g his cigar in
provoking silence, while knock succeeded knock and tradesman
followed tradesman; each depositing some article ordered, or
supposed to have been ordered, or which ought in the judgment of
the depositors to have been ordered, by the luckless Drysdale:
and new hats, and ties, and gloves, and pins, jostled balsam of
Neroli, and registered shaving-soap, and fancy letter paper, and
Eau de Cologne, on every available table. A visit from two
livery-stable-keepers in succession followed, each of whom had
several new leaders which they were anxious Mr. Drysdale should
try as soon as possible. Drysdale growled and grunted, and wished
them or Sanders at the bottom of the sea; however, he consoled
himself with the thought that the worst was now passed,--there
was no other possible supplier of undergraduate wants who could
arrive.

Not so; in another minute a gentle knock came at the door. Jack
pricked up his ears and wagged his tail; Drysdale recklessly
shouted, "Come in!" the door slowly opened about eighteen inches,
and a shock head of hair entered the room, from which one lively
little gimlet eye went glancing about into every corner. The
other eye was closed, but as a perpetual wink to indicate the
unsleeping wariness of the owner, or because that hero had really
lost the power of using it in some of his numerous encounters
with men and beasts, no one, so far as I know, has ever
ascertained.

"Ah! Mr. Drysdale, sir!" began the head; and then rapidly
withdrew behind the door to avoid one of the spurs, which (being
the missile nearest at hand) Drysdale instantly discharged at it.
As the spur fell to the floor, the head reappeared in the room,
and as quickly disappeared again, in deference to the other spur,
the top boots, an ivory handled hair brush, and a translation of
Euripides, which in turn saluted each successive appearance of
said head; and the grin was broader on each reappearance.

Then Drysdale, having no other article within reach which he
could throw, burst into a loud fit of laughter, in which Sanders
and the head heartily joined, and shouted, "Come in, Joe, you old
fool! and don't stand bobbing your ugly old mug in and out there,
like a jack in the box."

So the head came in, and after it the body, and closed the door
behind it; and a queer, cross-grained, tough-looking body it was,
of about fifty years standing, or rather slouching, clothed in an
old fustian coat, corduroy breeches and gaiters