Blunt & Tin, solicitors, Lothbury." Here, then, was something tangible for fellow-creatures to go on: there was land, there was a mine, there was coal, and there actually came shareholders and capital.

Uncle Jack was so persuaded that his fortune was now to be made, and had, moreover, so great a desire to share the glory of ruining the monster monopoly of the London wharves, that he refused a very large offer to dispose of the property altogether, remained chief shareholder, and removed to London, where he set up his carriage and gave dinners to his fellow-directors.

For no less than three years did this company flourish, having submitted the entire direction and working of the mines to that eminent engineer, Giles Compass.

Twenty per cent was paid regularly by that gentleman to the shareholders, and the shares were at more than cent per cent, when one bright morning Giles Compass, Esq., unexpectedly removed himself to that wider field for genius like his, the United States; and it was discovered that the mine had for more than a year run itself into a great pit of water, and that Mr.Compass had been paying the shareholders out of their own capital.

My uncle had the satisfaction this time of being ruined in very good company; three doctors of divinity, two county members, a Scotch lord, and an East India director were all in the same boat,--that boat which went down with the coal-mine into the great water-pit! It was just after this event that Uncle Jack, sanguine and light-hearted as ever, suddenly recollected his sister, Mrs.Caxton, and not knowing where else to dine, thought he would repose his limbs under my father's trabes citrea, which the ingenious W.S.Landor opines should be translated "mahogany." You never saw a more charming man than Uncle Jack.
All plump people are more popular than thin people.