have paid me exactly sixteen shillings, which was my due. For the

First week the 3d. would be 6d. | Fourth week . . . . . 4s.
Second week . . . . . 1s. | Fifth week . . . . . 8s.
Third week . . . . . 2s. | Sixth week . . . . . 16s.

Nothing could be more just; and yet--will it be believed? when Bunting
came back he offered me THREE-HALFPENCE! the mean, dishonest scoundrel.

However, I was even with him, I can tell you.--He spent all his money in
a fortnight, and THEN I screwed him down! I made him, besides giving
me a penny for a penny, pay me a quarter of his bread and butter
at breakfast and a quarter of his cheese at supper; and before the
half-year was out, I got from him a silver fruit-knife, a box of
compasses, and a very pretty silver-laced waistcoat, in which I went
home as proud as a king: and, what's more, I had no less than three
golden guineas in the pocket of it, besides fifteen shillings, the
knife, and a brass bottle-screw, which I got from another chap. It
wasn't bad interest for twelve shillings--which was all the money I'd
had in the year--was it? Heigho! I've often wished that I could get such
a chance again in this wicked world; but men are more avaricious now
than they used to be in those dear early days.

Well, I went home in my new waistcoat as fine as a peacock; and when I
gave the bottle-screw to my father, begging him to take it as a token of
my affection for him, my dear mother burst into such a fit of tears as I
never saw, and kissed and hugged me fit to smother me. "Bless him, bless
him," says she, "to think of his old father. And where did you purchase
it, Bob?"--"Why, mother," says I, "I purchased it out of my savings"
(which was as true as the gospel).--When I said this, mother looked