lie and cheat, (which perhaps
I do a little,) you never heard any body say of _me_, what all the world
says of HIM, that I am _cruel_,--_mai_, you never heard that; and if I
make money occasionally in some way that it don't _sound_ well to speak
of, what then? I never hoard it up, the lottery office is my banker, and
it circulates again presently. And as to cheating, if we look it boldly
in the face, and see in what company we cheat, why should I be ashamed
of what all the world does here from King Ferdinand, to Beppo Tuzzi of
the Mergellina? Didn't Ferdinand try hard to cheat you last year in the
sulphur question? and would he not have succeeded, too, unless you had
thought of mixing up the sulphur with some nitre and charcoal, and of
converting it into a _question of gunpowder_!" "That's true, Coco! and
now tell us of your last device for raising the wind." "Here it is," and
Coco has presented us with a small opaque lachrymatory, glistening all
over in the exquisite irridescence of old glass. "Was it not beautiful?"
he enquired. "Yes; and ancient as well," replied we; "the decomposition
of the glass showed that, and the elegant and classical form of the
vessel showed it too." "Well! he would manufacture just such another
before us, if we would like to see it done!" "_Come?_ we should be
delighted!" "_Dunque e fatto subito_, now that I have _shown how_ it is
to be effected--just as when that great sea-captain, _quel famoso
Cristoforo Colombo_"--"Yes, yes! Coco, never mind about _him_ just now."
"Ah, your excellency, I perceive, knows the story! Well, here you see is
a small clay vessel moulded from the antique; here a small packet which
I untie; and here a little gum-water in a phial." We require no other
materials--a child might do the rest. In the packet now open, we remark
a quantity of a beautiful, many-coloured glass-dust, in the midst of
which appear thousands of filmy flakes that have been scraped off from
the sides of old lachrymatories, and present every hue of colour. In a
twinkling Coco has _gummed_ the vessel all over, and in less than a
minute he has rolled round its sides a rainbow robe of the most rich and
glowing colours, while not a speck of clay remains visible by which to
make out the fraud! "_Eccolo!_" says he, placing the beautiful
fabrication in our hand; "_Eccolo!_ do you think that for such a work as
_that_ I ought to have been sent for the twentieth time to prison?"
Fearful of having our moral s