t you
Will" notoriety (having drawn that character). Thus, brandy, Belchers,
and Blind-man's-buff, hold an indissoluble partnership in our
memory--a remnant of those days when we imagined a Jew incapable of
dealing in other merchandise than old clothes; or of shaving like a
Christian, or, if he did, would do other than expose a pendant chin,
resembling the _vertebrae_ of a horse's tail. Oh! those days have
flown--days when we imagined peas split by hand, and thought humanity
fools for not making soup with whole ones--but we are sadly
digressing!--"It's not fair!" cry twenty voices--"the blind man can
see;" and so he could, for he always caught Miss Brown, who, afraid of
the piano or pier-glass, would stand in the way:--so that sport is
relinquished for cake and Characters; the former seeming to afford great
gratification, and the latter little, save to the King and Queen--all
other characters being, like the riddles, "given up,"--no one caring to
know when a sailor is not a sailor?--when he's a-_board_: or to be bored
with a door's being a-_jar_, and a man a-_shaving_.

[Illustration]

The rich cake is soon a ruin; so much is every part of it relished, that
one young gentleman has consumed the head and shoulders of Madame
Alboni, under a delusion of her being sugar, and not "plaster of
parish," as Mrs. Brown afterwards said it was. The little fellows soon
get very mirthful on the ginger-wine; keeping up a continual buzz, like
a colony of bees, sadly itching to be at something--a wish that is not
to be realized at once, for little Miss Newsoince is going to do that
eternal tattoo, the "_Rataplan_:"--yes, there she is, in Tom's felt-hat
and polonaise, as "_La Vivandiere_," thumping upon an empty band-box
with two knitting-pins, singing, as some of the mammas say, very
prettily; but as the boys, who have heard it many times before,
designate it "a jolly bother!"--"a great big shame!"--"a precious dummy
set out!"--and so on,--there being no _fun_ in it.

This hum-drum over, a great cry is raised for _Forfeits_!--and a desire
that _a lady_ should _go out in a very great hurry_, as it would appear,
almost in a state of destitution; for every young lady and gentleman
proffers to stand for some article of dress. Having settled what
they will give, all sit round upon chairs, ready to hear the
_lady's_ demands:--spin goes the trencher, and she wants her
_Stockings_!--forward fly the hose, personated by a little fellow, with