George, who died some time ago in India, Daniel
Dodd is entitled to five thousand pounds."

"Martha!" cried John to his wife, who was
up-stairs cleaning the rooms.

"Yes, John. What is it?"

"Father's money's come back again! Father's
money's come back again! Father's money's
come back again!" And he shouted it over and
over again up the stairs, and slapped the banisters
every time to give it emphasis.

"Are you gone mad, John?" was Martha's
reply, when she was allowed to speak.

"You see, sir," said John to his visitor; "she
thinks I must be mad; no wonder if I thought
you were mad. But here's Daddy; he knows
you, I dare say, and you can tell him; he often
talked about his brother George who went to
India; but I thought he had been dead long ago."

At that moment Daddy came in from one of
his walks with Benjy, and was told of his
fortune.

"Dear me," he said, sinking into his chair,
"brother George is dead. Poor boy, poor boy!"

The poor boy had died at the good old age of
threescore and ten, but Daddy still thought of
him as the lad in the blue jacket from whom he
had parted at Wapping when they were boys.

Not without many difficulties, long delay, and
considerable cost, Daddy's claim to the five
thousand pounds was established. John gave
all his time—utterly neglecting the emporium—
to the prosecution of the matter, and, oddly
enough, in wooing Fortune in this most
audacious and presumptuous manner, he proved
successful; though, previously, when he had
humbled himself in the dirt to implore her for a
single smile, she had contemptuously passed
onward, bespattering him with mud from her
chariot-wheels. And one day John, knowing
Daddy's weakness, brought home the five
thousand pounds all in notes in the very canvas
bag which had been the old man's bank in the
days when he was well to do.

"There, father," said Martha, "putting the
bag in his hand. And now what will you do
with it?"

"What will I do with it?" said the old man.
"I'll—I'll keep my promise to Benjy, and buy
him that gun!"

"But there's more than will buy the gun,
father."

"You don't mean that, Martha?" said the
old man.

"Oh yes, father, a heap more."

"Then," said Daddy, "I'll give the rest to
John to buy a horse and cart."

"But there's more even than that, father;
ever so much more."

"Oh, well, you just keep that for yourself,
Martha, for taking care of your old father."

And Daddy, with no elaborate design, but
with the simple innocence of a child, which is
sometimes wiser than the astute provisions
of law, saved the dangerous formalities of
will-making and the charges for legacy duty, by
handing to his daughter Martha the bag
containing all his money.

Before John even thought of his horse and
cart—though that was lurking in a corner of
his mind—he regained the tenancy of Daddy's
old house, furnished it with as many of the old
sticks as he could recover from the brokers'
shops, with many splendid new ones besides for
the drawing-room, and, when all was done, led
Daddy back to his old quarters, and joined him
there with Martha and all the family.

But dotage had been coming upon poor
old Daddy, and he could scarcely be made
to understand the change which had taken place
in his position. He came at last to fancy that
it was a dream, and sitting by the fireside of an
evening, and recognising his old room peopled
with the faces of John and Martha and their
children, he would tell his daughter to wake
him up by-and-by.

And so he went on dreaming, until one
winter's night he woke up in a land where there
was no more going to sleep.

And the days of John and Martha are likely
to be long and prosperous, for they honoured
their old father in his age and need, and the
bread which they cast upon the waters has come
back to them with a blessing.

Now ready, THE EXTRA CHRISTMAS DOUBLE
NUMBER, entitled
DOCTOR MARIGOLD'S
PRESCRIPTIONS.
I. TO BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY.
II. NOT TO BE TAKEN AT BED-TIME.
III. TO BE TAKEN AT THE DINNER-TABLE.
IV. NOT TO BE TAKEN FOR GRANTED.
V. TO BE TAKEN IN WATER.
VI. TO BE TAKEN WITH A GRAIN OF SALT.
VII. TO BE TAKEN AND TRIED.
VIII. TO BE TAKEN FOR LIFE.
Price Fourpence, stitched in a cover.

COMPLETION OF MR. CHARLES DICKENS'S NEW
WORK.
Now ready, in 2 vols., price 22s.,
OUR MUTUAL FRIEND.
With 40 Illustrations by MARCUS STONE.
London: CHAPMAN and HALL, 193, Piccadilly.

The next Number will contain the commencement of a
New Serial Novel, entitled
THE SECOND MRS. TILLOTSON.
BY THE AUTHOR OF "NEVER FORGOTTEN," &c.
To be continued from week to week until completed.