. &
S. K. W., paid off all his obligations in full, and retired from business
with $1,000,000 clear.' Or we might say, 'Superintendent Smithers, of the
St. Goliath's Sunday-school, who is also cashier in the Forty-eighth
National Bank, has not absconded with $4,000,000.'"

[Illustration: "SUPERINTENDENT SMITHERS HAS NOT ABSCONDED"]

"Oh, that's a rich idea," put in the School-Master. "You'd earn
$1,000,000 in libel suits the first year."

"No, you wouldn't, either," said the Idiot. "You don't libel a man
when you say he hasn't murdered anybody. Quite the contrary, you call
attention to his conspicuous virtue. You are in reality commending those
who refrain from criminal practice, instead of delighting those who are
fond of departing from the paths of Christianity by giving them
notoriety."

"But I fail to see in what respect Mr. Pedagog and I are essential to
your scheme," said the Bibliomaniac.

"I must confess to some curiosity on my own part on that point," added
the School-Master.

"Why, it's perfectly clear," returned the Idiot, with a conciliating
smile as he prepared to depart. "You both know so much that isn't so,
that I rather rely on you to fill up."

VII

A new boarder had joined the circle about Mrs. Pedagog's breakfast-table.
He had what the Idiot called a three-ply name--which was Richard
Henderson Warren--and he was by profession a poet. Whether it was this
that made it necessary for him to board or not, the rewards of the muse
being rather slender, was known only to himself, and he showed no
disposition to enlighten his fellow-boarders on the subject. His success
as a poet Mrs. Pedagog found it hard to gauge; for while the postman left
almost daily numerous letters, the envelopes of which showed that they
came from the various periodicals of the day, it was never exactly clear
whether or not the missives contained remittances or rejected
manuscripts, though the fact that Mr. Warren was the only boarder in the
house who had requested to have a waste-basket added to the furniture of
his room seemed to indicate that they contained the latter. To this
request Mrs. Pedagog had gladly acceded, because she had a notion that
therein at some time or another would be found a clew to the new
boarder's past history--or possibly some evidence of such duplicity
as the good lady suspected he might be guilty of. She had read that Byron
was profligate, and that Poe was addicted to drink, and she was imp