oo much. Our most expensive hotels are full of whole families
who, having become unexpectedly and abruptly wealthy, are now suffering
from this painful form of financial embarrassment; they wish to disburse
large sums freely and gracefully, and they don't know how. They lack the
requisite training. In a way of speaking, this mendicant of Coney Island
was perhaps of this class. With his jaw lolling, he looked at the
stranger dubiously, uncertainly, suspiciously, meanwhile studying the
stranger's yellow-back.

"You want me to git this here bill changed?" he said dully.

"That is the idea," said Judson Green, patiently. "You are to take it
and change it--and I will trail behind you to see what happens. I'm
merely making an experiment, with your help, and I'm willing to pay for
it."

"This money ain't counterfeit?" inquired the raggedy one. "This ain't no
game to git me in bad?"

"Well, isn't it worth taking a chance on?" cross-fired Green. The
pimpled expanse of face lost some of its doubt, and the owner of the
face fetched a deep breath.

"You're on," he decided. "Where'bouts'll I start?"

"Anywhere you please," Judson Green told him. "You said you were
hungry--that for two days you hadn't eaten a bite?"

"Aw, boss, that was part of the spiel," he confessed frankly. "Right now
I'm that full of beef stew I couldn't hold another bite."

"Well, how about a drink? A long, cool glass of beer, say? Or anything
you please."

The temporary custodian of the one-thousand-dollar bill mentally
considered this pleasing project; his bleared eye glinted brighter.

"Naw," he said, "not jist yit. If it's all the same to you, boss, I'll
wait until I gits a good thirst on me. I think I'll go into that show
yonder, to start on." He pointed a finger towards a near-by amusement
enterprise. This institution had opened years before as "The Galveston
Flood." Then, with some small scenic changes, it had become "The Mount
Pelee Disaster," warranted historically correct in all details; now it
was "The Messina Earthquake," no less. Its red and gold gullet of an
entrance yawned hungrily, not twenty yards from where they stood.

"Go ahead," ordered Judson Green, confirming the choice with a nod. "And
remember, my friend, I will be right behind you."

Nothing, however, seemed further from the panhandler's thoughts than
flight. His rags fluttered freely in the evening air and his sole-less
shoes flopped up and down upon his feet, rasping hi