HOW TO IIAICE A BOOK. 57 



gently nibbing my bead and neck. " I wa-s forgettin where I 

 was, like the sportin' parson when he tipped 'em ' a southerly 

 wind and a cloudy sky ' instead of the Old Hundred." 



Assured of no real cause for alarm, I soon lost the effects of 

 my attendant's somewhat ill-judged enthusiasm, and be again 

 occupied his position on the bottom of the stable-pail, and 

 resumed the project of " bow to make a book." 



" Good things, sucb as dead 'osses," continued Harry, " are 

 not to be picked up every day ; but the oracle's to be worked 

 without such certainties as them, I know. ISTow, supposin' I was 

 to back a likely lot at a long figure — just as the pencils begin to 

 move about 'em, and lay off as they come up, that w^ould be one 

 way of making a book, and with those that did come up 

 I might stand on velvet. But some would go back, and others 

 clean out o' the bettin' altogether." 



Harry's brow became knitted and lined vv^ith thought, and 

 he again had recourse to the closely-nibbled thumb-nail. 



" They'd be dead lorsses, they would," re-commenced he ; 

 "and I couldn't stand against dead lorsses. I want to play 

 just t'other kind o' game." 



It was several minutes before Harry Dale spoke again ; but 

 during the pause he appeared to be making abstruse calcula- 

 tions through the medium of a few pieces of straw which, in 

 silence, he continued to add and subtract from each other on 

 that small part of the stable-pail free from his immediate per- 

 sonal occupation. 



"Humph !" ejaculated he, "that seems to be more like the- 

 genuine ticket. It's figgers, after all : nothin' more nor less 

 than figgers ; but to make a book with a balance on the right 

 side, a feller must know more about figgers than how mucli 

 twice two makes. Yes, yes," and Harry Dale showed the most 

 backward tooth both in his upper and under jaws j " that's 

 where it is. It's figgers." 



After delivering this introductory part of his discovered 

 scheme, Harry busied himself with the primitive symbols of 

 arithmetical calculation, and seemed to take indescribable 

 interest in practically illustrating his theory. 



