publication is the cause of that, which is to assist in the endowment of the College at Cuddesden. But each sermon may be had singly; still we would recommend the complete set to such of our readers as are sermon buyers, and have them bound up to their own taste. W. C. P.

SHEFFINGHAM.

A TALE.

(Continued from page 157.)

CHAPTER VII.

THE BENEFIT CLUB.

"BETSY," said Wake to his wife, a day or two after he found himself unable to go to work, "it's our club night next Saturday; I'll go and see what they will give me a week, whilst I am laid up. I've paid into the Club these fifteen years, and this is the first time I've wanted any thing out. We must manage somehow, Betsy, not to touch that little money we've got in the Savings' Bank. Anyhow, we shan't be thrown upon the parish."

"I hope we mayn't," answered his wife; "for Rivis's wife told me, the other day (you know Rivis is secretary to our club), that the club must be broken up soon, like the other club was,-I mean the United Tradesman's Club,'about a year ago. Mrs. Rivis says that its some old men that have been on the club so long; I only hope it ain't true."

6

"Nonsense, Betsy," replied Wake, " that cannot be; our men have all paid regular."

"I can't see, father," put in Jim, "how it can last long; for you let old men in at the same price you have young men. At least, a man of forty pays no more than a man of twenty. It ain't like the Insurance."

"Hold your tongue, Jim; you know nothing about it," said his father; "wait till you're my age; besides, go into the churchyard, and you will see more graves of young men than of old men. Don't you be so conceited; you're always giving your opinion."

"It ain't my opinion," retorted Jim. "Young Mr. Holdfast told me, the other day, about a new Insurance Society just established; and all about Bills of Mortality."

"You be off to your work," said his father, "and don't stand chattering here. Take your Bills of Mortality with you, and insure your being in time."

Jim was going to reply, but a gesture from his father made him beat a retreat. This said Benefit Club was Wake's most tender point; it was almost the only thing he could not bear arguing upon. Only the week before, he had a very long conversation with Mr. Cudsden; during which, Wake told him, "All I can say is, sir, that our Benefit Club (I don't know anything about other clubs), but our club has lasted these twenty-five years, and I don't see why it should not last another twenty-five."

وو

"I do understand why it will not last another twenty-five years, and for the reasons I have explained to you,' said Mr. Cudsden; "and mark me, Wake, if I am not very wrong in my calculations, it will not exist many years, or perhaps not many months more."

Wake answered the Rector by the fallacious argument concerning the frequent deaths of young men, which we have heard him make use of to his son; at which Mr. Cudsden shook his head, saying, "Ah! well, Wake, none are so deaf as those that won't hear! I must leave you to let Time open your eyes."

"It would be little use, sir," replied Wake, "if I were convinced; for I've paid to our club for fifteen years, and I don't mean to lose what I've paid in. Besides, sir, I ain't going to desert the old club; I don't believe any old men in the world would break such a strong society as we are." "We'll have a talk about this another day," said the Rector; "I shall persuade you to insure, or to have a Benefit Club on a different principle, yet, Wake."

"I'll never desert my club," said Wake.

"No," replied Mr. Cudsden; "if it does not desert you." If what Mrs. Wake has told her husband is true, the Rector's words would appear almost prophetic. The next Saturday, accordingly, Wake attended his club. After the minutes had been read by the chairman, Rivis, the secretary, got up forthwith and read aloud an account of the state of the club funds. Mrs. Wake's fears were, alas! fully confirmed, as was evident from what Rivis read to them, the first conclusion being that the club must be broken

up. After he had finished, he laid his accounts on the table for inspection. Very narrowly were they looked into by searching and anxious pairs of eyes, but the accounts were straightforward and correct in all respects. At the bottom was attached the signatures of the chairman and of Mr. Cudsden, who testified in writing to having examined them, and found them correct in all particulars.

"I never thought the club were coming to this,” said one. 66 No, nor I," said another.

"From what I can see of the accounts," remarked Wake, "the funds have gradually got less, and the expenses greater, during the last three years. We have been used to hear, every half year, that the number of members was about the same; so that we paid but little attention to the state of accounts, at least not the attention we should."

"Order, order!" at length cried the chairman.

One of the members wished to address the meeting. Rivis again rose.

"I have belonged to this club," said he, "since the day it was first established by Mr. Holdfast. I was secretary when we foolishly, but, as we then thought, very grandly elected some of our own sort as chairmen, turning Mr. Holdfast and Mr. Cudsden out, to show our independence. We were then in a flourishing state; there was little sickness upon us, and the balance stood well on the right side of the book. Now we are reduced to nothing; many of us will have seven or ten shillings out of the club for twenty-five years' subscription, and we have much to thank ourselves for. Mr. Cudsden met me the other day, and asked me of the state of our society. I told him, and showed him the accounts, which he very kindly read over. He offers to start our club again for us, upon such a principle that, come old age, or come sickness, we shall never be brought to the state we are in now. I move," continued he, “that we elect Mr. Cudsden as the chairman of a new club, and that he be asked to preside in this room or any other room he may choose, and there explain to us the nature of the improvements he may wish to make."

The motion was seconded and carried, with a very small amount of opposition.

Wake went home after the meeting with two or three of

his fellow workmen, who all agreed that Rivis had made a capital speech.

"How well he takes it !" one of them said-" he has been in the club the longest of any one, and yet he don't grumble and bluster about the length of time he's been in.'

"It's very plain," remarked Wake," that our club has been on a wrong footing. I never believed it before, but I'm forced to believe it now."

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"I don't think Rivis has so much to grumble at," said some one, as those poor chaps that are ill; for he can get his living, whereas we poor chaps that are bad will have to come to the parish; and, besides, he was secretary, and ought to be a friend."

"Is your hand likely to be a long job, Bill?" asked one of the men.

"The doctor tells me," answered Wake, "that if it goes on as well as it can, it will take at least six weeks to get it well; and that's a very long time to be laid up, with a family to support, and nothing but five shillings a week coming in. Jim eats as much victuals himself as that would buy.”

"How did you manage to get it bad?"

"Oh, my boy Jim wiped his copper nicker on an old handkercher which my wife put on the burn on my hand, and that poisoned it."

"Well, that's curious! I hope it will be better sooner than you fancy," said they.

"Good night," said Wake, "I must go to my old woman; she'll see bad news in my face, I warrant; for I can't look jolly when I'm miserable."

"What's the matter?" said his wife, as Wake came into the house" The club broke down, as I told you?"

"Yes," replied he; "and we shall have to come to the workhouse."

"Jim's got

"Not so bad as that," returned his wife. work, and I can work, and Lucy must leave school and do a little, and Mr. Cudsden will give us a helping hand; altogether we can manage; our little savings must go, and perhaps a chair or two, if your hand keeps bad for very long; but we shan't come to the parish yet a while." "We must do what we can," said Wake.

"I feel pretty

miserable; let's go to bed, old woman;-go off, Jim," said his father; 66 you must do the best you may."

"That I will; father," answered he, with tears in his eyes. "What are you crying for, boy?" asked Wake.

"I was thinking how it was all my carelessness, wiping the nicker without thinking," answered Jim.

"Never mind, boy," said Wake; “ every thing's for the best;-go off to bed, and have a good sleep. I've forgiven you long ago."

When Jim had gone out of the room, Mrs. Wake said to her husband, "Why didn't you tell him what a warning this was to him; and how, if he grew up so careless, he would end by killing some one?"

"No!" answered Wake-" the boy's very sorry; I didn't like aggravating him; he'll remember it fast enough. I'm thinking how we shall get along without going to the Board." "Don't think about that," said his wife, cheerfully — "come and go to sleep, and forget all about it."

Though Mrs. Wake appeared so easy, and so ready to cheer her husband up, under his troubles, she felt them as heavily as he did; for, while he was sleeping (the pain in his hand having lulled for a little while), she lay awake thinking and calculating how many weeks they could manage to live with their present means.

On the following morning, the chairman and secretary of the defunct club waited upon Mr. Cudsden, and explained to him the resolution that was passed respecting the formation of a new society. The Vicar arranged that the meeting for the purpose of forming the new club should be called on the next Tuesday, in the school room, at a quarter past eight; "He would then," he said, "state the nature of the changes it would be desirable to have made in the formation of a society that would afford permanent benefit to its members."

Accordingly, on the following Tuesday, the greater part of the members of the old club attended, and many other new ones, anxious to hear of a plan that would make their town club one into which every one might fearlessly contribute.

Punctual to his time, Mr. Cudsden made his appearance. He told the men that the reforms he suggested were of a simple nature. "He wished," he added, "to have them freely discussed; and if any one present could suggest a better plan,