"How are you, Charon ?" said Shakespeare, as the Janitor assisted him on board.

"Any one here to-night ?" "Yes, sir," said Charon.

"Lord Bacon is up in the library, and Doctor Johnson is down in the billiard-room, playing pool with Nero." "Ha-ha!" laughed Shakespeare.

"Pool, eh?
Does Nero play pool ?" "Not as well as he does the fiddle, sir," said the Janitor, with a twinkle in his eye.
Shakespeare entered the house and tossed up an obolus.

"Heads--Bacon; tails--pool with Nero and Johnson," he said.
The coin came down with heads up, and Shakespeare went into the pool-room, just to show the Fates that he didn't care a tuppence for their verdict as registered through the obolus.