IO

Schacabac's jaws were by this time weary of chewing nothing. "I assure thee," said he, "I am so full that I cannot eat another morsel of this cheer."

He had hardly finished this speech before the Barmecide s burst into laughter. "Come," said he, "I have long been looking for a man of thy character. Let us be friends. Thou has kept up the jest in pretending to eat; now thou shalt make my house thy home, and eat in earnest.'

Having said this he clapped his hands. Several slaves 10 instantly appeared, whom he ordered to set out the table. and serve the dinner. His commands were quickly obeyed and Schacabac now enjoyed in reality the good things of which he had before partaken only in dumb show.

-Arabian Nights.

1. This tale is from one of the oldest books of stories we know the Arabian Nights. Some think this book was compiled for the daughter of Queen Esther, of Old Testament history. Is it still interesting? How is it different from modern stories you have read?

CAPTA

THE PINE-TREE SHILLINGS

BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

APTAIN JOHN HULL was the mintmaster of Massachusetts and coined all the money that was made there. This was a new line of business, for in the earlier days of the colony the current coinage consisted of gold sand silver money of England, Portugal, and Spain. These coins being scarce, the people were often forced to barter their commodities instead of selling them.

S. H. R. SIXTH - 16

For instance, if a man wanted to buy a coat he perhaps exchanged a bearskin for it. If he wished for a barrel of molasses he might purchase it with a pile of pine boards. Musket bullets were used instead of farthings. The Indians had a sort of money, called wampum, which was made of 5 clamshells; and this strange sort of specie was likewise taken in payment of debts by the English settlers. Bank bills had never been heard of. There was not money enough of any kind, in many parts of the country, to pay the salaries of the ministers; so that they sometimes had 10 to take quintals of fish, bushels of corn, or cords of wood, instead of silver or gold.

As the people grew more numerous and their trade one with another increased, the want of current money was still more sensibly felt. To supply the demand the 15 General Court passed a law for establishing a coinage of shillings, sixpences, and threepences. Captain John Hull was appointed to manufacture this money and was to have about one shilling out of every twenty to pay him for the trouble of making them.

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Hereupon all the old silver in the colony was handed over to Captain John Hull. The battered silver cans and tankards, I suppose, and silver buttons of worn-out coats, and silver hilts of swords that had figured at court all such curious old articles were doubtless thrown into the 25 melting pot together. But by far the greater part of the silver consisted of bullion from the mines of South America, which the English buccaneers who were little better than pirates—had taken from the Spaniards and brought to Massachusetts.

All this old and new silver being melted down and coined, the result was an immense amount of splendid

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shillings, sixpences, and threepences. Each had the date, 1652, on the one side and the figure of a pine tree on the other. Hence they were called pine-tree shillings. And for every twenty shillings that he coined, you will remember, 5 Captain John Hull was entitled to put one shilling into his own pocket.

The magistrates soon began to suspect that the mintmaster would have the best of the bargain. They offered him a large sum of money if he would but give up that 10 twentieth shilling which he was continually dropping into his own pocket. But Captain Hull declared himself perfectly satisfied with the shilling. And well he might be; for so diligently did he labor that in a few years his pockets, his moneybags, and his strong box were overflowing with 15 pine-tree shillings.

When the mintmaster had grown very rich, a young man, Samuel Sewall by name, came a-courting to his only daughter. His daughter whose name I do not know, but we will call her Betsey - was a fine, hearty damsel, 20 by no means so slender as some young ladies of our own days. On the contrary, having always fed heartily on pumpkin pies, doughnuts, Indian puddings, and other Puritan dainties, she was as round and plump as a pudding herself. With this round, rosy Miss Betsey did Samuel 25 Sewall fall in love. As he was a young man of good character, industrious in his business, and a member of the church, the mintmaster very readily gave his consent.

"Yes, you may take her," said he, in his rough way, "and you'll find her a heavy burden enough!" 30 On the wedding day, we may suppose that honest John Hull dressed himself in a plum-colored coat, all the buttons of which were made of pine-tree shillings. The buttons

of his waistcoat were sixpences and the knees of his smallclothes were buttoned with silver threepences. Thus attired he sat with great dignity in Grandfather's chair; and being a portly old gentleman he completely filled it from elbow to elbow. On the opposite side of the room, s between her bridesmaids, sat Miss Betsey. She was blushing with all her might and looked like a full-blown peony or a great red apple.

There, too, was the bridegroom, dressed in a fine purple coat and gold-lace waistcoat, with as much other finery 10 as the Puritan laws and customs would allow him to put on. His hair was cropped close to his head, because Governor Endicott had forbidden any man to wear it below the ears. But he was a very personable young man, and so thought the bridesmaids and Miss Betsey herself.

love

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The mintmaster also was pleased with his new son-in-law; especially as he had courted Miss Betsey out of pure and had said nothing at all about her portion. So when the marriage ceremony was over, Captain Hull whispered a word to two of his menservants, who immediately went 20 out and soon returned lugging in a large pair of scales. They were such a pair as wholesale merchants use for weighing bulky commodities, and quite a bulky commodity was now to be weighed in them.

"Daughter Betsey," said the mintmaster, "get into one 25 side of these scales."

Miss Betsey or Mrs. Sewall, as we must now call her did as she was bid, like a dutiful child, without any question of the why and wherefore. But what her father could mean, unless to make her husband pay for her by the 30 pound (in which case she would have been a dear bargain), she had not the least idea.

"And now," said honest John Hull to the servants, "bring that box hither."

The box to which the mintmaster pointed was a huge, square, ironbound, oaken chest. The servants tugged 5 with might and main but could not lift this enormous receptacle and were finally obliged to drag it across the floor. Captain Hull then took a key from his girdle, unlocked the chest, and lifted its ponderous lid. Behold! it was full to the brim of bright pine-tree shillings, fresh 10 from the mint; and Samuel Sewall began to think that his father-in-law had got possession of all the money in the Massachusetts treasury. But it was only the mintmaster's honest share of the coinage.

Then the servants, at Captain Hull's command, heaped 15 double handfuls of shillings into one side of the scales while Betsey remained in the other. Jingle, jingle, went the shillings, as handful after handful was thrown in, till plump and ponderous as she was, they fairly weighed the young lady from the floor.

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"There, son Sewall!" cried the honest mintmaster, resuming his seat in Grandfather's chair, "take these shillings for my daughter's portion. Use her kindly and thank Heaven for her. It is not every wife that's worth her weight in silver!"

-Grandfather's Chair.

1. What is money used for? What metals do we use in making our coins? What besides metals is used in making money? What did the colonists use for money?

2. What were pine-tree shillings? How did Captain Hull come to have a chest full of silver? How did the colonists obtain the metal? 3. Tell what happened at the Sewall-Hull wedding.

4. Explain barter, commodity, wampum, quintal, buccaneer, shilling, receptacle.