"It certainly contains some interesting information," said our hero, with a Quaker-like indirectness of reply. "It seems to me, Harry," said Charles Larkyns, "that the pith of it, like a lady's letter, lies in the postscript--the demand for money." "You see," observed the little gentleman in explanation, "Stump and Rowdy are the beggars that have got all my property till I come of age next year; and they only let me have money at certain times, because it's what they facetiously call _tied-up_: though _why_ they've tied it up, or _where_ they've tied it up, I hav'nt the smallest idea. So, though I tick for nearly everything,--for men at College, Giglamps, go upon tick as naturally as the crows do on the sheep's backs,--I sometimes am rather hard up for ready dibs; and then I give the Mum a gentlemanly hint of this, and she tips me. By-the-way," continued Mr. Bouncer, as he re-read his postscript, "I must alter the word 'tin' into 'money'; or else she'll be taking it literally, just as she did with the ponies. Know what a pony is, Giglamps?" "Why, of course I do," replied Mr. Verdant Green; "besides which, I have kept one: he was an Exmoor pony,--a bay one, with a long tail." [Illustration] "Oh, Giglamps!' You'll be the death of me some fine day," faintly exclaimed little Mr. Bouncer, as he slowly recovered from an exhausting fit of laughter. "You're as bad as the Mum was. A pony means twenty-five pound, old feller. But the Mum didn't know that; and when I wrote to her and said, 'I'm very short; please to send me two ponies;' meaning, of course, that I wanted fifty pound; what must she do, but write back and say, that, with some difficulty, she had procured for me two Shetland ponies, and that, as I was short, she hoped they would suit my size. And, before I had time to send her another letter, the two little beggars came. Well, I couldn't ride them both at once, like the fellers do at Astley's; so I left one at Tollitt's, and I rode the other down the High, as cool as a cucumber. You see, though I ain't a giant, and that, yet I was big for the pony; and as Shelties are rum-looking little beggars, I dare say we look'd rather queer and original. But the Proctor happened to see me; and he cut up so doosed rough about it, that I couldn't show on the Shelties any more; and Tollit was obliged to get rid of them for me." "Well, Harry," said Charles Larkyns; "it is to Tollitt's that you must now go, as you keep your horse there. We want you to join us in a ride." "What!" cried out Mr. Bouncer, "old Giglamps going outside an Oxford hack once more! Why, I thought you'd made a vow never to do so again?" "Why, I certainly did so," replied Mr. Verdant Green; "but Charles Larkyns, during the holidays--the vacation, at least--was kind enough to take me out several rides; so I have had a great deal of practice since last term." "And you don't require to be strapped on, or to get inside and pull down the blinds?" inquired Mr. Bouncer. "Oh dear, no!"