arrested, and condemned to death. "Aha, Hugh!" says he to his companion on the eve of their execution," we shall know what makes the stars shine now." A pardon is finally procured for him by Mr. Varden. iii-vi, x-xii, xvii, xxv, xxvi, xlv-l, lii, liii, lvii, lviii, lx, lxii, lxv, lxviii, lxix, lxxiii, lxxv-lxxvii, lxxix, lxxxii. Rudge, Mrs. Mother of Barnaby. iv-vi, xvi, xvii, xxv, xxvi, xlii, xlv-l, lvii, lxii, lxix, lxxiii, lxxvi, lxxix, lxxxii.

Rudge, Mr. Father of Barnaby, and a former steward of Reuben Haredale's. One morning in the year 1733, Mr. Haredale is found murdered, and the steward is missing. Afterwards a body is discovered, which is supposed to be that of Rudge; but it is so disfigured as not to be recognizable. After the lapse of many years, it is proved that Rudge was the real murderer, and that the body which was taken to be his was really that of another of his victims. He is finally captured and executed. i-iii, v, vi, xvi-xviii, xxxiii, xlv, xlvi, lv, lvi, lxi, lxii, lxv, lxviii, lxix, lxxiii, lxxvi. Stagg. A blind man ; proprietor of a drinking-cellar and skittleground. viii, xviii, xlv, xlvi, lxii, lxix.

Tappertit, Simon. Apprentice to Mr. Gabriel Varden, and a sworn enemy to Joe Willet, who has rivalled him in the affections of his master's daughter Dolly.

Sim . . . was an old-fashioned, thin-faced, sleek-haired, sharpnosed, small-eyed little fellow, very little more than five feet high, and thoroughly convinced in his own mind that he was above the middle size, rather tall, in fact, than otherwise. Of his figure, which was well enough formed, though somewhat of the leanest, he entertained the highest admiration; and with his legs, which, in knee-breeches, were perfect curiosities of littleness, he was enraptured to a degree amounting to enthusiasm. . . . Add to this that he was in years just twenty, in his looks much older, and in conceit at least two hundred; that he had no objection to be jested with touching his admiration of his master's daughter; and had even, when called upon at a certain obscure tavern to pledge the lady whom he had honored with his love, toasted with many winks and leers a fair creature, whose Christian name, he said, began with a D [Dolly Varden].

Mr. Tappertit is captain of the "Prentice Knights" (afterwards called the "United Bull-Dogs "), whose objects were vengeance on their tyrant masters (of whose grievous and insupportable oppression no 'prentice could entertain a moment's doubt), and the restoration of their ancient rights and holidays. He takes a leading part in the Lord George Gordon riots, but finally receives a gunshot wound in his body, and has his precious legs crushed into shapeless ugliness. After being removed from a hospital to prison,

and thence to his place of trial, he is discharged, by proclamation, on two wooden legs. By the advice and aid of his old master, to whom he applies for assistance, he is established in business as a shoe-black, and quickly secures a great run of custom: so that he thinks himself justified in taking to wife the widow of an eminent bone and rag collector. iv, vii-ix, xviii, xix, xxii, xxiv, xxvii, xxxi, xxxvi, xxxix, xlviii-lii, lix, lx, lxii, lxx, lxxi, lxxxii. Varden, Dolly. A bright, fresh, coquettish girl, the very impersonation of good-humor and blooming beauty. She is finally married to Joe Willet. iv, xiii, xix-xxii, xxvii, xxxi, lix, lxx, lxxi. Varden, Gabriel. A frank, hearty, honest old locksmith, at charity with all mankind; father to Dolly Varden. ii-vii, xiii, xiv, xix, xxi, xxii, xxvi, xxvii, xli, xlii, li, lxiii, lxiv, lxxi, lxxii, lxxiv-lxxvi, lxxix, lxxx, lxxxii.

Varden, Mrs. Martha. His wife.

Mrs. Varden was a lady of what is commonly called an uncertain temper, a phrase, which, being interpreted, signifies a temper tolerably certain to make everybody more or less uncomfortable. Thus it generally happened, that, when other people were merry, Mrs. Varden was dull; and that, when other people were dull, Mrs. Varden was disposed to be amazingly cheerful. Indeed, the worthy housewife was of such a capricious nature, that she not only attained a higher pitch of genius than Macbeth, in respect of her ability to be wise, amazed, temperate and furious, loyal and neutral, in an instant, but would sometimes ring the changes backwards and forwards on all possible moods and flights in one short quarter of an hour; performing, as it were, a kind of triple bob major on the peal of instruments in the female belfry, with a skilfulness and rapidity of execution that astonished all who heard her.

It had been observed in this good lady (who did not want for personal attractions, being plump and buxom to look at, though, like her fair daughter, somewhat short in stature), that this uncertainty of disposition strengthened and increased with her temporal prosperity; and divers wise men and matrons on friendly terms with the locksmith and his family even went so far as to assert, that a tumble down some half-dozen rounds in the world's ladder such as the breaking of the bank in which her husband kept his money, or some little fall of that kind - would be the making of her, and could hardly fail to render her one of the most agreeable companions in existence. iv, vii, xiii, xix, xxi, xxii, xxvii, xxxvi, xli, xlii, li, lxxi, lxxii, lxxx, lxxxii. Willet, John. Landlord of the Maypole Inn at Chigwell; a burly, large-headed man, with a fat face, which betokened profound

obstinacy and slowness of apprehension, combined with a very strong reliance upon his own merits.

The Maypole was an old building with more gable-ends than a lazy man would care to count on a sunny day; huge zigzag chimneys, out of which it seemed as if smoke could not choose but come in more than naturally fantastic shapes imparted to it in its tortuous progress; and vast stables, gloomy, ruinous, and empty. The place was said to have been built in the days of King Henry the Eighth. . . . Its windows were old diamond-pane lattices; its floors were sunken and uneven; its ceiling blackened by the hand of time, and heavy with massive beams. Over the doorway was an ancient porch quaintly and grotesquely carved; and here, on summer evenings, the more favored customers smoked and drank, ―ay, and sung many a good song too, sometimes, - reposing on two grim-looking, high-backed settles, which, like the twin dragons of some fairy-tale, guarded the entrance to the mansion.

All bars are snug places; but the Maypole's was the very snuggest, cosiest, and completest bar that ever the wit of man devised. Such amazing bottles in old oaken pigeon-holes! such sturdy little Dutch kegs, ranged in rows on shelves! so many lemons, hanging in separate nets, and forming the fragrant grove already mentioned in this chronicle, suggestive, with goodly cans and snowy sugar stowed away hard by, of punch idealized beyond all mortal knowledge! such closets! such presses! such places for putting things away in hollow window-seats! -all crammed to the throat with eatables, drinkables, or savory condiments; lastly, and to crown all, as typical of the immense resources of the establishment, and its defiance to all visitors to cut and come again, such a stupendous cheese! i-iii, x-xiv, xix, xx, xxiv, xxix, Xxx, xxxiii-xxxv, liv-lvi, lxxii, lxxviii, lxxxii.

Willet, Joe. Son of John Willet; a broad-shouldered, strapping young fellow, whom it pleases his father still to consider a little boy, and to treat accordingly. After being bullied, badgered, worried, fretted, and brow-beaten, until he can endure it no longer, Joe runs away and joins the army. At the time of the London riots, however, he turns up, and renders good service to his friends, notwithstanding the loss of an arm at the siege of Savannah. The father is only too glad to welcome him back; never speaks of him to a stranger afterwards, without saying proudly, "My son's arm was took off at the defence of the Salwanners - in America, where the war is." Joe finally marries Dolly Varden, whom he has long loved. i-iii, xiii, xiv, xix, xxi, xxii, xxx, xxxi, xli, lviii, lxvii, lxxi, lxxii, lxxviii, lxxx, lxxxii.

MASTER HUMPHREY'S CLOCK

INDEX TO CHARACTERS

Alice, Mistress. Heroine of the tale told by Magog, the Guildhall giant, to his companion, Gog; the beautiful and only daughter of a wealthy London bowyer of the sixteenth century. She elopes with a gay young cavalier, by whom she is conveyed abroad, where shame and remorse overtake her, and wring her heart. Her father, dying, leaves all his property and trade to a trusted 'prentice, named Hugh Graham, charging him with his latest breath to revenge his child upon the author of her misery, if ever he has the opportunity. Twenty years afterwards, Alice suddenly returns; and Master Graham (who was formerly an aspirant for her hand, and who still loves her) gives her lodging in his house,

once hers, taking up his own abode in a dwelling near by. Soon after, he encounters the man who wrought her ruin. The two exchange a few high, hot words, and then close in deadly contest. After a brief struggle, the noble falls, pierced through the heart with his own sword by the citizen. A riot ensues; and at last Graham is shot dead on his own doorstep. On carrying him up stairs, an unknown woman is discovered lying lifeless beneath the window.

Belinda. A distracted damsel, who writes a letter to Master Humphrey about her faithless lover.

:

Benton, Miss. Master Humphrey's housekeeper. Mr. Weller, senior, in a moment of weakness, falls in love with her but she prefers Mr. Slithers the barber; and the old gentleman, recovering his "native hue of resolution," conjures his son Samivel to put him in a strait waistcoat until the fit is passed, in the event of his ever becoming amorous again. Deaf Gentleman, The. An intimate friend of Master Humphrey's, and a cheerful, placid, happy old man. It is his humor to conceal his name, or he has a reason and purpose for doing so. Master Humphrey and the other members of the club respect his secret, therefore; and he is known among them only as the Deaf Gentleman.

Gog. One of the Guildhall giants.

Graham, Hugh. A bowyer's 'prentice, in love with his master's daughter.

Jinkinson. The subject of an anecdote related by Sam Weller. Magog. One of the Guildhall giants. See TODDYHIGH, JOE. Marks, Will. The hero of a tale which Mr. Pickwick submits to Master Humphrey and his friends as a "qualification" for admission to their club. Will is a wild, roving young fellow, living at Windsor in the time of James I. He volunteers to keep watch by night at a gibbet near Kingston, for the purpose of identifying some witches who have been holding hideous nocturnal revels there; but he finds, instead of witches, two gentlewomen, weeping and wailing for an executed husband and brother. He suffers himself to be conducted to Putney, where he is introduced to a masked cavalier, who induces him to take the body of the dead man by night for burial to St. Dunstan's Church in London. This task, though a difficult and dangerous one, he performs; and on his return home, finding the whole neighborhood worked up to a high pitch of mystery and horror over his disappearance, he adds to the excitement by telling them a most extraordinary story of his adventures, describing the witches' dance to the minutest motion of their legs, and performing it in character on the table with the assistance of a broomstick.

Master Humphrey. A kind-hearted, deformed old gentleman, living in an ancient house in a venerable suburb of London. He is the founder of a sort of club, which meets in his room one night in every week, at the hour of ten. In this room are six chairs, four of which are filled by Master Humphrey and his friends, - Jack Redburn, Mr. Owen Miles, and the "Deaf Gentleman." The two empty seats are reserved until they can fill them with two men to their mind; and Mr. Pickwick eventually becomes the occupant of one of them, while Mr. Jack Bamber is proposed as a candidate for the other. In a snug corner stands a quaint old clock in a huge oaken case curiously and richly carved; and in the bottom of this case the members of the club, from time to time, deposit manuscript tales of their own composition, which are taken out and read at their weekly meetings. Among these are the two well-known stories called "The Old Curiosity Shop" (the secondary title of which, as at first published, was "Personal Adventures of Master Humphrey ") and " Barnaby Rudge." Master Humphrey thus describes himself and his friends :

"We are men of secluded habits, with something of a cloud upon our early fortunes, whose enthusiasm, nevertheless, has not cooled with age; whose spirit of romance is not yet quenched;