opulence, and known the world over as the "Cliques," have gone into the
dairy business. The cheese-presses are kept and the churning is done in
the big offices by the wayside; but the milking is carried on in a very
Long Room, found, from considerable experience, to be peculiarly adapted
to this profitable line of trade. Now in the pastoral realms of Finance,
it is an odd fact that not only is the milk all cream, and golden cream
into the bargain, but it is sometimes hard to tell which are the
dairy-maids and which are the kindly animals with the crumpled horns
which furnish the lacteal supply which is so particularly sought after.
Of course every body wants as much cream as possible, and all have faith
that, at the nick of time, it will be given to them to milk instead of
the other thing. There is a pleasant amusement known among juveniles as
"SIMON says up," etc. This is the very milk in the stock-market
cocoanut. When some great member of the big Clique family cries "DANIEL
says up," and every body shouts by mistake "DANIEL says down," then the
Long Room does a very huge business indeed, and the number of cheeses
made is marvellous to relate. When, on the contrary, Clique says "down,"
and the crowd cries "up," and it really should be up, then the great
Clique discover that their dairy-maids have become the other thing, and
that all the cheese is going the other side of the way. This is
exceedingly damaging to the Clique firm; and as it is very painful
indeed to be the other thing, since it makes sore heads and brings on a
tendency to "bust," requiring much careful nursing to recover from the
effect, the Clique family is always careful to arrange every thing in a
manner that shall best insure the monopoly of the lacteal element to
itself.

At present the Cliques have made, most excellent provisions. It is a
rule that nothing so stimulates the production of cream in the financial
pastures as that curious esculent the greenback. Oddly enough, also,