“ Oh, gold, yclept sovereigns!” exclaimed three or four, laughing heartily. “Why then, your famous Great Breeches people, after all, Chatterino, are so little advanced in civilization as to use gold! Harkee, Signior—a—a—Boldercraft, have you no currency in 'promises'?”
“ I do not know, sir, that I rightly comprehend the question.”
“ Why, we poor barbarians, sir, who live as you see us, only in a state of simplicity and nature,”—there was irony in every syllable the impudent scoundrel uttered—“we poor wretches, or rather our ancestors, made the discovery, that for the purposes of convenience, having, as you perceive, no pockets, it might be well to convert all our currency into 'promises.' Now, I would ask if you have any of that coin?”
“ Not as coin, sir, but as collateral to co
