158 OCCASIONAL HAPPY THOUGHTS. 



" O," exclaims Cazell, nodding his head significantly, 

 "isn't it!'' 



I think it over to myself. If there really are advantages,, 

 specially in horse-dealing, in being a Freemason, the sooner 

 I'm a Freemason the better. 



Cazell puts cases, supposed to be historic. " Facts," ]ie 

 says. For instance (Cazell's first case for the advantage of 

 b^ing a Freemason). You meet a robber, he is just going to- 

 knock you down and take your money, or you ai'e knocked 

 down and he's just going to take your money, when 

 suddenly it occurs to you to make the sign. The robber 

 makes another ; you reply, he returns : he grasps your hand. 

 You his ! You are brothers ! and he doesn't rob you. Nay,, 

 more, perhaps, he gives you a free pass through his district. 



I admit (to Cazell) that he has shown a case when being a 

 Mason would be decidedly an advantage. 



" Of course," continues Cazell, easily, '• if that robber is 

 taken up, and your evidence is wanted to convict him, you, as 

 a Mason and a brother, cannot give it. Not even if that 

 robber has committed the most outrageous crimes." 



This seems to me to raise a difficulty. We argue the 

 question as between the duty (under oath) of a Freemason to 

 Masons, and of a man to his fellow-men The result of the 

 conversation is to make me feel more assured that Free- 

 masonry would be decidedly of use in horse-dealing, if the 

 liorse-dealer and myself were both Masons. 



Happy Thought.— \\\ fact if the Horse-dealer were a cheat 

 and a Mason, I as a Mason would certainly get the better of 



