you are!" he said; "what waste of money is this! If you saved
it up, you would by-and-by be able to build an hospital for all the beggars
in New York."

"It would be a long time before there was enough," objected Cornelius.

"Not at all," said the Devil, "if you let me invest your money for you."
And he showed Cornelius the plan of a most splendid hospital, and across
the front of it was inscribed in letters of gold, _Cornelius Diabolodorus_.
And Cornelius was persuaded, and that evening he gave nothing to the poor.
And the poor had come to think that Cornelius's money was their own, and
abused him as though he had robbed them. And Cornelius drove them away: and
his heart was hardened against them from that day forth.

But the Devil kept his promise to Cornelius, and put him up to all the good
things in Wall Street, and he soon had enough to build ten hospitals. But
the more he had to build with, the less he wanted to build. And by-and-by
the Devil called upon him, and found him contemplating two pictures. One of
them showed the finest hospital you can imagine, full of neat, clean rooms,
in one of which sat Cornelius himself, wearing a dress with a number and
badge, and sipping arrowroot. The other showed fine houses, and
opera-boxes, and fast-trotting horses, and dry champagne, and ladies who
dance in ballets, and paintings by the great masters. Cornelius thrust the
pictures away, and the Devil did not ask to see them, nor was it needful
that he should, for he had painted them himself.

"O dear Mr. Devil," said Cornelius, "I am so glad that you have called, for
I wanted to speak to you. It strikes me that there is a great defect in the
plan which you have been so good as to draw for me."

"What is that?" asked the Devil.

"There is no place for black men," said Cornelius. "And you know white men
will never let them come into the same hospital."

And the Devil, to do him justice, talked very reasonably to Cornelius, and
represented to him that there were very few black men in New York, and
that these had very vigorous constitutions. But Cornelius was inflamed with
enthusiasm, and frantic with philanthropy, and he vowed that he would not
give a cent to an hospital that had not a wing for black men as big as all
the rest of the building. And the Devil had to take his plan back, and come
again in a year and a day. And when he did come back, Cornelius asked him
if he did not think it would be a most excellent thing