say, old man, what about that five
pounds you owe me?'

So the first man gives him one five-pound note. The second man has to
pay his landlady's rent, and he owes her three pounds; so he gives her
the five-pound note, and she gives him two pounds in gold back again.
From the landlady the note passes to a shopkeeper, and from him to
another man; and so it goes on, wandering and wandering through the
hands of hundreds of people. It started a very nice clean new note; but
it gets crumpled and dirty, and at last one day it comes to a man who
has had some money given to him which he wants to put into the Bank, and
he pays this five-pound note in with the rest. So after its life it has
rest. It never goes out again into the world; but when once it comes
back to the Bank it is torn up and destroyed. A great many men are kept
at work only tearing up bank-notes; so every day, while many new ones
are being made, many old ones are being torn up, and the number keeps
about the same.

An old woman bought a mattress at a sale, and she thought she would undo
it and shake up the stuff inside and make it softer, and when she cut it
up she found among the stuffing some bits of paper that looked like
bank-notes; but they were little tiny bits not bigger than a sixpence.
She took them to the Bank, which examined them, and saw that, though a
great deal was missing, there was enough left to show that there had
been twelve five-pound notes sewn up inside the mattress. They gave the
old woman sixty pounds for them, saying that a bank-note meant a promise
on the part of the Bank to pay, and they would keep their promise,
however long ago it had been made. So the old woman did a good day's
work when she bought that mattress.

From the Bank we might pass on to the General Post-Office, and see how
London's letters are dealt with. You may say that there cannot be
anything interesting in that--that it is quite simple to sort out
letters and send them to the right persons. Yes, if you or I had perhaps
six letters we could do it easily; but if we had six thousand it would
be rather more difficult. The business of the General Post Office grows
and increases every year, and the buildings are frequently enlarged.
Even now they form the whole of a street to themselves. On one side is
the telegraphic department, where all the telegrams are received. We can
understand very little about this, because it requires a long training;
but we can see something