suppin' goold soup, and I'm not a-goin' for to try."

With infinite difficulty, and much futile effort at illustration, did
Haco explain to Mrs Gaff the difference between principal and interest;
telling her to live on the latter, and never on any account to touch the
former, unless she wished to "end her days in a work'us."

"I wonder what it's like," said Mrs Gaff.

"What what's like?" inquired the skipper.

"Ten thousand pounds."

"Well, that depends too, you know, on what it's made of--whether copper,
silver, goold, or paper."

"What! is it ever made o' paper?"

In attempting to explain this point, Haco became unintelligible even to
himself, and Mrs Gaff became wildly confused.

"Well, well," said the latter, "never mind; but try to tell me how much
I'll have a year."

"That depends too--"

"Everything seems to depend," cried Mrs Gaff somewhat testily.

"Of course it does," said Haco, "everything _does_ depend on somethin'
else, and everything will go on dependin' to the end of time: it depends
on how you invest it, and what interest ye git for it."

"Oh, dearie me!" sighed Mrs Gaff, beginning for the first time to
realise in a small degree the anxieties and troubles inseparable from
wealth; "can't ye tell me what it's _likely_ to be about?"

"Couldn't say," observed Haco, drawing out his pipe as if he were about
to appeal to it for information; "it's too deep for me."

"Well, but," pursued Mrs Gaff, becoming confidential, "tell me now,
d'ye think it would be enough to let me make some grand improvements on
the cottage against Stephen and Billy's return?"

"Why, that depends on what the improvements is to be," returned Haco
with a profound look.

"Ay, just so. Well, here are some on 'em. First of all, I wants to get
a noo grate an' a brass tea-kettle. There's nothing like a cheery fire
of a cold night, and my Stephen liked a cheery fire--an' so did Billy
for the matter o' that; but the trouble I had wi' that there grate is
past belief. Now, a noo grate's indispens'ble."

"Well?" said Haco, puffing his smoke up the chimney, and regarding the
woman earnestly.

"Well; then I want to get a noo clock. That one in the corner is a
perfit fright. A noo table, too, for the leg o' that one has bin mended
so often that it won't never stand another splice. Then a noo tea-pot
an' a fender and fire-irons would be a comfort. But my great wish is to
get a big mahogany four-post bed with curtains. Step