ur whole board of guardians, too--just
because I proposed doctoring the paupers by tender, and that the lowest
tender should carry the day--a plan that would hactelly have saved the
parish pounds and pounds; and he--that blubbering fellow
there--hactelly, as I was a-saying, called me a hard-hearted old
blackguard for proposing it. Oh! I see; here comes Timson the butcher,
what next then? Oh! just as I expected--it's a done job with my nag, I
see. Steady, John Donnithorne, and hold down his head. Come, Timson, my
good man--come, bear a hand, and whip the knife into the throat of
un--skilfully done, wasn't it, doctor? Oh dear! can't bear the sight;
too much for the doctor's nerves. Ay--well, that's a good one--that's
right; turn away your head and pipe your eye, my dear, I dare say it
will do ye good. It does me, I know--he! he! he! Hallo! what have we
here--is it a horse or is it a jackass? Well, I'm sure here's a
come-down with a vengeance--a broken-knee'd, spavined jade of a pony,
that's hardly fit for carrion. Oh! it's yours, Master Sweep, I s'pose.
Ay, that's the kind of nag the doctor ought to ride; clap on the saddle,
my boys--that's your sort; just as it should be. No, you can't look that
way, can't ye? Well, then, mount and be off with ye--that's right; off
you goes, and if you gets back again without a shy-off, it's a pity."
And the hard-hearted old sinner laughed to that degree, that the tears
ran down in streams over his deeply-furrowed countenance.

CHAPTER IX.

The two years that followed Job's untoward accident, instead of mending
his fortunes, had only added to his embarrassments--all owing to his
being just a hundred pounds behind the mark, which, as he often said,
the price he could have obtained for poor Selim would have effectually
prevented. His circumstances daily grew worse and worse, and at last
became so desperate, that this patient and amiable couple were almost
driven to their wits' end. Creditors, becoming impatient, at last
resorted to legal remedies to recover their demands, until all his
furniture was taken possession of under judicial process, which, being
insufficient to discharge one half the debts for which judgments had
been signed against him, he had no better prospect before his eyes than
exchanging the bare walls of his present abode for the still more gloomy
confines of a debtor's prison.

He had striven hard, but in vain, to bear all these trials with
fortitude; and even poor