as we
have. I do not pretend that they are faultless; on the contrary, I could
point out improvements myself--but we get on with them as well as
we can: no doubt, among men, you have codes that will better bear
examination."

CHAPTER XXII. A NEOPHYTE IN DIPLOMACY--DIPLOMATIC INTRODUCTION--A
CALCULATION--A SHIPMENT OF OPINIONS--HOW TO CHOOSE AN INVOICE, WITH AN
ASSORTMENT.

I now began seriously to think of sailing for Leaplow; for, I confess,
I was heartily tired of being thought the governor of His Royal Highness
Prince Bob, and pined to be restored once more to my proper place
in society. I was the more incited to make the change by the
representations of the brigadier, who assured me that it was sufficient
to come from foreign parts to be esteemed a nobleman in Leaplow, and
that I need not apprehend in his country any of the ill-treatment I had
received in the one in which I now was. After talking over the matter,
therefore, in a familiar way, we determined to repair at once to the
Leaplow legation, in order to ask for our passports, and to offer, at
the same time, to carry any dispatches that Judge People's Friend might
have prepared for his government--it being the custom of the
Leaplowers to trust to these godsends in carrying on their diplomatic
correspondence.

We found the judge in undress, and a very different figure he cut,
certainly, from that which he made when I saw him the previous night at
court. Then he was all queue; now he was all bob. He seemed glad to see
us, however, and quite delighted when I told him of the intention to
sail for Leaplow, as soon as the wind served. He instantly asked a
passage for himself, with republican simplicity.

There was to be another turn of the great and little wheels, he said,
and it was quite important to himself to be on the spot; for, although
everything was, beyond all question, managed with perfect republican
propriety, yet, somehow (and yet he did not know exactly how, but
SOMEHOW), those who are on the spot always get the best prizes. If I
could give him a passage, therefore, he would esteem it a great personal
favor; and I might depend on it, the circumstance would be well received
by the party. Although I did not very well understand what he meant by
this party, which was to view the act so kindly, I very cheerfully told
the judge that the apartments lately occupied by my lord Chatterino
and his friends were perfectly at his disposal. I was then a