you happen to have had
in your pocket that day--over and over again, and by and by you peer in
envelopes and unfold papers that you didn't have in your pocket at all,
but might have had. And when the novelty of the first search has worn
off, and the fit takes you, you make another search. Even after many
months have passed away, some day--or night--when you are hard up for
tobacco and a drink, you suddenly think of that late lamented half-sov.,
and are moved by adverse circumstances to look through your old clothes
in a sort of forlorn hope, or to give good luck a sort of chance to
surprise you--the only chance that you can give it.

By the way, seven-and-six of that half-quid should have gone to the
landlord of the hotel where we stayed last, and somehow, in spite of
this enlightened age, the loss of it seemed a judgment; and seeing that
the boat was old and primitive, and there was every sign of a three
days' sou'-easter, we sincerely hoped that judgment was complete--that
supreme wrath had been appeased by the fine of ten bob without adding
any Jonah business to it.

This reminds us that we once found a lost half-sovereign in the bowl of
a spare pipe six months after it was lost. We wish it had stayed there
and turned up to-night. But, although when you are in great danger--say,
adrift in an open boat--tales of providential escapes and rescues may
interest and comfort you, you can't get any comfort out of anecdotes
concerning the turning up of lost quids when you have just lost one
yourself. All you want is to find it.

It bothers you even not to be able to account for a bob. You always like
to know that you have had something for your money, if only a long beer.
You would sooner know that you fooled your money away on a spree, and
made yourself sick than lost it out of an extra hole in your pocket, and
kept well.

We left Wellington with a feeling of pained regret, a fellow-wanderer
by our side telling us how he had once lost "fi-pun-note"--and about
two-thirds of the city unemployed on the wharf looking for that
half-sovereign. Well, we hope that some poor devil found it; although,
to tell the truth, we would then have by far preferred to have found it
ourselves.

A sailor said that the _Moa_ was a good sea-boat, and, although she was
small and old, _he_ was never afraid of her. He'd sooner travel in her
than in some of those big cheap ocean liners with more sand in them
than iron or steel--You, know the res