292 MARTIN RATTLER.

Dear young reader, do not imagine that we plead
in favour of moroseness or gloom. Laugh if you
will, and feast if you will, and remember, too, that
“a merry heart is a continual feast;” but we pray
you not to forget that God himself has said that a
visit to the house of mourning is better than a visit
to the house of feasting. And strange to say, it is
productive of greater joy; for to do good is better
than to get good, as surely as sympathy is better than
selfishness.

Martin visited the poor and read the Bible to them ;
and in watering others he was himself watered, for
he found the “Pearl of Great Price,” even Jesus
Christ, the Saviour of the world.

Business prospered in the hands of Martin Rattler,
too, and he became a man of substance. Naturally,
too, he became a man of great importance in the
town of Bilton. The quantity of work that Martin
and Mr. Jollyboy and Barney used to get through
was quite marvellous, and the number of engage-
ments they had during the course of a day was quite
bewildering.

In the existence of all men, who are not born to
unmitigated misery, there are times and seasons of
peculiar enjoyment. The happiest hour of all the

twenty-four to Martin Rattler was the hour of seven