"the Game Wore On."

xne game wore on. The tanker, who sat at the head of the table, was kept trasy selling stacks of chips. The betting was heavy, and there were but two men who seeined to be winning anything. The blue chips all came their way. It was simply a case of bullheaded luck. If a man held four kings, one of this pair would bob up with four aces or a straight flush or something of the kind and spoil all calculations. It was exasperating, but it couldn't be helped. Meantime the two lucky playera conversed cheerfully about their luck and what they intended to do with the money. "I shall, " said one, "go down to a fur store and buy my wif e that cape she has been wanting so long. I know it is rather late in the season, but this is an experience of a lifetime, and I don 't think that itwill spoil by the keeping. " "I shalL" said the other, "take part of mine and get a new spring suit. W ith the rest of it I intend to take a trip to New York. I haven't been down there in a year, and I'm jnst about due for some fun." The game continued to wear on, and the other players cursed their luck beneath their various breaths. It came tobe midnight, and 1 o'elock and 2 o'elock, and the game was still in progress. The trwo men were still winning. Nothing could stop them. At 3 o clock everybody was tired, and ït was decided to quit. The table in front oí the two hicky nien was covered with chips. The banker pushed back his chair and Baid, "I am ready to settle, gentlemen." It didn't take long to settle with the men who had not been lucky. Then it carne to be the turn of the lucky ones. "How much have you got, Jim?" asked the banker. "Three hundred and forty, " replied Jim. "And you, Bill?" "An even 400." The banker took a slip of paper and did some figuring. hen he dove down into one of his poekets and produced some thin white slips of paper. "Here's yours, Jim, ' ' he said, pushing two slips across the tabie, "and here's yours, Bill." . "What are these?" asked the two lucky men in concert. "I. O. U. 's, " the banker answered senten tiously. The two lucky men gasped. They looked at the papers and saw that the signatures were genuine. Then they tore them up and stalked out together. "By George, " said the banker, "I thought they would never get enough won to pay off those I. O. U. 's." "What do you mean?" asked the stranger in the gama "I mean," said the banker as he smoothed out a big wad of bilis, "that it's dinged tiresome work dealing big hands to two jays like them just because they stuck you once with their paper." And the stranger in the game saw a great