the
population, who, seeing us but once a year, and then but momentarily,
as the procession emerges suddenly from one door to plunge into
another, do not very well know what to make of it. 'Is that there a
buryin' or a marryin'?' 'What's that lot o' fellows after?' 'What's up
now, Jem?'--such are a few of the inquiries which from time to time
testified the astonishment of the uninitiated; to all of which our
imperturbable leader opposed a face as impenetrable as that of the
sphinx of the desert. We should have been sadly at a loss, by the way,
without him. He knew every soul in the whole ward who would come down
to the extent of a sixpence for the sake of the poor; and he led his
small phalanx boldly to the charge through all impediments. Under his
guidance, we did what certainly we should never have attempted without
it. We stormed the stout citadels of the merchants, and carried their
strongholds up as high as the third and fourth floors, and captured
many a poor man's dinner from the very jaws of the cash-box. We dived
into cellars, and crouched and crept into subterranean dens. We
threaded muddy lanes, and wandered among bewildering wharfs, and
mounted lofts and sheds, and squeezed ourselves into all sorts of
out-of-the-way slums. We climbed ladders leading up into creaking
timber galleries, and got into regions of old planks and cobwebs, dim
with dust and odorous with ancient smells. We assailed the scholar at
his studies, and the craftsman at his labour, and from all and each we
met with a courteous reception, and gathered the sinews of
benevolence. The dispositions of men vary in few things more than in
their several modes of conferring a favour. Some of our most liberal
donors thoughtfully sent their bank-notes to the vestry, to save us
the trouble of waiting upon them; others, on the contrary, levied the
full value of their gifts, by keeping us wearily waiting before we got
them. A barber, whom we found at his block busily weaving a wig, and
whose diminutive crib would not contain half our company, apologised
because it was not in his power to do much for us, and then
diffidently tendered a guinea. A portly dealer in feminine luxuries
talked largely of the claims of our indigent brethren, and the sacred
obligations of charity, and wound up his sonorous homily with the
climax of half-a-crown. We found one burly gentleman, buried up to the
elbows in red-tape and legal documents, who professed a perfect
horror, a