who lived in a court. Child's eldest sister bought a necklace - common

necklace, made of large black wooden beads. Child being fond of toys,

cribbed the necklace, hid it, played with it, cut the string, and

swallowed a bead. Child thought it capital fun, went back next day,

and swallowed another bead.'

Bless my heart,' said Mr Pickwick, 'what a dreadful thing! I beg your

pardon, Sir. Go on.'

Next day, child swallowed two beads; the day after that, he treated

himself to three, and so on, till in a week's time he had got through

the necklace - five-and-twenty beads in all. The sister, who was an

industrious girl, and seldom treated herself to a bit of finery, cried her

eyes out, at the loss of the necklace; looked high and low for it; but, I

needn't say, didn't find it. A few days afterwards, the family were at

dinner - baked shoulder of mutton, and potatoes under it - the child,

who wasn't hungry, was playing about the room, when suddenly there

was heard a devil of a noise, like a small hailstorm. ‘Don't do that, my

boy,’ said the father. ‘I ain't a-doin' nothing,’ said the child. ‘Well, don't

do it again,’ said the father. There was a short silence, and then the

noise began again, worse than ever. ‘If you don't mind what I say, my

boy,’ said the father, ‘you'll find yourself in bed, in something less

than a pig's whisper.’ He gave the child a shake to make him obedient,

and such a rattling ensued as nobody ever heard before. ‘Why,

damme, it's IN the child!’ said the father, ‘he's got the croup in the

wrong place!’ ‘No, I haven't, father,’ said the child, beginning to cry,

‘it's the necklace; I swallowed it, father.’ - The father caught the child

up, and ran with him to the hospital; the beads in the boy's stomach

rattling all the way with the jolting; and the people looking up in the

air, and down in the cellars, to see where the unusual sound came

from. He's in the hospital now,' said Jack Hopkins, 'and he makes

such a devil of a noise when he walks about, that they're obliged to

muffle him in a watchman's coat, for fear he should wake the

patients.'

That's the most extraordinary case I ever heard of,' said Mr Pickwick,

with an emphatic blow on the table.

Oh, that's nothing,' said Jack Hopkins. 'Is it, Bob?'

Certainly not,' replied Bob Sawyer.

Very singular things occur in our profession, I can assure you, Sir,'

said Hopkins.

So I should be disposed to imagine,' replied Mr Pickwick.

The Pickwick Papers