of trundling in a growler?'

'I didn't want to startle a quiet street,' said the narrator.

'Bad form. And besides, it was a hansom.'

'Well, and what did you do next?' inquired the captain.

'Oh, I went in,' said Herrick.

'The old folks?' asked the captain.

'That's about it,' said the other, chewing a grass.

'Well, I think you are about the poorest 'and at a yarn!' cried

the clerk. 'Crikey, it's like Ministering Children! I can tell

you there would be more beer and skittles about my little jaunt.

I would go and have a B. and S. for luck. Then I would get a big

ulster with astrakhan fur, and take my cane and do the la-de-la

down Piccadilly. Then I would go to a slap-up restaurant, and

have green peas, and a bottle of fizz, and a chump chop--Oh!

and I forgot, I'd 'ave some devilled whitebait first--and green

gooseberry tart, and 'ot coffee, and some of that form of vice in

big bottles with a seal--Benedictine--that's the bloomin' nyme!

Then I'd drop into a theatre, and pal on with some chappies,

and do the dancing rooms and bars, and that, and wouldn't go

'ome till morning, till daylight doth appear. And the next day

I'd have water-cresses, 'am, muffin, and fresh butter; wouldn't I

just, O my!'

The clerk was interrupted by a fresh attack of coughing.

'Well, now, I'll tell you what I would do,' said the captain: 'I

would have none of your fancy rigs with the man driving from

the mizzen cross-trees, but a plain fore-and-aft hack cab of the

highest registered tonnage. First of all, I would bring up at the

market and get a turkey and a sucking-pig. Then I'd go to a

<<BackPagesTo menuNext>>