of the same mind as
your Humble. He said often, that he had been bearleader quite long
enough to this young Cub, and was sick alike of his savage hugs, and
uncouth gestures, when he had a mind to dance. Yet was he wise enough in
his generation to acknowledge the commodity of a fat Pasty and a full
Flask every day in the year, and of a neverfailing crown piece in the
pouch in the morning for a draught to cool one's throat, when the bottle
had been pushed about pretty briskly overnight. Parson Hodge was a
philosopher. "I don't like the kicks," quoth he; "but when halfpence
come along with 'em, they cease to be intolerable."

However, all our nice weighings of Pros and Cons were brought to a very
abrupt standstill upon our arrival at Dover (having taken a post chariot
from Ramsgate) by the Inconceivable Behaviour of Mr. Pinchin. This young
Gentleman, utterly forgetting the claims of Duty, of Honour, of Honesty,
and of Gratitude, fairly Ran away from us, his faithful and Attached
Domestics. Without with your leave or by your leave he showed us a clean
pair of Heels. He left a very cool Letter for the Chaplain in the hands
of the master of the Inn where we put up, in which he repeated his old
uncivil Accusation, that we had eaten him out of House and Home, that we
were Leeches, Pirates, bloodsucking vampires, and the like--myself he
even did the honour to call a Designing Cockatrice--and that he had fled
from us to save the small remains of his Fortune from being Devoured,
and intended to rejoin his long-neglected Mamma. Mr. Hodge read me this
letter with a very long face, and asked me what I intended to do. I
answered that I should be better able to tell him when he had read me
the Postscript to the letter, for that I hardly fancied that Squire
Pinchin would behave in so Base and Mean a manner as to run away without
paying his Body Servant's wages. Upon this the Reverend Gentleman hems
and ha's somewhat, and gave me to understand that Mr. Pinchin had
enclosed a draft upon a Goldsmith in Change Alley in part disbursement
of his debt to him, Mr. Hodge, and that out of that--although no special
provision had been made for me by Mr. Pinchin--he thought he could spare
me a matter of Ten Pound. Now as he kept the letter very tight in his
hand, and was, withal, a Strong Man, who would have resisted any attempt
of mine to wrest it from him, I was fain to take his statement for
granted, and in a very Sulky manner agreed to accept th