the surface of the earth, or committed some other outrage and atrocity

of an equally ferocious and violent description; for he was a terrible

old fellow, was Lobbs, when his pride was injured, or his blood was

up. Swear! Such trains of oaths would come rolling and pealing over

the way, sometimes, when he was denouncing the idleness of the bony

apprentice with the thin legs, that Nathaniel Pipkin would shake in

his shoes with horror, and the hair of the pupils' heads would stand

on end with fright.

Well! Day after day, when school was over, and the pupils gone, did

Nathaniel Pipkin sit himself down at the front window, and, while he

feigned to be reading a book, throw sidelong glances over the way in

search of the bright eyes of Maria Lobbs; and he hadn't sat there

many days, before the bright eyes appeared at an upper window,

apparently deeply engaged in reading too. This was delightful, and

gladdening to the heart of Nathaniel Pipkin. It was something to sit

there for hours together, and look upon that pretty face when the eyes

were cast down; but when Maria Lobbs began to raise her eyes from

her book, and dart their rays in the direction of Nathaniel Pipkin, his

delight and admiration were perfectly boundless. At last, one day

when he knew old Lobbs was out, Nathaniel Pipkin had the temerity

to kiss his hand to Maria Lobbs; and Maria Lobbs, instead of shutting

the window, and pulling down the blind, kissed HERS to him, and

smiled. Upon which Nathaniel Pipkin determined, that, come what

might, he would develop the state of his feelings, without further

delay.

'A prettier foot, a gayer heart, a more dimpled face, or a smarter form,

never bounded so lightly over the earth they graced, as did those of

Maria Lobbs, the old saddler's daughter. There was a roguish twinkle

in her sparkling eyes, that would have made its way to far less

susceptible bosoms than that of Nathaniel Pipkin; and there was such

a joyous sound in her merry laugh, that the sternest misanthrope

must have smiled to hear it. Even old Lobbs himself, in the very height

of his ferocity, couldn't resist the coaxing of his pretty daughter; and

when she, and her cousin Kate - an arch, impudent-looking,

bewitching little person - made a dead set upon the old man together,

as, to say the truth, they very often did, he could have refused them

nothing, even had they asked for a portion of the countless and

inexhaustible treasures, which were hidden from the light, in the iron

safe.

'Nathaniel Pipkin's heart beat high within him, when he saw this

enticing little couple some hundred yards before him one summer's

evening, in the very field in which he had many a time strolled about

till night-time, and pondered on the beauty of Maria Lobbs. But

though he had often thought then, how briskly he would walk up to

Maria Lobbs and tell her of his passion if he could only meet her, he

The Pickwick Papers