civilized or savage language, he took up a slate, and wrote in large text, one word in a line, the question, How-do-you-like-it?-when he did this, and, handing it over the table, awaited the reply, with a countenance only brightened and improved by his great excitement, even Mr. Miles relaxed, and could not forbear looking at him for the moment with interest and favor. Podgers, John. A character in Mr. Pickwick's tale; a stout, drowsy, fat-witted old fellow, held by his neighbors to be a man of strong sound sense; uncle to Will Marks.

Redburn, Jack. One of Master Humphrey's friends, and hi factotura. Mr. Miles is his inseparable companion, and regards him with great admiration, believing not only that “no man ever lived who could do so many things as Jack, but that no man ever lived who could do any thing so well."

Slithers, Mr. Mr. Pickwick's barber; a very bustling, active little man, with a red nose and a round bright face. He falls in love with Miss Benton, Master Humphrey's housekeeper, and finally marries her.

Toddyhigh, Joe. An old playmate of the lord-mayor elect of London. The two had been poor boys together at Hull; and when they separated, and went out into the world in different directions to seek their fortunes, they agreed always to remain fast friends. But time works many changes; and so it happens that the lordmayor elect receives his old companion very coldly when he suddenly appears in his counting-room, and claims acquaintance, at a late hour on the very night before the grand inauguration. Ashamed and distrustful of his old friend, he gets rid of him as quickly as possible, giving him, however, a ticket to the grand dinner on the morrow. Joe takes it without a word, and instantly departs. The next day he goes to Guildhall, but, knowing nobody there, lounges about, and at last comes into an empty little musicgallery, which commands the whole hall. Sitting down, he soon falls asleep; and when he wakes, as the clock strikes three, he is astonished to find the guests departed, and to see the statues of the great giants Gog and Magog (the guardian genii of the city) endowed with life and motion, and to hear them speak in grave and solemn voices, agreeing to while away the dreary nights with legends of old London and with other tales; Magog making a beginning by relating the first of the "Giant Chronicles." Weller, Samuel. Mr. Pickwick's body-servant; "the same true, faithful fellow" that he used to be in the days of the Pickwick Club, retaining all his native humor too, and all his old easy corfi

dence, address, and knowledge of the world. See WELLER, TONY, the elder.

Weller, Tony, the elder. The old plethoric coachman of "The Pickwick Papers;" father to Sam Weller. When Mr. Pickwick, attended by Sam, visits Master Humphrey on club-nights, old Mr. Weller accompanies them as part of Mr. Pickwick's body-guard. While the members of Master Humphrey's Clock are holding their meeting in the study up stairs, Miss Benton the housekeeper, and her friend, Mr. Slithers the barber, entertain the two Wellers in the kitchen.

"I don't think," said Sam, who was smoking with great composure and enjoyment, "that, if the lady wos agreeable, it 'ud be wery far out o' the vay for us four to make up a club of our own, like the governors does up stairs, and let him"- Sam pointed with the stem of his pipe towards his parent-"be the president."

The housekeeper affably declared that it was the very thing she had been thinking of. The barber said the same. Mr. Weller said nothing; but he laid down his pipe as if in a fit of inspiration, and performed the following

manœuvres :

Unbuttoning the three lower buttons of his waistcoat, and pausing, for a moment, to enjoy the easy flow of breath consequent upon this process, he laid violent hands upon his watch-chain, and slowly, and with extreme difficulty, drew from his fob an immense double-cased silver watch, which brought the lining of the pocket with it, and was not to be disentangled but by great exertions and an amazing redness of face. Having fairly got it out at last, he detached the outer case, and wound it up with a key of corresponding magnitude; then put the case on again, and, having applied the watch to his ear to ascertain that it was still going, gave it some half-dozen hard knocks on the table to improve its performance.

"That," said Mr. Weller, laying it on the table, with its face upwards, "is the title and emblem o' this here society. Sammy, reach them two stools this vay for the wacant cheers. Ladies and gen'lmen, Mr. Weller's Watch is vound up, and now a-goin'. Order!"

By way of enforcing this proclamation, Mr. Weller, using the watch after the manner of a president's hammer, and remarking with great pride that nothing hurt it, and that falls and concussions of all kinds materially enhanced the excellence of the works, and assisted the regulator, nocked the table a great many times, and declared the association formally onstituted.

The old "whip" presides with great dignity, and observes the strictest rules of parliamentary law; thus, when Sam, in the course of some remarks, refers to a class of gentlemen as "barbers," and Mr. Slithers rises, and suggests that "hair-dressers" would be more "soothing" to his feelings, Mr. Weller rules that "hairdressers" is the only designation proper to be used in the debate, and that all others are out of order.

"Well, but suppose he was n't a hair-dresser," suggested Sam.

"Wy then, sir, be parliamentary, and call him vun all the more," returned his father. "In the same vay as ev'ry gen'lman in another place is a honorable, ev'ry barber in this place is a hair-dresser. Ven you read the speeches in the papers, and see as vun gen'lman says of another, the honorable member, if he vill allow me to call him so,' you vill understand, sir, that that means, if he vill allow me to keep up that 'ere pleasant and uniwersal fiction.'"

6

Having taken a decided fancy to Miss Benton, but being afraid that she is a "widder," Mr. Weller gets Sam to inquire as to the fact. He is told that she is a spinster.

"A wot?" said his father with deep scorn.

"A spinster," replied Sam.

-

Mr. Weller looked very hard at his son for a minute or two, and then said, "Never mind vether she makes jokes, or not: that 's no matter. Wot I say 18, Is that ere female a widder, or is she not?"

"Wot do you mean by her making jokes?" demanded Sam, quite aghast at the obscurity of his parent's speech.

"Never you mind, Samivel," returned Mr. Weller gravely. "Puns may be wery good things, or they may be wery bad 'uns, and a female may be none the better, or she may be none the vurse, for making of 'em: that 's got nothing to do vith widders."

"Wy, now!" said Sam, looking round, "would anybody believe as a man at his time o' life could be running his head agin spinsters and punsters being the same thing?"

"There an't a straw's difference between 'em," said Mr. Weller. "Your father did n't drive a coach for so many years, not to be ekal to his own lang vidge, as far as that goes, Sammy."

Mr. Weller insists upon the two words being synonymous, but is finally assured that Miss Benton is not a widow, which gives him great satisfaction.

Weller, Tony, the younger. A son of Sam Weller; named for his grandfather. He is a very small boy, about two feet six from the ground, having a very round face strongly resembling Mr. Weller's, and a stout little body of exactly his build, firmly set upon a couple of very sturdy legs. When Mr. Weller is first introduced to Master Humphrey, he immediately goes off, as he always does, into praises of his namesake.

"Samivel Weller, sir," said the old gentleman, "has con-ferred upon me the ancient title o' grandfather, vich had long laid dormouse, and wos s'posed to be nearly hex-tinct in our family. Sammy, relate a anecdote o' vun o' them boys, -that 'ere little anecdote about young Tony sayin' as he would smoke a pipe unbeknown to his mother."

"Be quiet! can't you?" said Sam. "I never see such a old magpie, — never!" "That 'ere Tony is the blessedest boy," said Mr. Weller, heedless of this ro buff,-"the blessedest boy as ever I see in my days! Of all the charmin'est as ever I heerd tell on, includin' them as wos kivered over by the robin redbreasts arter they'd committed sooicide, with blackberries, there never wos any like that

'ere little Tony. He's always a-playin' with a quart pot-that boy is. To see him a-settin' down on the doorstep, pretending to drink out of it, and fetching a .ong breath artervards, and smoking a bit of fire-vood, and sayin', 'Now I'm grandfather,'-to see him a-doin' that at two year old is better than any play as wos ever wrote. 'Now I'm grandfather!' He would n't take a pint pot if you wos to make him a present on it; but he gets his quart; and then he says, 'Now I'm grandfather!""

Mr. Weller was so overpowered by this picture, that he straightway fell into a most alarming fit of coughing, which must certainly have been attended with some fatal result but for the dexterity and promptitude of Sam, who, taking a arm grasp of the shawl just under his father's chin, shook him to and fro with great violence, at the same time administering some smart blows between his shoulders. By this curious mode of treatment, Mr. Weller was finally recovered, but with a very crimson face, and in a state of great exhaustion.

The Old Curiosity Shop.

This story originally appeared in the serial miscellany called "Master Hum phrey's Clock,— -the first chapter in the fourth number. It is supposed to be nar rated by Master Humphrey (who figures as the Single Gentleman, the brother of Little Nell's grandfather), and, as at first published, it bore the sub-title, "Personal Adventures of Master Humphrey."

The author says of this tale, "The many friends it won me, and the many hearts it turned to me when they were full of private sorrow, invest it with an Interest in my mind which is not a public one, and the rightful place of which appears to be a more removed ground. I will merely observe, therefore, that, In writing the book, I had it always in my fancy to surround the lonely figure of the child [Little Nell] with grotesque and wild, but not impossible companlons, and to gather about her innocent face and pure intentions associates as strange and uncongenial as the grinrobjects that are about her bed when her hi3tory is first foreshadowed."

CHARACTERS INTRODUCED.

Bachelor, The. A kind old gentleman at a village where Little Nell and her grandfather stay in the course of their wanderings.

None of the villagers had cared to ask his name, or, when they knew it, to store it in their memories; perhaps because he was unmarried he had been called the Bachelor. The name pleased him, or suited him as well as any oth er; and so the Bachelor he had ever since remained.

(Ch. lii, liv, lv, lxi, lxviii, lxix, lxxxiii.)

Barbara. A housemaid at Mrs. Garland's; afterwards the wife of Kit Nubbles. (Ch. xxii, xxxviii-xl, lxviii, lxix, lxxiii.) See NUB BLES, KIT.

Barbara's Mother. (Ch. xxxix, xl, lxl, ¡xviii, lxix, lxxiii.)