a nod and a smile. Mr Codlin
added a corroborative nod and a short groan, as if he still felt the
weight of the Temple on his shoulders.

'To fairs, markets, races, and so forth, I suppose?' pursued the single
gentleman.

'Yes, sir,' returned Short, 'pretty nigh all over the West of England.'

'I have talked to men of your craft from North, East, and South,'
returned their host, in rather a hasty manner; 'but I never lighted on
any from the West before.'

'It's our reg'lar summer circuit is the West, master,' said Short;
'that's where it is. We takes the East of London in the spring and
winter, and the West of England in the summer time. Many's the hard
day's walking in rain and mud, and with never a penny earned, we've had
down in the West.'

'Let me fill your glass again.'

'Much obleeged to you sir, I think I will,' said Mr Codlin, suddenly
thrusting in his own and turning Short's aside. 'I'm the sufferer,
sir, in all the travelling, and in all the staying at home. In town or
country, wet or dry, hot or cold, Tom Codlin suffers. But Tom Codlin
isn't to complain for all that. Oh, no! Short may complain, but if
Codlin grumbles by so much as a word--oh dear, down with him, down
with him directly. It isn't his place to grumble. That's quite out of
the question.'

'Codlin an't without his usefulness,' observed Short with an arch look,
'but he don't always keep his eyes open. He falls asleep sometimes,
you know. Remember them last races, Tommy.'

'Will you never leave off aggravating a man?' said Codlin. 'It's very
like I was asleep when five-and-tenpence was collected, in one round,
isn't it? I was attending to my business, and couldn't have my eyes in
twenty places at once, like a peacock, no more than you could. If I
an't a match for an old man and a young child, you an't neither, so
don't throw that out against me, for the cap fits your head quite as
correct as it fits mine.'

'You may as well drop the subject, Tom,' said Short. 'It isn't
particular agreeable to the gentleman, I dare say.'

'Then you shouldn't have brought it up,' returned Mr Codlin; 'and I ask
the gentleman's pardon on your account, as a giddy chap that likes to
hear himself talk, and don't much care what he talks about, so that he
does talk.'

Their entertainer had sat perfectly quiet in the beginning of this
dispute, looking first at one man and then at the other, as if he were
lying in wait for an opportunity of putti