rfect El Dorado. The
advertisements, sir, on the most moderate calculation, will bring us
in L50,000 a year. My dear Pisistratus, I shall never marry; you are my
heir. Embrace me!"

So saying, my Uncle Jack threw himself upon me, and squeezed out of
breath the prudential demur that was rising to my lips.

My poor mother, between laughing and sobbing, faltered out:

"And it is my brother who will pay back to his son all--all he gave up
for me!"

While my father walked to and fro the room, more excited than ever I
saw him before, muttering, "A sad, useless dog I have been hitherto! I
should like to serve the world! I should indeed!"

Uncle Jack had fairly done it this time. He had found out the only
bait in the world to catch so shy a carp as my father,--haaret letalis
arundo. I saw that the deadly hook was within an inch of my father's
nose, and that he was gazing at it with a fixed determination to
swallow.

But if it amused my father? Boy that I was, I saw no further. I must own
I myself was dazzled, and, perhaps with childlike malice, delighted at
the perturbation of my betters. The young carp was pleased to see the
waters so playfully in movement when the old carp waved his tail and
swayed himself on his fins.

"Mum!" said Uncle Jack, releasing me; "not a word to Mr. Trevanion, to
any one."

"But why?"

"Why? God bless my soul. Why? If my scheme gets wind, do you suppose
some one will not clap on sail to be before me? You frighten me out of
my senses. Promise me faithfully to be silent as the grave."

"I should like to hear Trevanion's opinion too."

"As well hear the town-crier! Sir, I have trusted to your honor. Sir, at
the domestic hearth all secrets are sacred. Sir, I--"

"My dear Uncle Jack, you have said quite enough. Not a word will I
breathe!"

"I'm sure you may trust him, Jack," said my mother.

"And I do trust him,--with wealth untold," replied my uncle. "May I ask
you for a little water--with a trifle of brandy in it--and a biscuit, or
indeed a sandwich. This talking makes me quite hungry."

My eye fell upon Uncle Jack as he spoke. Poor Uncle Jack, he had grown
thin!

(1) "Some were so barbarous as to eat their own species." The sentence
refers to the Scythians, and is in Strabo. I mention the authority, for
Strabo is not an author that any man engaged on a less work than the
"History of Human Error" is expected to have by heart.

PART VII.

CHAPTER I.

Saith Dr. Luth