Town, with his custom, or rather with
his name on their books. His father is a man of considerable property,
which must eventually come to him, and he may yet form a conspicuous
figure in High Life."

"What have we here?" said Tallyho, stopping to read a paper displayed in
the window of a barber's shop.

"The old and only established shop at the prison
"price: shave well for one penny, hair fashionably cut
"for twopence, at 17 in 16, first staircase round the corner."

"Seventeen in sixteen--I don't understand this."

"Each of the doors," said Merry well, "which lead to the apartments is
numbered, as is likewise every room in each passage, by which means
much facility is afforded to visitors who come to make a call upon their
friends. The operator himself is a prisoner, and so are most of those
who carry on trades; but opportunities are afforded for any person to
come in and supply articles to the inhabitants; and at an early hour in
the morning you may hear almost all the cries of London."~59~~

"Milk, matches, eggs, and Epping sausages,
Greens, water-cresses, chips, geranium trees;
A brush or broom, deal wood, cow-heel, and tripe,
Fresh butter, oranges all round and ripe;
Rabbits, a kettle, jug, or coffee pot,
Eels, poultry, home-bak'd bread, and rolls all hot;
Shirt buttons, nosegays, coals, and God knows what
Such are the goods that pass the lobby door,
Cried in all tones that vary, squeak, and roar."

"A little further on," said Merry well, "is the public kitchen, where,
for a trifling fee, cooking is performed for the prisoners, and hot
water supplied at a penny per kettle. Then there is a coffee-room and
a tap-room for general accommodation, according to the circumstances of
the inmates; so that in point of fact there is little to be regretted
here, but the loss of liberty, and the want of money."

"Zounds," said Bob, "those two articles constitute all that is valuable
in life, and in their absence it dwindles into mere existence.

"And bare existence man to live ordained,
"Wrings and oppresses with enormous weight."

"I admit the justice of the remark, for to become an article of
vegetation, were it sure of continuance, would be one of the most
irksome, as well as degrading situations to which a man could be
reduced. But you should recollect, that the generality of persons who