.

"Did you know how much money you gave me, Squire Fishley?" I asked of my
distinguished companion, as I drove over the bridge.

"No, I did not; and I don't wonder that you ask, Buck," he replied, very
solemnly.

"You gave me forty-six dollars, sir."

"Forty-six," he added, taking out his large pocket-book.

He did not seem to be at all astonished at the magnitude of the sum, and
I wondered what he was going to do. Much as I dreaded the loss of the
money, I was satisfied that he had made a mistake, and I felt that it
would not be honest for me to keep it without informing him. Of course I
expected to be commended for my honesty in refusing to take advantage of
a drunken man's mistake; but he did not say a word, only fumbled over
the thick pile of bank notes in his pocket-book, for the purpose, I
judged, of ascertaining whether he had lost any or not. To my
astonishment, however, he took two bills from the pile, and handed them
to me.

"What's that for?" I asked, involuntarily taking the bills.

"I meant to give you more," said he.

"More!" I exclaimed.

"I didn't know what I was about very well last night," he added, with a
groan which expressed the anguish he felt for his error. "I ought to
have given you a hundred."

"Why, no, sir! I don't ask anything," I replied, confounded by his
words.

"You don't understand it as well as I do," said he, shaking his head,
and bestowing a mournful look upon me.

"But I can't take a hundred dollars, sir."

"Yes, you can, and you must. I shall not feel right about it if you
don't. It ought to be a thousand; but I shall make it up to you some
time."

"Why, Squire Fishley, if you had given me a couple of dollars, I should
have thought you had treated me very handsomely," I protested.

"You saved my life."

"I don't know as I did."

"But you did more than that for me. I was intoxicated; I cannot deny it.
I fell into the river in that state. If I had been found drowned, the
cause of my death would have been rum!" he added, with a shudder. "I
have always been classed with the moderate drinkers, though sometimes I
don't taste of liquor for a week. Rather to oblige my friends than to
gratify my own taste, I drank with them till I was in the state you saw
me. I was drunk. What a scandal to my family, to my position, to my
church! If it could have been said the Hon. Moses Fishley was drowned in
consequence of getting intoxicated, I should not have slept in peace in