of meat the day before, Nip cut, and contrived, and
shaped, and skewered, in so quiet and business-like a way as proved he
knew perfectly well what he was about. With early morning, after Nip had
arranged my dress with the same care as he had bestowed upon the barrow
and its contents, I wheeled my shop into the street, and amid a great
many winks of satisfaction from my dear old friend, I went trudging
along, bringing many a doggess to the windows of the little houses by my
loud cry of "Me-eet! Fresh me-eet!"

As I was strange in my new business, and did not feel quite at my ease, I
fancied every dog I met, and every eye that peeped from door and
casement, stared at me in a particular manner, as if they knew I was
playing my part for the first time, and were watching to see how I did
it. The looks that were cast at my meat, were all, I thought, intended
for me, and when a little puppy leered suspiciously at the barrow as he
was crossing the road, no doubt to see that it did not run over him, I
could only imagine that he was thinking of the strange figure I made,
and my awkward attempt at getting a living. Feelings like these no doubt
alarm every new beginner; but time and habit, if they do not reconcile us
to our lot, will make it at least easier to perform, and thus, after some
two hours' journeying through the narrow lanes of Caneville, I did what
my business required of me with more assurance than when I first set out.

One thing, however, was very distasteful to me, and I could so little
bear to see it, that I even spoke of it aloud, and ran the risk of
offending some of my customers. I mean the _way_ in which several of the
dogs devoured the meat after they had bought it. You will think that when
they had purchased their food and paid for it, they had a right to eat it
as they pleased: I confess it; nothing can be more true; but still, my
ideas had changed so of late, that it annoyed me very much to see many of
these curs, living as they did in the most civilized city in this part of
the world, gnawing their meat as they held it on the ground with their
paws, and growling if any one came near as though there was no such thing
as a police in Caneville. I forgot when I was scolding these poor dogs,
that perhaps they had never been taught better, and deserved pity rather
than blame. I forgot too that I had myself behaved as they did before I
had been blessed with happier fortune, and that, even then, if I had
looked i