ther,
like a 'Jack-in-the-green,' on May-day, setting to the lady with a brass
ladle.

'For Heaven's sake, where am I to sit?' inquired the miserable man of an
old gentleman, into whose stomach he had just fallen for the fourth time.

'Anywhere but on my _chest_, sir,' replied the old gentleman in a surly
tone.

'Perhaps the _box_ would suit the gentleman better,' suggested a very
damp lawyer's clerk, in a pink shirt, and a smirking countenance.

After a great deal of struggling and falling about, Dumps at last managed
to squeeze himself into a seat, which, in addition to the slight
disadvantage of being between a window that would not shut, and a door
that must be open, placed him in close contact with a passenger, who had
been walking about all the morning without an umbrella, and who looked as
if he had spent the day in a full water-butt--only wetter.

'Don't bang the door so,' said Dumps to the conductor, as he shut it
after letting out four of the passengers; I am very nervous--it destroys
me.'

'Did any gen'lm'n say anythink?' replied the cad, thrusting in his head,
and trying to look as if he didn't understand the request.

'I told you not to bang the door so!' repeated Dumps, with an expression
of countenance like the knave of clubs, in convulsions.

'Oh! vy, it's rather a sing'ler circumstance about this here door, sir,
that it von't shut without banging,' replied the conductor; and he opened
the door very wide, and shut it again with a terrific bang, in proof of
the assertion.

'I beg your pardon, sir,' said a little prim, wheezing old gentleman,
sitting opposite Dumps, 'I beg your pardon; but have you ever observed,
when you have been in an omnibus on a wet day, that four people out of
five always come in with large cotton umbrellas, without a handle at the
top, or the brass spike at the bottom?'

'Why, sir,' returned Dumps, as he heard the clock strike twelve, 'it
never struck me before; but now you mention it, I--Hollo! hollo!' shouted
the persecuted individual, as the omnibus dashed past Drury-lane, where
he had directed to be set down.--'Where is the cad?'

'I think he's on the box, sir,' said the young gentleman before noticed
in the pink shirt, which looked like a white one ruled with red ink.

'I want to be set down!' said Dumps in a faint voice, overcome by his
previous efforts.

'I think these cads want to be _set down_,' returned the attorney's
clerk, chuckling at his sally.

'Holl