Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/209

 gentleman expressed a desire to give each of us a half-crown, but could only do so by giving me a crown, and telling me to divide it with my brother. It puzzled us all the way home how an equal division was to be effected. On reaching home we used every endeavour to cut the coin into two equal portions. We succeeded in disfiguring it considerably, but it resisted our efforts to divide it. We had a profound consultation as to what was next to be done, and agreed at length on a plan more remarkable for its efficacy in disposing of the crown piece than for its wisdom as a financial achievement. We went down to the beach, and as the coin had been given to me I was to take precedence in our mutual benefit arrangement, which was neither more nor less than to “skip” the coin piece over the sea as one does a flat stone. The tide being in I took the first throw, and when the tide went out again Tom would get his. Full of confidence, when the tide had receded we went down again to let Tom have his “skip.” Needless to say, we did not find the piece, and so the matter ended with the benefit in my favour, notwithstanding our efforts to establish an equable procedure.