I HAVE A RIGHT.
'I think so too,' said my grandfather, who was then quite a young man, 'and I shall think so next Saturday and the Saturday after.'
'Thank you, sir, I'm sure,' said the baker.
In course of time the debt was paid, though almost every Saturday those old people hobbled from the door. And now Mr. Bryce's rights were found to increase with his business and enlarge with his family.
First he had only a right to give away the stale loaves, 'being he was in debt.' Then he had a right to give away all that was left, 'being he was out of debt.' While he was single, he had a right to bake dinners for nothing, 'being he had no family to save for.' When he was married, he had a right to consider the poor, 'being, as he was, so prosperous as to have enough for his own, and something over.' When he had ten children, business still increasing, he found out that he had a right to adopt his wife's little niece, 'for, bless you, sir,' he observed, 'I've such a lot of my own, that a pudding that serves for ten shares serves for eleven just as well. And, as for schooling, I wouldn't think of it, if my boys and girls were not as good scholars as I'd wish to see; for I spare nothing for their learning—but being they are, and money still in the till, why, I've a right to let this little one share. In fact, when a man has earned a jolly hot dinner for his family every day, and seen 'em say their grace over it, he has a right to give what they leave on't to the needy, especially if his wife's agreeable.'
And so Mr. Bryce, the baker, went on prospering, and finding out new rights to keep pace with his pros-
