imself.

Jog and Sponge were soon most heartily sick of each other. Nor did Mrs.
Jog's charms, nor the voluble enunciation of 'Obin and Ichard,' followed by
'Bah, bah, black sheep,' &c, from that wonderful boy, Gustavus James, mend
matters; for the young rogue having been in Mr. Sponge's room while Murry
Ann was doing it out, had torn the back off Sponge's _Mogg_, and made such
a mess of his tooth-brush, by cleaning his shoes with it, as never was
seen.

Mr. Sponge soon began to think it was not worth while staying at
Puddingpote Bower for the mere sake of his keep, seeing there was no
hunting to be had from it, and it did not do to keep hack hunters idle,
especially in open weather. Leather and he, for once, were of the same
opinion, and that worthy shook his head, and said Mr. Crowdey was 'awful
mean,' at the same time pulling out a sample of bad ship oats, that he had
got from a neighbouring ostler, to show the 'stuff' their 'osses' were a
eatin' of. The fact was, Jog's beer was nothing like so strong as Mr.
Puffington's; added to which, Mr. Crowdey carried the principles of the
poor-law union into his own establishment, and dieted his servants upon
certain rules. Sunday, roast beef, potatoes, and pudding under the meat;
Monday, fried beef, and stick-jaw (as they profanely called a certain
pudding); Wednesday, leg of mutton, and so on. The allowance of beer was a
pint and a half per diem to Bartholomew, and a pint to each woman; and Mr.
Crowdey used to observe from the head of the servants' dinner-table on the
arrival of each cargo, 'Now this (puff) beer is to (wheeze) a month, and,
if you choose to drink it in a (gasp) day, you'll go without any for the
rest of the (wheeze) time'; an intimation that had a very favourable effect
upon the tap. Mr. Leather, however, did not like it. 'Puffington's
servants,' he said, 'had beer whenever they chose,' and he thought it
'awful mean' restricting the quantity. Mr. Jog, however, was not to be
moved. Thus time crawled heavily on.

Mr. and Mrs. Jog had a long confab one night on the expediency of getting
rid of Mr. Sponge. Mrs. Jog wanted to keep him on till after the
christening; while Jog combated her reasons by representing the
improbability of its doing Gustavus James any good having him for a
godpapa, seeing Sponge's age, and the probability of his marrying himself.
Mrs. Jog, however, was very determined; rather too much so, indeed, for she
awakened Jog's jealousy, who la