wing, and to the best slice of
tongue (none of those out-of-the-way No Thoroughfares of Pork now), and
took, comparatively speaking, no care of himself at all. "Ah! poultry,
poultry! You little thought," said Mr. Pumblechook, apostrophizing the
fowl in the dish, "when you was a young fledgling, what was in store for
you. You little thought you was to be refreshment beneath this humble
roof for one as--Call it a weakness, if you will," said Mr. Pumblechook,
getting up again, "but may I? may I--?"

It began to be unnecessary to repeat the form of saying he might, so
he did it at once. How he ever did it so often without wounding himself
with my knife, I don't know.

"And your sister," he resumed, after a little steady eating, "which had
the honor of bringing you up by hand! It's a sad picter, to reflect that
she's no longer equal to fully understanding the honor. May--"

I saw he was about to come at me again, and I stopped him.

"We'll drink her health," said I.

"Ah!" cried Mr. Pumblechook, leaning back in his chair, quite flaccid
with admiration, "that's the way you know 'em, sir!" (I don't know
who Sir was, but he certainly was not I, and there was no third person
present); "that's the way you know the noble-minded, sir! Ever forgiving
and ever affable. It might," said the servile Pumblechook, putting down
his untasted glass in a hurry and getting up again, "to a common person,
have the appearance of repeating--but may I--?"

When he had done it, he resumed his seat and drank to my sister. "Let us
never be blind," said Mr. Pumblechook, "to her faults of temper, but it
is to be hoped she meant well."

At about this time, I began to observe that he was getting flushed in
the face; as to myself, I felt all face, steeped in wine and smarting.

I mentioned to Mr. Pumblechook that I wished to have my new clothes
sent to his house, and he was ecstatic on my so distinguishing him. I
mentioned my reason for desiring to avoid observation in the village,
and he lauded it to the skies. There was nobody but himself, he
intimated, worthy of my confidence, and--in short, might he? Then he
asked me tenderly if I remembered our boyish games at sums, and how we
had gone together to have me bound apprentice, and, in effect, how he
had ever been my favorite fancy and my chosen friend? If I had taken
ten times as many glasses of wine as I had, I should have known that he
never had stood in that relation towards me, and should in