"Come down!" said Judy. "What business have you there? Who asked you to watch the boys? Why don't you come down? On the wall, too! Esther didn't invite you there."

"Esther didn't invite me anywhere," said Matilda, with the old inevitable set of her head, which said much more than the little girl knew. Esther felt it, and Judy was incensed.

"I would be ashamed, if I were you," she said. "Tell the boys, will you, that we are ready for the games. Call somebody. Shout! now you are up there, make yourself useful."

Matilda preferred not to shout. Instead of that, she waved her handkerchief. David rode up, the message was given. Then Norton came to help Matilda down from the wall; and soon the whole party gathered in the pavilion. This was rather more than a summer house; a large saloon, with windows and glass doors on all sides, furnished with lounges and easy chairs and tables, with a carpet on the floor, and kept with all the nicety of the house itself. Warm and tired and happy, the little company was ready for quiet amusements; and they played games of various kinds until the gong called them to dinner. That was to have been the end of the day's entertainment; but a storm had come up while they were at the table, and the rain fell too abundantly to let anybody leave the house except those who could go in close carriages. A few were thus drafted off, belonging to neighbouring families; a goodly little company still remained who were forced to accept the housekeeper's hospitalities for the night. That was additional fun rather than inconvenience, so voted and so accepted. However, as the day began to close in and a lull fell upon all their pleasure-seeking, it began to appear that the little people were tired. Naturally; they had worked hard all day. Voices changed their tone.

"Oh dear! I wish it wouldn't rain!" cried one young lady, pressing her face against the window, down the outside of which the streams of rain drops were running fast.

"Might as well wish something else, Carrie, while you are about it," Norton said.

"I can't!"

"I wish I was home," said another.

"Wait till to-morrow, and you will have your wish."

"But I don't want to wait."

"Don't you know some new games, Esther?"

This sort of thing went on for some time till tea and cake made a diversion, and lights were brought. Then the cry was, "What shall we do all the rest of the evening?"

"I have a game for you," said David at last.

"What is it? what is it?"

"A new game."

"What is it?"

"It is called, 'Capital and Interest.'"

"I don't understand that," pouted one of the young ladies.

"You will understand it fast enough, when we come to play it."

"How do you play it?"

"You must choose a Judge and a Recorder."

"What's a Recorder?"

"Some one to put down what we say. We all tell our business; the Recorder sets it down, and the Judge says whose business is worth the most."

"How can he tell?"

"He can hear what we say, and he can use his judgment, as we all can."

"Must we tell the truth? or say what we have a mind?"

"Either you like."

"That's jolly!" said one of the boys. "I go in for saying what we have a mind."

"Just imagine the nicest things you can," David went on.

"To eat?" said Esther.

"No, no; you've done enough of that to-day," said Norton. "Imagine what you have a mind to, – every sort of thing that's pleasant."

"Well you begin, Norton, because you understand it. We'll hear you play, and so learn."

"We have got to choose the Judge first. And the Recorder."

"What's the Judge to do?"

"Say who has made the best business."

"I don't understand a bit of it," said Esther.

"No, but you will presently. You'll see. Wait till we begin. Who will you have for Judge?"

There was a general cry of "David Bartholomew!"

"No," said David, "I won't be Judge. I'll be Recorder, if you like. For Judge, I propose Norton Laval."

Norton was agreed upon unanimously.

"Now we are ready. Esther, we will begin at you. Tell what you have, or what you would like to have; and then, what you would do with it, or use it for."

"I don't know what you mean," said Esther.

"You are not tied to facts. Tell what you like. What would you most like?"

"Most like?" repeated Esther. "Let me see. It's very hard to begin with me, when I don't know the game. Let us see. I think I should like to have the most beautiful diamonds in New York."

"Very good," said Norton. "Now tell what you would do with them."

"Do with them? Why, wear them, of course."

"Of course," said Norton. "But the diamonds are your capital, you understand; what interest will you get for your capital? What good will they do you, Esther? that's it."

"What good?" said Esther. "Why, if I had the finest jewels of anybody, don't you see I should outshine everybody?"

"I don't see it," said Norton; "but then I'm not in that line. It's your business we are talking of. Put it down properly, Recorder. Now Bob Francis – what's your idea of a jolly life, eh?"

"I don't know!" said Bob. He was a year older than his sister; not a year brighter.

"O yes, you do. Fancy – but I don't believe you can fancy. What would you like best, Bob? – come!"

"I'd like as well as anything to be a cavalry officer, and have nothing to do but ride."

"A cavalry officer has a great deal to do, I can tell you, my fine fellow, besides riding," said David.

"O well; I don't want to have anything else to do," said Bob. "I'd cut school; it's a bore."

"But you can't ride always. What will be the good of your riding when you are sick, or get old?"

"O then I'll die," said Bob contentedly.

"Let it stand, Davy," said Norton. "Write him down, with a horse and a saddle for his capital and riding his business. Who's next? Hatty Delaplaine! What will you have?"

Hatty, a pale, freckled girl, with twinkling gray eyes, was ready with her answer.

"I'd like to have Stewart's store, all to myself, and a dressmaker."

"The dressmaker all to yourself too, I suppose. Girls are the queerest things!" said Norton.

"Not a bit queerer than boys," spoke up Judy.

"Well, – see if the present game does not prove them so," said Norton. "What'll you do with Stewart's and a dressmaker, Hatty Delaplaine?"

"Don't you see? I'd never wear the same dress twice, and I wouldn't have the same for breakfast or luncheon or dinner; and I would have the most beautiful dresses that ever were seen."

"What would you do with them, after once wearing?" David asked.

"O I should never know and never care. My maid would dispose of them, I suppose. I should have enough to do to think of the new ones. But I do love costumes!" the girl added, clasping her hands.

"Is that a 'costume' you have got on?" Norton asked.

"Nonsense! it isn't anything. I haven't got Stewart's and my dressmaker yet. When I have, you'll know it."

"Juliet Bracebridge! – speak if you please. I'm finished," said Norton. "This is the richest game I've seen yet. Juliet? – "

"I think I should like a perfect little carriage, and a perfect pair of horses, and to go driving over the world."

"Where?" said Norton. "You mean, over the Central Park and the Boulevards."

"No, I don't. I mean what I say."

"Bad roads in some places," said Norton. "Up Vesuvius, for instance; or over Mont Blanc in winter. Greece is dangerous, and – "

"Don't talk nonsense, Norton Laval. Of course I should drive where I could drive, and would like to drive. Over Mont Blanc in winter, indeed!"

"Well, come to business. A perfect pair of horses and perfect carriage, – that's your capital; and you'll go driving all over. What will be the interest on your capital, do you think? in other words, what will you take by it?"

"I should always have a variety, don't you see, and not have time to get tired of anything."

"Are there roads enough in the world to last you?" said Norton. "I declare! these girls – Joe Benton, give us your mind."

"I'll make a fortune, Norton."

"All right. What'll you do with it?"

"I'll have the best house, and the handsomest wife, and the largest estate in the country."

"You'll buy your wife with your money?" asked Judy.

"Easy," – said Joe, grinning.

"I don't care – 'twont be me," said Judy. "I pity the woman."

"Why?" said Joe. "She'll have everything she wants, too."

"Excepting the right person," said Judy.

"Well I don't care; it won't be you," said Joe; "so you may say what you like."

"I would if it was," said Judy.

But a chorus of laughter broke them off.

"Judy's next," said Norton. "I should like to hear what you will say, Judy."

"I should like to be a queen," said Judy.

"That's it! Go to the top at once. Well, you've got to show why. What would you do if you were a queen?"

"I'd put down all preaching and praying, and people's making fools of themselves with giving away their money to poor folks, and nursing sick folks, and all the rest of it."

"Why Judy!" exclaimed one or two. "You'd stop preaching?"

"Wouldn't you be sorry!" said Judy.

"No, but really. Wouldn't you let people be ministers?"

"Ministers like Dr. Blandford. He don't give away his money, I'll be bound; and he likes his glass of wine and smokes his pipe like other folks."

"He don't smoke a pipe, Judy."

"You know what I mean. If I had said he likes his grog, you wouldn't have thought it was made of gin, would you?"

"So you'd be a queen, to stop religious toleration?" said Norton.

"I'd stop any," said Judy. "I don't care whether it's religious or not."

"But what's given you such a spite at religious people?" asked Esther.

"Mean!" said Judy. "Artful. Conceited to death. Stupid. And insane."

There was again a chorus of "Oh Judy!"'s.

"Never mind," said Norton. "When she's queen, I'll sell out and buy an estate in some other country. Who's next?"

"I knew you'd be sneaking along presently, at the tail of some black coat or other," Judy responded. "It's in you. The disease'll break out."

"I don't know what's in me," said Norton. "Something that makes me hot. I'm afraid it isn't religious. Roswell Holt, what's your idea of capital and business? Do leave Judy to her own fancies. This game's getting to be warm work. Roswell! – it's your turn."

"I believe," Roswell began sedately; he was an older boy than most of them and very quiet; "I believe, what I should like would be, to know all the languages there are in the world; and then to have a library so large that all the books in the world should be in it."

"Capital!" said Norton. "What good would that do you?"

"Why, I could read everything," said Roswell.

"And what good would that do you?"

"I should like it," said Roswell. "I should have what I like."

"Solomon tried that once," said David, who was taking diligently his reporter's notes. "It didn't seem to answer then."

"Ah, but there were not so many books in his day," said Roswell.

"The worse for you, I should say. Besides, there are not so many now as there will be a thousand years hence. How about that, old fellow?"

"I can't read what there'll be a thousand years hence," said Roswell.

"You couldn't read what there are now, if you had them. You could not live long enough."

"What a musty old fogy he would be, by the time he had gone half through!" said Judy. "He would have used up his eyes; his spectacles would have made a ridge on his nose; he would live in an old coat that was never brushed; and his books would be all coffee stains, because he would take his breakfast over them. Poor old creature!"

"You'll be old then yourself, Judy," said some one.

"I won t," said the young lady promptly. "I mean to keep young."

"Ben Johnson – go ahead," said Norton. "It's your turn."

"I'd like to go supercargo in the China trade," said Ben; a lively-looking fellow enough.

"Good," said Norton. "Say why. Love of the sea wouldn't take you to China, I suppose."

"Not exactly," said Ben, with a confidential gleam in his eyes. "I should have nothing to do – and smoke seventy cigars a day."

"Seventy cigars!" cried out two or three of the girls. "Horrid!"

"You couldn't do it, old fellow."

"Easy," said Ben. "My cousins, Will Larkins and Dan Boston, did it every day."

"They must be of a practical turn of mind, I should think," said Norton. "They meant their voyage should pay – somebody – and so concluded it should be the tobacconist. Lucy Ellis – ?"

"I should like to be very beautiful," said the girl, who had some pretensions that way already, or she wouldn't have said it in public, – "and have everybody love me."

"Everybody!" cried Judy. "All the boys, you mean."

"No indeed," said the beauty with a toss of her head. "I mean all the men."

"But people don't love people because they are handsome," said Norton.

"Don't they, though!" said Ben Johnson, who was a beauty in his way; as indeed so also was Norton. But here arose a furious debate of the question, in which almost everybody took part excepting David and Matilda. Laughing and shouting and discussing, the original game was almost lost sight of; and David sat with his pen in his hand, and Matilda listened in wondering amusement, while the negative and the affirmative of the proposition were urged and argued and fought for. At last Norton appealed.

"What do you think, David?"

"What do you think of our game?"

"I had forgot it, that's a fact," said Norton. "Who's next? O come along, we'll never settle that question. Who's next? Pink, I believe it is you. Matilda Laval! what's your capital and business?"

"Now you'll get a queer one," said Judy.

"It won't be the first, by some," said Norton; "that's one thing."

"This'll be a good one. Oh, ever so good!" said Judy.

"It won't be anything, if you can't hush," said Norton impatiently. "Come, Pink, whatever it is, let us have it. What's your fancy?"

"I should like to have a medicine that would be sure to cure," said Matilda.

"A medicine!" cried Norton.

"She'd be a doctor," exclaimed Judy with a burst of laughter.

"What for, Pink?"

"I would go round, making sick people well."

"Beautiful, ain't it?" said Judy. "O we have such lots of goodness in our house, you wouldn't know it; and I don't know it my self. Fact is, it confuses me."

"Bill Langridge?"

"Governor of the State," – called out Bill in reply.

"Why don't you say 'Sultan of Muscat,' at once?"

"Don't know Muscat – and don't care about governing where I'm a stranger. Might make mistakes, you see."

"Well – what's the good in being Governor of the State? – to you?"

"Having things my own way, don't you see? and at top of everything."

"There's the President, and all his secretaries," said Norton.

"They're not in my way. In the State, you know, nobody is over the Governor."

"That's what you call a moderate ambition," said David.

"Aims pretty high," said Bill.

"Not high enough," said another boy. "I'd choose to be commander in chief of the army."

"How's that any higher, Watson?" said Bill.

"Military rule," said Watson. "Your Governor has to consult this one and 'tother one, and go by the Legislature too, when all's done; the commander in chief asks leave of nobody."

"Well, Elisha Peters, what's your ambition?" called out Norton.

"I'd like a little money, – enough, you know, not too much; and to go travelling all over the world on foot."

"On foot!" said Norton. "What would you get out of that?"

"I should see everything. Not part, you know, as everybody does; I should see everything."

"What would you do, Elisha, when you had got to the end of everything? – seen it all?"

"Don't believe I could. The world's big enough to last one man."

"Don't know but what it is," said Norton. "Will you write a book?"

"Guess not. Take too much time."

"Then the travelling would do nobody good but you?" said David.

"Who else should it?" replied Elisha.

"The book would do nobody any good, if he were to write it," suggested Judy.

"Polite" – said Elisha.

"Selfish" – retorted Judy.

"Everybody is selfish," returned the young cynic.

"'Tain't true," said Norton; "but I haven't time to argue just now. I've got work enough to do as a judge. Are we most through? I declare, here's half a dozen more to speak. Speak quick, please; and don't say so many odd things. The judge's work isn't going to be a trifle, in this court. Dick Morton, go ahead."

"I'd like to be able to do just what I have a mind to," said Dick.

"Bravo! only that's what we're all after. Come a little nearer the point, Dick; what'll you do with your time?"

"I'd be a hunter. I'd have first-rate rifles, you know, and pistols, and all that; and people to help; and I'd just go hunting. I'd kill buffaloes in the West till I had enough of that, and take a turn at a bear or so; then I'd go to Africa and have a royal time with the rhinoceros and lions, and maybe crocodiles. I'd spend a good while in Africa. Elephants, too. Then I'd cross over to India and hunt tigers. I'd chase ostriches too."

"Not in India," said David.

"I didn't say, in India; but where they are. Deer of course, everywhere; and chamois, and all that."

"Birds?" suggested Norton.

"O yes, by the way, you know. I'd live upon ducks and snipe and wild turkey."

"When you weren't eating venison and buffalo hump," said David.

"Well – I'd have variety enough," said Dick. "I tell you! a hunter's supper is jolly."

"All alone?" said Esther.

"Another specimen of selfishness," said Judy. "They're all alike as two pears – only some of 'em are green, and the others a different colour."

"That's your business," said Norton summing up; "now what's the good of it, Dick?"

"Fun. What's the good of anything?"

"To be sure," said the Judge. "Julie Simpson?"

But Julie wriggled and simpered, and could not be got to express herself otherwise. The sayings of several next corning were only echoes of some one or other of those who had spoken. Norton grew impatient.

"That'll do," he said; "now for the Recorder. It's time the Judge finished up. The best part of the play comes after."

"What's that?" said somebody; "what comes after? I thought this was the whole."

"You wouldn't catch me playing 'Capital and Interest' very often, if it was," said Norton. "No; the best business man, or the one who has the best business, is to appoint forfeits to all the rest; and if he knows how to do it, I tell you! that's fun."

"But how are we to decide who has the best business?"

"Can't! The Judge does that. Go ahead, David. What's your business?"

"I wish it was peddling old shoes!" said Judy.

"Why?" several asked.

"It won't be anything as respectable. We've taken to turning old coats at our house."

"Go ahead, Davy!" cried Norton.

But David was deliberate about it. He finished his writing, and looked up.

"I think my capital is myself," he said with a smile. "I mean to make the most of myself, in every way I can think of; as well as of my money, and whatever else I have got."

"Don't sound so bad," said Elisha looking at Judy.

"Well Davy," said Norton; "what are you going to do with yourself, after you have made the most you can of it?"

"I am the servant of the King Messiah," said David with a smile again; "myself and all I have belong to him, and I want to make the most of them for Jesus and his work and his Kingdom. They are the talents He has given me to work with. And when the King comes to take account of me, I want to be able to say, 'Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds.'"

The little people were silent. David spoke so simply and in so business-like fashion, there was no game to be made of his words; and nothing was said, till Norton remarked he did not know what he was going to do; he could not remember one half that had been said for him to pass judgment upon.

"I've got it all here," said David. "Take your seat, and begin; I'll read you two, and you choose the best in your judgment of those; then take another and compare with that, and so on."

"Well," said Norton. "Get along, David. It s a pesky business, this being judge, I can tell you."

"Silence in the court!" said David. "Esther Francis; capital, the most beautiful diamonds in New York; interest, she outshines everybody."

"Next" – said Norton.

"I didn't say that, did I?" asked Esther.

"Of course you said that; he's got it down. Next, David?"

"Bob Francis. Capital, a cavalry officer's commission and a horse. Interest, he'll ride."

"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed a round chorus of the children.

"Silence in the court!" repeated David. "We wait for the Judge's decision."

"Hm! – I wish you had it to do!" growled Norton, rubbing his head. "Which is the best business of those two? Well, between diamonds and horses, if you're shut up to them, I think a horse is the best stock in trade."

"But the business– the interest," said Bob. "Ain't riding like a man better than sitting or dressing to be stared at like a woman?"

"I think it's the most manly," Norton repeated.

"But not the most womanly?" said Esther.

"No, not the most womanly."

"Well, which is best?" somebody cried.

"Riding is the best for me," said Norton. "I should feel like a fool in diamonds."

"A Hindoo rajah, or a Persian shah, or an Arab emir wouldn't feel so," suggested David.

"I am not a Hindoo nor an Arab, though," said Norton. "If I am to give judgment I'll give it like a good American. And I say, that a saddle is better than a jewel-box any day; and it's better in my judgment to ride for one's life, than to make people's eyes wink with looking at you. Go on, Recorder!"

"Hatty Delaplaine. Capital, a dressmaker and dry-goods unlimited. Interest, nothing but new dresses."

"Riding is better than dressing," said the Judge. "Bob Francis has it yet."

"But why is it better?" asked Miss Hatty. The Judge was a little at a loss.

"I tell you what," said he, "my business is hard enough as it is; I can't stand any aggravations. I'll take the sense of the assembly. All who say as I do, hold up their hands."

But it was found that the judgments were essentially masculine and feminine; the girls sided with Hatty, the boys with Bob.

"There's most good to be done by riding," said Norton.

"There ain't!" said Judy. "Dressing encourages the working people."

"And there's no good in riding at the head of soldiers," said Hatty.

"Well, it is a more noble occupation," said Norton.

"I don't see the nobility!" said Roswell Holt.

"Well, I don't care!" said Norton. "Let them both stand together then. I hope there'll be something more remarkable than either of 'em."

"Juliet Bracebridge. A carriage and horses. Will drive all over the world. Thinks she'll never know ennui."

"Juliet has it," said the Judge. "That's better than just riding or dressing for its own sake. I'd like driving over the world myself. What next?"

"Joe Benton. Will have a fortune. Interest, wife, house, and estate better than anybody else."

"I don't believe the best wife can be bought," said Roswell.

"And the best house for you mightn't be the best house for me," said Judy.

"He didn't mean it for you, Judy," said her cousin Bob.

"Judge'll never get through, if you don't stop these civilities," said Norton. "I decide for Joe. No, I don't! I decide for Juliet. Nicer to go contentedly travelling all over, than to take all one's comfort in one's pride. Juliet has it yet."

"Judy Bartholomew. Will have a queen's power, and the use of it is to put down religious freedom in her dominions."

"Juliet has it!" shouted Norton. "Better amuse yourself not at other people's expense, I think, if you can manage it."

"Roswell Holt; all books in all languages, and power to understand them. Finds the good of his life in reading."

"That sounds sensible," said Norton. "I give it for Roswell over Juliet."

"But why?" urged Juliet.

"There's something in books, you see."

"I am sure there is a good deal in countries and cities and people."

"True," said Norton.

"How's his business better than mine?"

"I don't know. Seems as if it ought to be."

"He pleases himself one way, and I another."

"And I another," said Esther.

"True. But books are books, as I said before. Now there's nothing in diamonds."

"There is in travelling," said Juliet again.

"Yes, there is. But the books shew a higher aspiration, Miss Bracebridge."

"I don't see it," said the young lady pouting.

"Well, when you are Judge, you'll know how easy it is," said Norton. "After all, it's only a game. Go ahead, David."

"Ben Johnson. Goes supercargo to China. Object, to do nothing and smoke seventy cigars a day."

"Roswell has it yet," said Norton. "Go ahead."

"Lucy Ellis. Great beauty. Loves to have all men look at her."

"Roswell has it!" cried Norton. "No stop. Go on."

"Matilda Laval. Has a medicine for all ills; and she lives to cure people."

"Matilda has it," said Norton, in a somewhat lowered tone.

"Bill Langridge. Governor of the State. Object, to have things his own way."

"Matilda has it!" said the judge judicially.

"Egbert Watson – prefers military to civil rule; therefore chooses to be head of the army instead of the State. Object, same as Bill Langridge's."

"Matilda Laval has it," said the Judge. He began somehow to look gloomy.

"Elisha Peters – has freedom to go through the world on foot. Object, is to see everything."

"Matilda Laval has it!" growled the Judge.

"Dick Morton. His capital is rifles, with powder and ball; object in life, to kill or to hunt and eat wild beasts."

"Don't come near Matilda Lavals," said the Judge.

"Julia Simpson has no object."

"Easy disposed of," said Norton.

"Ned Forsyth agrees with Watson; Mary Fortescue sides with Lucy Ellis; and half a dozen more with Lucy, Roswell Holt, Bill, and Miss Bracebridge."

"Then there's only you," said Norton gloomily.

"David Bartholomew. Capital, himself and all he has, to be made the most of. Business, to use it all for the King whose servant I am."

"What's the interest?" growled Norton, after a moment's pause. "But stop! how are you going to use it? you don't tell your business after all. What are you going to do?"

"I don't know," said David. "The King's will, whatever that is. Whatever he gives me to do."

"The interest?"

"That comes all along the way," said David. "But at the end – I shall inherit all things!"

"Is that a proper way of speaking, David?" said Esther gravely.

"That's the promise," said David.

"He's an old prig, that's what he is!" said one of the boys.

"No," said David, "stop! hear me; you don't understand. In that day the King will take account of his servants. And to those who can say to him, 'Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds' – or 'five pounds' – he will say, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.' I want that."

Something about the manner of David's speech stilled the impatient little company. David was always much looked up to and somewhat feared; and now he had spoken with a clear and sweet business tone which left no hold for ridicule. Nobody attempted it; and Judy saw her time was not then and kept silence. So did the Judge; too long, some of them thought.

"I suppose Matilda and you are in the same box," he began, "and what I give to one of you I must give to the other."

"No, no, you mustn't!" was cried in a stream of little voices. "They didn't say the same thing at all; you must judge by what they said."

"They both meant the same thing, I know," said Norton; "but if I must go by what they said, then David spoke more clearly than Matilda. Bartholomew has it."

"Reasons! reasons!" cried Judy and one or two more; for it was usual for the Judge to fortify himself thus in the opinions of his little assembly.

"Well," said Norton, without his usual readiness, "the reasons are plain enough. The best business is what yields the best interest; and you may judge yourselves, if working for other people isn't nobler than working for oneself. And as to the interest, – well, you know, – if you come to look at it," Norton went on not very lucidly – "that's better than this."

"What's better than which?" said Judy.

"Come, Judy," said her brother; "what will last, is better than what won't last; and all your diamonds cannot compare with 'shining as the stars for ever and ever;' and the King's court will be better than any little king's or queen's rule in this world."

There was a general cry now for the forfeits. It fell to David by right to dispense them. I have not time to tell how witty and how pleasant they were; but only that they brought every one into good humour long before the game was out.

The little party slept at the house, and returned to town by an early train next morning.

"David," said Matilda, catching him a moment by himself after they got home, – "don't you think Norton is coming round?" She spoke eagerly, anxiously, almost exultingly.

"Give him time, Tilly," said David smiling. "He rather committed himself last night, I think he will."