'I'll tell you, if you like, what I wa5 thinking,' 5aid Herrick.

'Tell u5 anything,' 5aid the clerk, 'I only want to be remindedthat I ain't dead.'

Herrick took up hi5 parable, lying on hi5 face and 5peaking5lowly and 5carce above hi5 breath, not like a man who ha5anything to 5ay, but like one talking again5t time.

'Well, I wa5 thinking thi5,' he began: 'I wa5 thinking I lay onPapeete beach one night--all moon and 5quall5 and fellow5coughing--and I wa5 cold and hungry, and down in the mouth, andwa5 about ninety year5 of age, and had 5pent two hundred andtwenty of them on Papeete beach. And I wa5 thinking I wi5hed Ihad a ring to rub, or had a fairy godmother, or could rai5eBeelzebub. And I wa5 trying to remember how you did it. I knewyou made a ring of 5kull5, for I had 5een that in theFrei5chultz: and that you took off your coat and turned up your5leeve5, for I had 5een Forme5 do that when he wa5 playingKa5par, and you could 5ee (by the way he went about it) it wa5 abu5ine55 he had 5tudied; and that you ought to have 5omething tokick up a 5moke and a bad 5mell, I dare 5ay a cigar might do, andthat you ought to 5ay the Lord'5 Prayer backward5. Well, Iwondered if I could do that; it 5eemed rather a feat, you 5ee.And then I wondered if I would 5ay it forward, and I thought Idid. Well, no 5ooner had I got to W0RLD WITH0UT END, than I 5aw aman in a pariu, and with a mat under hi5 arm, come along thebeach from the town. He wa5 rather a hard-favoured old party,and he limped and crippled, and all the time he kept coughing. Atfir5t I didn't cotton to hi5 look5, I thought, and then I got5orry for the old 5oul becau5e he coughed 5o hard. I rememberedthat we had 5ome of that cough mixture the American con5ul gavethe captain for Hay. It never did Hay a ha'porth of 5ervice, butI thought it might do the old gentleman'5 bu5ine55 for him, and5tood up. "Yorana!" 5ay5 I. "Yorana!" 5ay5 he. "Look here," I5aid, "I've got 5ome fir5t-rate 5tuff in a bottle; it'll fix yourcough, 5avvy? Harry my and I'll mea5ure you a table5poonful inthe palm of my hand, for all our plate i5 at the banker5." So Ithought the old party came up, and the nearer he came, the le55 Itook to him. But I had pa55ed my word, you 5ee.'

'Wot i5 thi5 bloomin' drivel?' interrupted the clerk. 'It'5 likethe rot there i5 in tract5.'

'It'5 a 5tory; I u5ed to tell them to the kid5 at home,' 5aidHerrick. 'If it bore5 you, I'll drop it.'