became aware that I was by no means the
sole occupant of the receptacle he was pleased to designate by the title
of a pocket, but which other people would have called a slit in the
lining of his one sound coat-tail.

There was a stump of a clay pipe, with tobacco still hot in it. There
was a greasy piece of string, a crust of bread, a halfpenny, a few brass
buttons, and a very greasy and very crumpled and very filthy copy of a
"penny awful" paper. I need hardly say that this scrutiny did not
afford me absolute pleasure. In the first place, my temporary lodging
was most unsavoury and unclean; and in the second place, there was not
one among my many fellow-lodgers who could be said to be in my position
in life, or to whom I felt in any way tempted to address any inquiry.

This difficulty, however, was settled for me. A voice close beside me
said, in a hoarse whisper, "What cheer, Turnip? how do you like it?"

I looked round, and perceived that the speaker was the clay pipe, who
happened to be close beside me as I lay.

I held my nose--so to speak (for watches are not supposed to be gifted
with that organ)--the tobacco which was smouldering in him must have
been a month old, while the pipe itself looked remarkably grimy and
dirty. However, thought I, there would be no use in being uncivil to my
new comrades, unpleasant though they were, and I might as well make use
of this pipe to assist me to certain information I was curious to get.
So I answered, "I don't like it at all. Can you tell me where I am?"

"Where are you, Turnip? Why, you're in young Cadger's pocket, to be
sure; but you won't stay there long, no error."

I secretly wished this objectionable pipe would not insist on addressing
me as "Turnip," but on the whole the present did not seem exactly the
time to stand on my dignity, so I replied,--

"Why, what's going to become of me?"

"What's going to become of you, Turnip! Why, you'll go to Cadger's
uncle. Won't he, mate?"

The mate addressed was the piece of string, who, I should say, was by no
means the latest addition to the Cadger's collection of valuables. He
now grinned and wriggled in reply to the pipe's appeal, and snuffled,--

"That's right, mate; that's where he'll go. Do you hear, Turnip? that's
where you'll go--to Cadger's uncle."

It occurred to me that Cadger's uncle would have to be vastly more
respectable and fragrant than his nephew to make the change at all
advantageous to me