from those made by government, I should
say "—hastily added the boy.

I felt myself leaping up with vanity, and
chinking against my companions at these
words. It was plain I was fast losing the
innocence of youth. In justice to myself,
however, I am bound to say that I have, in
the course of my subsequent experience, seen
many of the lords and masters of the creation
behave much more absurdly under the
influence of flattery.

"Well, we must put you up to the means
of finding out the real Turtle from the mock,"
said my master. " It's difficult to tell by the
ring. Silver, if it's at all cracked—as lots of
money is—don't ring no better than pewter:
besides, people can't try every blessed bit o'
tin they get in that way; some folks is
offended if they do, and some ain't got no
counter.  As for the colour, I defy anybody
to tell the difference. And as for the figgers
on the side, wot's your dodge?  Why, wen
a piece o' money's give to you, look to the
hedges, and feel 'em too with your finger.
When they ain't quite perfect, ten to one
but they're bad 'uns. You see, the way its
done is this— I suppose I may put the young
'un up to a thing or two more?" added Mr.
Blinks, pausing.

My master, who had during the above
conversation lighted a short pipe, and devoted
himself with considerable assiduity to a pewter
pot which he looked at with a technical eye,
as if mentally casting it into crown pieces,
now nodded assent. He was not of an
imaginative or philosophic turn, like Mr. Blinks.
He saw none of the sentiment of his business,
but pursued it on a system of matter of fact,
because he profited by it. This difference
between the producer and the middle-man may
be continually observed elsewhere.

"You see," continued Mr. Blinks, "that
these here 'bobs'"—by which he meant
shillings — "is composed of a mixter of two
metals — pewter and zinc. In coorse these is
first prigged raw, and sold to gents in my
line of bis'ness, who either manufacturs them
themselves, or sells 'em to gents as does.
Now, if the manufacturer is only in a small
way of bis'ness, and is of a mean natur, he
merely castes his money in plaster of Paris
moulds. But for nobby gents like our friend
here (my master here nodded approvingly
over his pipe), this sort of thing won't pay—
too much trouble and not enough profit. All
the top-sawyers in the manufactur is scientific
men. By means of what they calls a galwanic
battery a cast is made of that partiklar coin
selected for himitation. From this here cast,
which you see, that there die is made, and
from that there die impressions is struck off
on plates of the metal prepared for the
purpose. Now, infortunately we ain't got the
whole of the masheenery of the Government
institootion yet at our disposal, though it's
our intention for to bribe the Master of the
Mint (in imitation coin) some of these days
to put us up to it all—so you see we're
obliged to stamp the two sides of this here
shilling, for instance (taking me up again as
he spoke), upon different plates of metal,
jining of 'em together afterwards. Then comes
the milling round the hedges. This we do
with a file; and it is the himperfection of
that 'ere as is continually a preying upon our
minds. Anyone who's up to the bis'ness can
tell whether the article's geniwine or not, by
a looking at the hedge; for it can't be
expected that a file will cut as reglar as a
masheen. This is reely the great drawback
upon our purfession."

Here Mr. Blinks, overcome by the
complicated character of his subject, subsided into
a fit of abstraction, during which he took a
copious pull at my master's porter.

Whether suggested by the onslaught upon
his beer, or by a general sense of impending
business, my master now began to show symptoms
of impatience. Knocking the ashes out
of his pipe, he asked "how many bob his
friend wanted?"

The arrangement was soon concluded. Mr.
Blinks filled a bag which he carried with the
manufacture of my master, and paid over
twenty of the shillings to his protegé. Of this
twenty, I was one. As I passed into the
youth's hand I could feel it tremble, as I own
mine would have done had I been possessed
of that appendage.

My new master then quitted the house in
company with Mr. Blinks, whom he left at
the corner of the street — an obscure thoroughfare
in Westminster. His rapid steps speedily
brought him to the southern bank of the
"fair and silvery Thames," as a poet who
once possessed me, (only for half-an-hour),
described that uncleanly river, in some verses
which I met in the pocket of his pantaloons.
Diving into a narrow street, obviously, from
the steepness of its descent, built upon arches,
he knocked at a house of all the unpromising
rest the least promising in aspect. A wretched
hag opened the door, past whom the youth
glided, in an absent and agitated manner;
and, having ascended several flights of a
narrow and precipitous staircase, opened the
door of an apartment on the top story.

The room was low, and ill ventilated.
A fire burnt in the grate, and a small candle
flickered on the table. Beside the grate,
sat an old man sleeping on a chair; beside
the table, and bending over the flickering
light, sat a young girl engaged in sewing.
My master was welcomed, for he had been
absent, it seemed, for two months. During
that time he had, he said, earned some money;
and he had come to share it with his father
and sister.

I led a quiet life with my companions, in
my master's pocket, for more than a week.
At the end of that time, the stock of good
money was nearly exhausted, although it had
on more than one occasion been judiciously
mixed with a neighbour or two of mine.