nd it was easy
to see that painful comparisons, mingled perhaps with secret murmurs at
the injustice of fortune, were rankling in his breast. Long Ned sat in
gloomy silence; and even the hard heart of the severe Mr. Nabbem was
softened by the affecting parallel to which he had listened. They had
proceeded without speaking for two or three miles, when Long Ned, fixing
his eyes on Tomlinson, exclaimed,--

"Do you know, Tomlinson, I think it was a burning shame in Lovett to
suffer us to be carried off like muttons, without attempting to rescue
us by the way! It is all his fault that we are here; for it was he whom
Nabbem wanted, not us."

"Very true," said the cunning policeman; "and if I were you, Mr. Pepper,
hang me if I would not behave like a man of spirit, and show as little
consarn for him as he shows for you! Why, Lord now, I doesn't want to
'tice you; but this I does know, the justices are very anxious to catch
Lovett; and one who gives him up, and says a word or two about his
c'racter, so as to make conviction sartain, may himself be sartain of a
free pardon for all little sprees and so forth!"

"Ah!" said Long Ned, with a sigh, "that is all very well, Mr. Nabbem,
but I'll go to the crap like a gentleman, and not peach of my comrades;
and now I think of it, Lovett could scarcely have assisted us. One man
alone, even Lovett, clever as he is, could not have forced us out of the
clutches of you and your myrmidons, Mr. Nabbem! And when we were once
at-----, they took excellent care of us. But tell me now, my dear
Nabbem," and Long Ned's voice wheedled itself into something like
softness,--"tell me, do you think the grazier will buff it home?"

"No doubt of that," said the unmoved Nabbem. Long Ned's face fell. "And
what if he does?" said he; "they can but transport us!"

"Don't desave yourself, Master Pepper!" said Nabbem: "you're too old a
hand for the herring-pond. They're resolved to make gallows apples of
all such numprels [Nonpareils] as you!"

Ned cast a sullen look at the officer.

"A pretty comforter you are!" said he. "I have been in a post chaise
with a pleasanter fellow, I'll swear! You may call me an apple if you
will, but, I take it, I am not an apple you'd like to see peeled."

With this pugilistic and menacing pun, the lengthy hero relapsed into
meditative silence.

Our travellers were now entering a road skirted on one side by a common
of some extent, and on the other by a thick hedgerow, whic