were a
perverse voluntary agent, intent on thwarting and vexing him, I plainly
perceive that, for Nippers, brandy-and-water were altogether
superfluous.

It was fortunate for me that, owing to its peculiar
cause--indigestion--the irritability and consequent nervousness of
Nippers were mainly observable in the morning, while in the afternoon he
was comparatively mild. So that, Turkey's paroxysms only coming on about
twelve o'clock, I never had to do with their eccentricities at one time.
Their fits relieved each other, like guards. When Nippers's was on,
Turkey's was off; and _vice versa_. This was a good natural arrangement,
under the circumstances.

Ginger Nut, the third on my list, was a lad, some twelve years old. His,
father was a carman, ambitious of seeing his son on the bench instead of
a cart, before he died. So he sent him to my office, as student at law,
errand-boy, cleaner and sweeper, at the rate of one dollar a week. He
had a little desk to himself, but he did not use it much. Upon
inspection, the drawer exhibited a great array of the shells of various
sorts of nuts. Indeed, to this quick-witted youth, the whole noble
science of the law was contained in a nut-shell. Not the least among the
employments of Ginger Nut, as well as one which he discharged with the
most alacrity, was his duty as cake and apple purveyor for Turkey and
Nippers. Copying law-papers being proverbially a dry, husky sort of
business, my two scriveners were fain to moisten their mouths very often
with Spitzenbergs, to be had at the numerous stalls nigh the Custom
House and Post Office. Also, they sent Ginger Nut very frequently for
that peculiar cake--small, flat, round, and very spicy--after which he
had been named by them. Of a cold morning, when business was but dull,
Turkey would gobble up scores of these cakes, as if they were mere
wafers--indeed, they sell them at the rate of six or eight for a
penny--the scrape of his pen blending with the crunching of the crisp
particles in his mouth. Of all the fiery afternoon blunders and flurried
rashnesses of Turkey, was his once moistening a ginger-cake between his
lips, and clapping it on to a mortgage, for a seal. I came within an
ace of dismissing him then. But he mollified me by making an oriental
bow, and saying--

"With submission, sir, it was generous of me to find you in stationery
on my own account."

Now my original business--that of a conveyancer and title hunter, and
drawer