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‘636‘
This certainly had not a prohtable ' appearance,‘ and I
shook my head as if I would imply it would be diliicult
to lay bymuch accumulative capital from such a source
of income. ' , ' ‘ ‘ ‘ " '
“ But the thing is,” said Herbert ‘Pocket, “that ‘you
look about you. That’s the grand thing.‘ You are in a
counting-house, you know, and you look about you.”
It struck me as a singular implication that you couldn’t
be out of a counting-house, you know, and look about
you ; but I silently deferred’ to his experience.
“ Then the time comes,” said Herbert, “ when you see
your opening. And you go in, and you swoop upon it,
and you make your capital, and then there you are"!
“When you have once made your capital, you have noth-
ing to do but employ it.”- - i ‘ -
This was very like his way of conducting that en-
counter in the garden ;very like. His manner of bear-
ing his poverty, too, exactly corresponded to his manner
of bearing that defeat; It seemedto me that he took all
blows and buffets now withijust the same air as he had
taken mine then. .It was evident that he had nothing
around him but the simplest necessaries, for everything
that I remarked uponturned out to have been sent in on
my account from the coffee-house or ‘somewhere else.
Yet, having already made his fortune in his own mind,
he was so unassuming with it that I felt quite grateful
to him for not being puEed up. It was a pleasant addi-
tion to his naturally pleasant ways, and we got on fa-
mously. ‘ In the evening we went out for a walk in the
streets, and went half rice to the ‘Theatre’; and next
day we went to churc at iVestminster Abbey, and in
the afternoon we walked in the Parks; and Iiwondered
who shod all the‘ horses there, and wished‘Joc did.
On a moderate computation, it was many months, that
Sunday, sinccil had left Joe and Biddy. ‘- The .space in-
terposed between myself? and them, partook of ‘that ex-
pansion, and our marshes were any distance off. ' That I
could have been at our old church in. my old church-go-
ing clothes, ‘on the very last Sunday that ever was,
seemed a combination of impossibilities, geographical
and social, solar and lunar. r Yet in the London streets
so crowd ed with people and so brilliantly lighted in the
dusk of evening, there were' depressing hints of" re-
proaches for that I had put the dear old kitchenat home
so far away ; and in the dead of night, the footsteps of
some incapable irnposter of n porter mooning about ‘Bar-
nard’s Inn, under pretence of watching it, fell hollow on
myheartp ' ' V -
011 the Mmldily moming at 1!. quarter before nine Her-
bert went to the counting-house to report himself-to
look about him, too, I‘ suppose-and I bore him .com-
pany. He was to come away in an hour or two to attend
me to Hammcrsmith, and I was to wait about for him.
It appeared to me that the eggs from which young In-
surers were hatched, were incubated in dust and heat
like the eggs of ostriches, judging from the places tr’;
which those incipient giants repaired on a-Monday morn.
ing. Nor did the counting-house where Herbert as-
sisted, show in my eyes as at all agood0bservatory ; be-
ing a back second floor u a yard, of a grimy presence
in all particulars, and wit a look into another back sec-
ond floor, rather than out. ' ' ‘-
I waited ‘about until it was noon, andl went upon
’Chunge, and I saw they men sitting there under the bills
about shipping, whom I took to be great merchants,
though I couldn't understand why they should all be out
of spirits. IVhen Herbert came, we went and had lunch
at a. celebrated house which I then quite venerated, but
now believe to have been the most abject superstition in
Europe, and where I could not help noticing, even then,
that there was much more gravy on the table-cloths and
knives and waiters’ clothes, than in.'the.steaks. This
collation disposed of at a moderate price (considering the
grcase:,Which was not charged for), we went back to
Bamiird s Inn and got my little portrnanteau, and? then
took coach for Ilammersmith. “'0 arrived there at two
or three o clock in the afternoon, and had verylittle way
to walk to Mr. I’ockct’s house. Lifting the latch of a
3310. we passed direct into a little garden overlooking
the river, where Mr. I‘ocket’s children were pla ing
about. And unless I deceive myself on a point wiero
my Interests and prepossessions arocertainly not con.
OHARLES DICKENS’ WORKS. ‘
.tenance immediately assumed a knittedimd intent ex-
cerned, I saw that Mr.-' and Mrs. Pocket’s children‘ were
not growing up or being brought up, but were tumbling
plilrs. Pocket was sitting on a garden chair undera tree,
reading, with her legs upon another garden chair; and
Mrs. Pocket’s two nursemaids were looking about them
while the children played. “Mamma,” said Herbert,
“this is young Mr. Pip.’f ,Upon which Mrs. Pocket re-
ceived me with an appearance of amiable dignity.
“Master Alick and Miss Jane," cried one of the nurses
to two of the children, “if you go apbouncing up against
them bushes you’ll fall over into the river"and be
drownded, and what’ll your pa say then I’’‘ -‘ ’ ’ "
At the same time this nurse picked up Mrs. Pocket’s
handkerchief, and said, “if that don’t,make‘slx times
you’ve dropped‘ it, Mum 1” Upon Wl1lCll'bII'S. Pocket
laughed and said,“‘Thank' you,.Flopson," and settling
herself in one chair only, resumed her book; Flier coun-
prcssion as if she had been reading fora week, but before
she could have read half zi dozen ‘lines, she fixed her
eyes upon me, and said. “ I hope your inamma is quite
well?’’- This unexpected inquir put me into'such a.
difiiculty that lbegan saying in "t re absurdest way that
if there had been any such person I had nodoubt she
would have been quite well and-would have beenmuch
obliged and would have sent her compliments, when the
nurse came to rnyrescue. ‘ ’ I
“ Well !” she cried,'picking up the pocket-handken
chief,"‘if that don't make seven times i VVhat ARE you
u doing of this afternoon, Mum 1” Mrs. Pocket received
her property; at first with‘a look of iinutterable 5 surprise
as if she had never seen it before, and thenwith a laugh
of recognition. and said, “ Thank you, Flopson,’? and
forgot me," and went on reading. -i i ; ‘ " '
I found, new I had leisureto count’them, that there
were no fewer than six little Pockets present,:in various
stages of tumbling up.‘ ‘I’ had scarcely arrived at the
total when a seventh was heard, as in the region of the
air, wailing dolefully, ' ' ' ‘ ‘r
“ If there ain't Baby I" said Flopson, appearing to
think it most surprising. “ Make haste up, Millers.”
'Millers, who was the other nurse, retired into the,
house, and by degrees the cliild’s wailing was hushed
and. stopped, as if it‘ were'a young ventriloquist. with
something in its mouth. Mrs. Pocket read all the time,
and I was curious to know what the book could be." '
VVe were waiting, I supposed, for Mr. Pocket to come
out to us '; at any rate we waited there, and so I had an
opportunity of observing the remarkable family phe-
nomenon that whenever anyof the children strayed near
Mrs. Pocket in their play, they always tripped them-
selves up" and tumbled over her-‘-‘always very much to
her momentary astonishment, and their own more endur-
inrr lanientation. I was at aloss to account for this sur-
prising circumstance, and could not help giving my mind
to speculations about it, until by-and-by Millers came
down with the baby, which baby was handed to Flopson,
which Flopson was handing it to Mrs. Pocket, when she
too went fairly headforemost over Mrs. Pocket, baby and
all, and was caught by Herbert and myself. .
" Gracious me,'Flopson 1” said’ Mrs. Pocket,‘ looking
off her book for a moment, “everybody’s tumbling !”
“ G1‘WiP11S 7011. indeed, ‘Mum l” returned Flopson,
very red in the face; “ what have you got there?” '
" I201? 113316. Flopson‘l?" asked Mrs. Pocket.’
“ W135’ y. If it niu’t your footstool I” cried Flopson.
“ Andif you keep it under your skirts like that, who's
to help tumbling! Here I Take the baby,‘Mum, and
give me your book.” - '- t . ‘ ‘ .
. Mrs. Pocket acted on the advice, and inexpertly danced
the infant alittle in her lap, while the other children
Played about it. ‘ This had lasted but a very short time;
when Mrs. Pocket issued summary orders that they were
all to be taken into ‘thoihouse for a nap. Thus I made
the second discovery on that first occasion, that the 113‘
ture of the little Pockets consisted of alternately tum-
bling up and lying down. . .
Under these circumstances, when Flopson and Mi118Y3
had got the children into the house, like a little dock of
sheep, and Mr. Pocket came out of it to make In)’ “T
‘lllmnlimce, Iwas not much surprised to find that MT-
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