ir expeditions, return to their haunts with no better plunder in
the shape of converts than what I saw going into yonder place of call, I
should say they are welcome to what they get; for if that's the kind of
rubbish they steal out of the Church of England, or any other church, who
in his senses but would say a good riddance, and many thanks for your
trouble: at any rate, that is my opinion of the matter."

CHAPTER XXIX

Deliberations with Self-Resolution--Invitation to Dinner--The Commercial
Traveller--The Landlord's Offer--The Comet Wine.

It was now that I had frequent deliberations with myself. Should I
continue at the inn in my present position? I was not very much
captivated with it; there was little poetry in keeping an account of the
corn, hay, and straw which came in, and was given out, and I was fond of
poetry; moreover, there was no glory at all to be expected in doing so,
and I was fond of glory. Should I give up that situation, and remaining
at the inn, become ostler under old Bill? There was more poetry in
rubbing down horses than in keeping an account of straw, hay, and corn;
there was also some prospect of glory attached to the situation of
ostler, for the grooms and stable-boys occasionally talked of an ostler,
a great way down the road, who had been presented by some sporting
people, not with a silver vase, as our governor had been, but with a
silver currycomb, in testimony of their admiration for his skill; but I
confess that the poetry of rubbing down had become, as all other poetry
becomes, rather prosy by frequent repetition, and with respect to the
chance of deriving glory from the employment, I entertained, in the event
of my determining to stay, very slight hope of ever attaining skill in
the ostler art sufficient to induce sporting people to bestow upon me a
silver currycomb. I was not half so good an ostler as old Bill, who had
never been presented with a silver currycomb, and I never expected to
become so, therefore what chance had I? It was true, there was a
prospect of some pecuniary emolument to be derived by remaining in either
situation. It was very probable that, provided I continued to keep an
account of the hay and corn coming in and expended, the landlord would
consent to allow me a pound a week, which at the end of a dozen years,
provided I kept myself sober, would amount to a considerable sum. I
might, on the retirement of old Bill, by taking his place, save up a