTERY. 
 For the Benefit of the College of New Jersey. 
 
 1753 Numb. 2495. 
 
 Ticket entitles the Possessor to such Prize as may 
 be drawn against its Number, (if demanded within 
 six Months after the Drawing is finished) subject to a 
 Deduction of 15 per Cent. 
 
 E John Lloyd." 
 
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 A SOCIAL DEPARTURE: How Orthododa and I 
 " Went Round The World ly Ourselves. With in Illus 
 trations by F. H. TOWNSEND. i2mo. Paper, 75 cents; 
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 AN AMERICAN GIRL IN LONDON. With 80 
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 cents; cloth, $1.50. 
 
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 D. APPLETON & CO. S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 N THE PLANTATION. By JOEL CHANDLER 
 HARRIS, author of " Uncle Remus." \Vith 23 Illus 
 trations by E. W. KEMBLE, and Portrait of the Author. 
 I2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 "The book is in the characteristic vein which has made the author so 
 famous and popular as an interpreter of plantation character." Rochester 
 Union and A dvertiser. 
 
 "Those who never tire of Uncle Remus and his stories with whom we 
 would be accounted will delight in Joe Maxwell and his exploits." 
 London Saturday Review. 
 
 "Altogether a most charming book." Chicago Times. 
 
 "Really a valuable, if modest, contribution to the history of the civil 
 war within the Confederate lines, particularly on the eve of the catastrophe. 
 Two or three new animal fables are introduced with effect; but the history 
 of the plantation, the printing-office, the black runaways, and white de 
 serters, of whom the impending break-up made the community tolerant, the 
 coon and fox hunting, forms the serious purpose of the book, and holds the 
 reader s interest from beginning to end." New York Evening Post. 
 
 T TNCLE REMUS: His Songs and his Sayings. The 
 U Folk-lore of the Old Plantation. By JOEL CHANDLER 
 HARRIS. Illustrated from Drawings by F. S. CHURCH 
 and J. H. MOSER, of Georgia. I2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 " The idea of preserving and publishing these legends, in the form in 
 which the old plantation negroes Actually tell them, is altogether one of the 
 happiest literary conceptions of the day. And very admirably is the work 
 done. ... In such touches lies the charm of this fascinating little volume 
 of legends, which deserves to be placed on a level with Reincke Fuchs for 
 its quaint humor, without reference to the ethnological interest possessed 
 by these stories, as indicating, perhaps, a common origin for very widely 
 severed races." London Spectator. 
 
 "We are just discovering what admirable literary material there is at 
 home, what a great mine there is to explore, and how quaint and peculiar 
 is the material which can be dug up. Mr. Harris s book may be looked on 
 in a double light either as a pleasant volume recounting the stories told by 
 a typical old colored man to a child, or as a valuable contribution to our 
 somewhat meager folk-lore. ... To Northern readers the story of Brer 
 (Brother Brudder) Rabbit may be novel. To those familiar with planta 
 tion life, who have listened to these quaint old stories, who have still tender 
 reminiscences of some good old mauma who told these wondrous adventures 
 to them when they were children, Brer Rabbit, the Tar Baby, and Brer Fox 
 come back again with all the past pleasures of younger days." New York 
 Times. 
 
 "Uncle Remus s sayings on current happenings are very shrewd and 
 bright, and the plantation and revival songs are choice specimens of their 
 sort. "-Boston Journal. 
 
 New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 
 
D. APPLETON & CO/S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 ANY INVENTIONS. By RUDYARD KIPLING. 
 Containing fourteen stories, several of which are now 
 published for the first time, and two poems. I2mo, 
 427 pages. Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 "The reader turns from its pages with the conviction that the author 
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 mains master of a power in which none of his contemporaries approach him 
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 you see his characters as he sees them, to make you feel the full meaning 
 of a dramatic situation. " New York Iribnne. 
 
 " Many Inventions will confirm Mr. Kipling s reputation. . . . We 
 would cite with pleasure sentences from almost every page, and extract 
 incidents from almost every story. But to what end? Here is the com- 
 pletest book that Mr. Kipling has yet given us in workmanship, the 
 weightiest and most humane in breadth of view." Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 nsr. 
 f 
 
 " Many Inventions will be welcomed wherever the English language 
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 exquisitely fine art of short-story writing. Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson has 
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 only three Blackmore s Lorna Doone, Stevenson s marvelous sketch 
 of Villon in the New Arabian Nights, and Thomas Hardy s Tess of the 
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 Inventions is undoubtedly Mr. Kipling s best book."- Chicago Post. 
 
 " Mr. Kipling s style is too well known to American readers to require 
 introduction, but it can scarcely be amiss to say there is not a story in this 
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 A merican. 
 
 " As a writer of short stories Rudyard Kipling is a genius. He has had 
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 by their boldness and force." Rochester Herald. 
 
 New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue, 
 
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 HAND-BOOKS OF SOCIAL USAGES. 
 
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 Special pains have been taken to make this work represent accurately 
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 TTINTS ABOUT MEN S DXESS: Right Principles 
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 11 One of the most charming books of the season. ... It is in no sense 
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 T 
 
 HE STORY OF MY HOUSE. With an Etched 
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 extra, $1.50. 
 
 "An essay on the building of a house, with all its kaleidoscopic possi 
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 "When the really perfect book of its class comes to a critic s hands, all 
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 CONTENTS : The Golden Rug of Kermanshah ; Warders of the Woods; 
 A Shadow upon the Pool; The Silver Fox of Hunt s Hollow. 
 
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D. APPLETON & CO. S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
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 The text is mainly that of Delias, following closely the folio edition 
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 Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 ^HAKSPERES COMPLETE WORKS. "Warwick 
 O Edition." In twelve volumes. i6mo, bound in cloth or 
 
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 T This edition is from the same type as the above, but printed on thinner 
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 retaining the peculiar elegance of that edition. 
 
 /IN INDEX TO THE WORKS OF SHAKSPERE. 
 jf~L Giving references, by topics, to notable passages and sig 
 nificant expressions ; brief histories of the plays ; geograph 
 ical names and historical incidents ; mention of all characters, and 
 sketches of important ones ; together with explanations of allu 
 sions and obscure and obsolete words and phrases. By EVAN- 
 GELINE M. O CONNOR. Crown 8vo. Half leather, $2.00. 
 
 There is a multitude of books on Shakspere s works, but the com 
 bination of information here presented is new, and hence it is believed it 
 will prove of great value to all students and readers of Shakspere. 
 
 TjNGLISH COMIC DRAMA TISTS. Selections from 
 /If Fourteen of the Leading Dramatists, from Shakspere to 
 Sheridan. Edited by OSWALD CRAWFORD. i8mo. Parch 
 ment antique, gilt top, $1.25. 
 
 " Mr. Crawfurd provides a well- written essay of introduction, and then 
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 merce. 
 
 " The selections have been excellently made, and the collection is one 
 of rare merit. The introduction by Mr. Crawfurd is an intelligent and 
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 volume." Boston Post. 
 
 COMEDIES FOR AMATEUR ACTING. Edited, 
 with a Prefatory Note on Private Theatricals, by J. 
 BRANDER MATTHEWS. i8mo. Paper, 30 cents. 
 The half-dozen one-act plays in this little book have been prepared 
 especially for amateurs. 
 
 New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 
 
Butler, W.A 
 _ Mrs . 
 
 Apr. 4 17 
 
 ,IUL 30 1921 
 
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