On my way homie I stopped in at the tailor's and
told him to take his three dollars and discontinue
his action, which he was glad enough to do. The
next day I wrote Mr. Wimbleton that I had forced
his enemy to capitulate — horse, foot, and dragoons
— and that the suit had been withdrawn. My em-
barrassment may be imagined when my client ar-
rived at the office in a state of delirious excitement
and insisted not only on inviting me to dinner, but
on paying me fifty dollars for services in giving him
the satisfaction of beating the tailor. Instantly I saw
a means of entirely satisfying the old man and earn-
ing some good fees without the slightest exertion.
The same method — although for another pur-
pose — ^will be recalled by my readers as having

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^ ^x.
Artemas Quibble

been invoked by the unjust steward who called his
lord's debtors to him and inquired how much they
owed. One, if I remember correctly, said a hun-
dred measures of oil.
"Take thy bill," said the steward, "and sit down
quickly, and write fifty."

Another, who confessed to owing a hundred
measures of wheat, the steward let off with eighty.
On discovering what he had done his lord com-
mended him for having done wisely, on the ground
that the children of this world were wiser than the
children of light.
