Peerybingle: pouting in a way that clearly showed she _did_ like it very
much.

"Why, what else are you?" returned John, looking down upon her with a
smile, and giving her waist as light a squeeze as his huge hand and arm
could give. "A dot and"--here he glanced at the baby--"a dot and
carry--I won't say it, for fear I should spoil it; but I was very near a
joke. I don't know as ever I was nearer."

He was often near to something or other very clever, by his own account:
this lumbering, slow, honest John; this John so heavy, but so light of
spirit; so rough upon the surface, but so gentle at the core; so dull
without, so quick within; so stolid, but so good! Oh, Mother Nature,
give thy children the true poetry of heart that hid itself in this poor
Carrier's breast--he was but a Carrier, by the way--and we can bear to
have them talking prose, and leading lives of prose; and bear to bless
thee for their company!

It was pleasant to see Dot, with her little figure and her baby in her
arms: a very doll of a baby: glancing with a coquettish thoughtfulness
at the fire, and inclining her delicate little head just enough on one
side to let it rest in an odd, half-natural, half-affected, wholly
nestling and agreeable manner, on the great rugged figure of the
Carrier. It was pleasant to see him, with his tender awkwardness,
endeavouring to adapt his rude support to her slight need, and make his
burly middle age a leaning-staff not inappropriate to her blooming
youth. It was pleasant to observe how Tilly Slowboy, waiting in the
background for the baby, took special cognizance (though in her
earliest teens) of this grouping; and stood with her mouth and eyes wide
open, and her head thrust forward, taking it in as if it were air. Nor
was it less agreeable to observe how John the Carrier, reference being
made by Dot to the aforesaid baby, checked his hand when on the point of
touching the infant, as if he thought he might crack it; and, bending
down, surveyed it from a safe distance, with a kind of puzzled pride,
such as an amiable mastiff might be supposed to show if he found
himself, one day, the father of a young canary.

"An't he beautiful, John? Don't he look precious in his sleep?"

"Very precious," said John. "Very much so. He generally _is_ asleep,
an't he?"

"Lor, John! Good gracious, no!"

"Oh!" said John, pondering. "I thought his eyes was generally shut.
Halloa!"

"Goodness, John, how you startle one!"

"It