cal instrument which is popularly
termed a mouth-organ, without at all changing the mournful expression
of the upper part of his face, though his mouth and chin were, of
necessity, in lively spasms.

The drama proceeded to its close, and held the spectators enchained in
the customary manner. The sensation which kindles in large assemblies,
when they are relieved from a state of breathless suspense and are
again free to speak and move, was yet rife, when the lodger, as usual,
summoned the men up stairs.

'Both of you,' he called from the window; for only the actual
exhibitor--a little fat man--prepared to obey the summons. 'I want to
talk to you. Come both of you!'

Come, Tommy,' said the little man.

I an't a talker,' replied the other. 'Tell him so. What should I go
and talk for?'

'Don't you see the gentleman's got a bottle and glass up there?'
returned the little man.

'And couldn't you have said so at first?' retorted the other with
sudden alacrity. 'Now, what are you waiting for? Are you going to
keep the gentleman expecting us all day? haven't you no manners?'

With this remonstrance, the melancholy man, who was no other than Mr
Thomas Codlin, pushed past his friend and brother in the craft, Mr
Harris, otherwise Short or Trotters, and hurried before him to the
single gentleman's apartment.

'Now, my men,' said the single gentleman; 'you have done very well.
What will you take? Tell that little man behind, to shut the door.'

'Shut the door, can't you?' said Mr Codlin, turning gruffly to his
friend. 'You might have knowed that the gentleman wanted the door
shut, without being told, I think.'

Mr Short obeyed, observing under his breath that his friend seemed
unusually 'cranky,' and expressing a hope that there was no dairy in
the neighbourhood, or his temper would certainly spoil its contents.

The gentleman pointed to a couple of chairs, and intimated by an
emphatic nod of his head that he expected them to be seated. Messrs
Codlin and Short, after looking at each other with considerable doubt
and indecision, at length sat down--each on the extreme edge of the
chair pointed out to him--and held their hats very tight, while the
single gentleman filled a couple of glasses from a bottle on the table
beside him, and presented them in due form.

'You're pretty well browned by the sun, both of you,' said their
entertainer. 'Have you been travelling?'

Mr Short replied in the affirmative with