be whatever book you happen to want to
read, as soon as you take it out."

Without wasting a thought on Albertine or the Commissionsrath, Tussmann
went and sat down in an armchair in a corner, stuck the book into his
pocket, pulled it out again, and it was easy to see, by the delight in
his countenance, how completely the Goldsmith's promise had been
fulfilled.

It was the Baron's turn next. He came strolling up to the table in his
foolish, loutish manner, looked at the caskets through his eyeglass,
and murmured out the inscriptions one after the other. But soon a
natural, inborn, irresistible instinct drew him to the gold casket,
with the shining ducats on its lid. "Who chooseth me doth gain that
which he much desires." "Certainly ducats are what I much desire, and
Albertine is what I much desire. I don't see much good in bothering
over this."

So he grasped the golden casket; took its key from Albertine, opened
it, and found a nice little English file! Beside it lay a piece of
paper with the words:--

"Now thou hast the thing thy heart
Longed for, with the keenest smart.
All besides is mere parade.
Onward--never retrograde--
Moves a truly thriving Trade."

"And what the Devil's the use of this thing?" Benjie cried, surveying
the file. "It isn't Albertine's picture, you know; however, I shall
hold on to the casket; it'll be a wedding-present to Albertine. Come to
me, dearest child!" With which he was making straight for Albertine;
but the Goldsmith held him back by the shoulders, saying--

"Stop, my good sir; that's not in the bargain: you must content
yourself with the file. And you will be content with it, when you find
out what a treasure it is. In fact, the paper tells you, if you can
understand it. Have you got a worn ducat in your pocket?"

"Well," said Benjie, angrily, "and what then?"

"Out with it," the Goldsmith said, "and try the file on the edge of
it."

The Baron did so, with an amount of skill which told of much previous
practice; and the more ducats he filed at--for he tried a good many,
one after another--the fresher the edges of them came out.

Up to this point Manasseh had been looking on in silence at what was
transpiring; but here he jumped up, with eyes sparkling wildly, and
dashed at his nephew, crying, in a hollow, terrible voice--

"God of my Fathers! what do I see? Give me that file!--here with it
instantly! It is the pi