"Mr Flint, I just make nothing of it at all," returned Miss Lillycrop, with a placid smile. "Come, Phil," said May, laughing, "can _you_ make nothing of it? You used to be good at arithmetic." "Well, now," said Phil, "it don't take much knowledge of arithmetic to make something of that. George Aspel happened to be talking to me about that very sum not long ago. He said he had been told by a man at the Post-Office that it would take a man about a hundred and seventy years to count it. I tried the calculation, and found he was right. Then I made another calculation:-- "I put down the average length of an envelope at four inches, and I found that if you were to lay fourteen hundred and seventy-seven million letters out in a straight line, end to end, the lot would extend to above 93,244 miles, which is more than three times the circumference of the world. Moreover, this number is considerably more than the population of the whole world, which, at the present time, is about 1444 millions, so that if the British Post-Office were to distribute the 1477 millions of letters that pass through it in the year impartially, every man, woman, and child on the globe would receive one letter, post-card, newspaper, or book-packet, and leave thirty-three millions to spare!" "Now, really, you _must_ stop this," said May; "I see that my cousin's colour is going with her efforts to understand you. Can't you give her something more amusing to think of?" "Oh, cer'nly," said Solomon, again turning with alacrity to the Report. "Would you like to hear what some people think it's our dooty to attend to? I'll give you a letter or two received by our various departments." Here the letter-carrier began to read the following letters, which we give from the same Report, some being addressed to the "Chief of the Dead Office," others to the Postmaster-General, etcetera. "_May_ 18--. "DEAR SIR,--I write to ask you for some information about finding out persons who are missing--I want to find out my mother and sisters who are in Melbourne in Australia i believe--if you would find out for me please let me know by return of post, and also your charge at the lowest, yours," etcetera. "_Nov_. 8, 18--. "Sir,--Not having received the live bullfinch mentioned by you as having arrived at the Returned Letter Office two days ago, having been posted as a letter contrary to the regulations of the Postal system, I now write to ask you to have the bird fed and forwarded at once to ---, and to apply for all fines and expenses to ---. If this is not done, and I do not receive the bird before the end of the week, I shall write to the Postmaster-General, who is a very intimate friend of my father's, and ask him to see that measures are taken against you for neglect. "This is not an idle threat, so you will oblige by following the above instructions." "Wales, _Nov_. 12, 18--.