Miscellany: Peter Chancery Esq., And His Five Dollar Bill: S...

Sir, if you please, boss would like you to pay this little bill to-day,' said for the tènth time a half-grown boy in a dirty jacket, to a lawyer in his office.The Attorney at length turned round and stared the boy full in the face, os if he had been some newly discovered specimen of apology, gave a long whistle, thrust his inky fingers first intoone pocket and then into the other of his black cloth vest, nnd then gave another long' whistle and completed hisstare at the boy's face. 'Ho, ha, hum! that bill. eh?' and the legal young gentleman extended the tips of his fingers towards the well known bit of paper, and daintily opening it, looked at its contents. 'Hum! for cappmg and heel tapping, six shillings - for foxing, ten and sixpence, and other sundries, eh! So your inaster wants me to settle this bill, eh!' repeated the man of briefs. 'Yes, sir. This is the nineteenth timel've come for it, and I intend to knock off at twenty and cali it half a day,' 'You're an impudent boy.' 'I is ahvays impudent to lawyers, coz 1 can't helpt it - its catching!' ?You're eye teeth are cut, I see!' 'That is-what boss sent me for instead of the 'prentices as was getting their teeth cut. I cut mine at 9 months oíd with a hand-saw. Boss says if you don't pay that bill he'jlsue you!' Sue me I'm aïavvyer!' ' 'itisno matter for that! Lawyer or no lawyer, boss declares he'll do it - so fork over!' 'Declares he will sue me?' 'As true as there is another lawyer in all Filadelfy.'. 'That wouldbe bad!' 'Wouldn'tit!'Silenco, you vngab'ond. 1 suppose I must pay this,' muttered the attorney to himself. 'It is not my plan to pay these small bilis! What isa íawyer's profession good for. if hecan'tget clearofpaying his own bilis? He tcill sue me! - 'Tis just five dollars! It comes hard, and he does not want the money! What is five dollars to him?1 boy could have earned it in the time he has been sending him to me to dun for it. _So your master will sue for it if I don't pay?' 'He says he will do it, and charge you a new pair of shoes for me.' 'Hark'ee. I cannot pay to day; nnd so if yóur boss will sue, just be so kind nsto ask him to employ me as his attoruev.''You!' 'Yes, I will issue the writ, have it served, and then you see, I shall putthecosts into my own pocket, instead of seeing them go into another lawyer's. So you see f I have tó pay the bilí I shall make Ihecosts. Capital idea." The boy scratched his head awhHe, as ií striving to comprehend this capital idea,' and then shook it doubtingly. 'I don't know about this; it looks tricky. I will ask boss, though, ïf as how you say you won't pay it no how without being Bued.' 'I'd ratherbe sued if he'll employ me, 'But who's to pay them costs - the boss?' The Jawyer looked all at once very serious, and then gave another of those long whistles peculiar to him. 'Well, I am a sensible man, truly! - My anxiety (o get the costs of suit blinded me to the fact that they were to come out of one of my own pockets before they ecu ld be safely put into the other pocket!Ah, well, my boy, I suppose I must pay. Here is a five dollar bill. Is it receipted - it is so dirty and groasy I cannot see?' 'It was nice and clean three months ago when boss gin it to me, and the writing shined like Kmtpp's Blackin'- it is torn so of' a donnin so much.' 4Well,here's your money,' said the man oflaw, taking a solitary five dollar note from his watchfob; "now teil your master Mr. Last, that if he has any other accounts he wants sued I will attendto thcm with the greatest pleasure.' Thank'ee sir,' answered the boy,pocketing his five, 'but you is the only regular dunnin customer boss has, and now you have paid up, he haint none but cash folks. Goodday to you.' Now there goes a five dollar bill that will do that fellow Last no good. 1 am in great want of it, but he is not. It is a five thrown away. It would not have left my pocket but that I was sure his patience was worn out, and costs would come of it. I like to take costs, but I don't think that a lawyer has any thing to do with paying thefti.' As Peter Chancéry, Esq., did not believe in his own mind that paying his débt to Mr. Last was to be of any benefit to him, and was of opinión that it was 'money thrown away,' let us follow the fate of this five dollar bill through the daj (ííe has paid,' said the boy, placing the fivè dollar bill in bis master's han.'Well, I am glad of it,' answered Mr. Last, surveying the bank note through his ¦ glassesand its a current bilí, too. Now run with it and pay Mr. Furnace the five dollars I borrowed from him yesterday, and said I wbuld return to-mórrow. But I will pay it now.' 'Ah, my lad, come just in time,' said Fnrnace as the boy delivered his errand and the note. 'I was just wondering where I could gët five dollars to pay a bilí which is due to-day. Here, John,' he called to one of his apprentices, 'put on your hat and take this money to Capt. O'Brien and teil him 1 carne within one of disappointing him, when some money came in I did not expect.' Capt. O'Brien was on board of his schooner at the next wharf, and with him was a seaman with his hai in his hand, looking very gloomy as he spoke with him, 'I am sorry, my man, I cannot pay-you - but I have just raised and scraped the last dollar I can get above water to pay my insurance money to day, and have not a copper left in my pocket to jingle, butkeys and old nails.' 'But I am very much in need, sir; my wife is ailing, and my family is in want of a good many things just now,andl got several articles at the store expecting to get money of you to take them up as I went along home, We have in the house no flöur, nor tea, nor - ' 'Well, my lad, I am sorry. You i must come to-morrow. I cannot help you unless I sell my coat offmy back, or i pawn the schooner's kedge. Nó body pays me.' The sailor wbo had come to get an I vanee ofwoges, turned away sorrowful, J when the apprentice boy carne up and i said, in his hearing: 'Here, sir,are five dollars Mr. Furnace owes you. He says,when he told you he (could not pay your bilí to-day, he díd not expect some money ihat came in afler yöu left his shop.' ?Ah, that's a fine boy! Here Jack, take this five dollar bilí and come Saturday and get the balance of your wages.' The scaman wilh a joyful bound, look the bill, and touching his hat, sprung with a light heart on shore and hastened to thestorewhere he had already selected the comforts and necessities his family stood so much in need of. As he entered, a poor woman was trying to prevail upon the store-keeper to settle a deiyiand for making his shirts. 'You had best take it out of the store, Mrs. Conway,' he said to her, 'really I have not taken half the amount of your bill to-day. and do not expect to. I have to charge every thing and no nioncy comesin.' 'I cannot do without il,' answered the voman,earnestly;'my daughter is very il], and in want of every comfort; 1 am out of fire wood,and indeed I want manythings which I have depended on this m'oney toWU1BU "igni and day to get your shirts done.' LI Am vcry sorry, Mrs. Conway,' said the store keeper, looking into his money drawer; I have not five shillings here, and your bill is five dollars and ninepence.' The poor woman thought of her invalid child and wrung her hands. 'A sailor was here awhile ago and seleced full five dollars worth of arlicles here on the counter and went away to get his wages topny for them, hut I question if- - - - - ¦¦¦¦ - ____ he comes back. If he does and pays me for them, you shall have your money, madam.' At this instant Jack made his appearance at the door. 'Well, ship-mate,' he cried, in a tone much more elevated than when he was discovered speaking with the captain; 'well, my hearty, hand over my freight. I'vegot the document, sq-give us possession!' anddisplaying his five dollar bill, he laid hold of his purchases. The storekeeper,examining and seeing that the note was a good one, bade him take them with him, and then sighing as he took another and last look at the bill, he handed it to the poor widow, who with a joyful smile, received it from him and hastened from the store. In a low and very humble tenement, near the water, was afamily of poor children, whose appearance. exhibited the utmost destitution. On a cot-bed lay a poor woman,ill and emaciated. The door opened, and a man in coarse patched garments entered with a wood saw and cross, laid them down by the door side and apapproached the bed. 'Are you any better, dear?' he asked in a rough voice, but in the kindest Iones,'No- have you found work? If you could get me a Httle nourishing food, I . should regain my strength.' The man gazed upon her pa.le face for a moment, nnd again faking up his saw and cross, went out. He had not gone far before a wotnan met him, and said she wished him to follow lier and saw some wood for her. Mis heart bounded with hope and gratitute, and he went after her to her dwelling, an abode little better than his own for its poverty, yet wearing an air of comfort. He sawed the wood, spUt andpiled it, and received six shillings, with which he hastened to a store for necessaries for his sick wife,and then hurried home to gladden her heart with the delicacies he had provided. Til] now he had no work for four days. and his family had been 'starving, and from this day his wife got better and was at length restored to her family and to health, from a state of weakness which another day's continuace of, would have proved fatal.This money which did so much good, was paid him by the woman from thefive dollars she Jiad received from the storekeeper, and which the sailor had paid him. The poor woraan's daughter was also revived, and ultimately restored to health; and was Jately married to a young man who had been absent three years and returned true to his troih. But for the five dollars which had been so instrumental in her recovery, he might have returned and been told that she whose memory had so long been the polar star of his heart, had perished. So much good did the five dollar bill do which Peter Chancery, Esq. so reluctantly paid to Mr. Last's apprentice boy, though little credit is due to this legal gentleman for the results that followed. It is thus that Providence often makes bad men instruments of good to others. - ' Let this little story lead those who think a 'small bilí' can stand because it is a 'small bill,' to rémember how much good a five dollar bill has done in one single day - and that in paying aseries of twenty bilis and dispensing good to hundreds iround them.