Just this here,' said Sam, 'that I'll patronise the inwention, and go in,

that vay. No visperin's to the Chancellorship - I don't like the notion. It

mayn't be altogether safe, vith reference to gettin' out agin.'

Deferring to his son's feeling upon this point, Mr Weller at once

sought the erudite Solomon Pell, and acquainted him with his desire

to issue a writ, instantly, for the SUM of twenty-five pounds, and costs

of process; to be executed without delay upon the body of one Samuel

Weller; the charges thereby incurred, to be paid in advance to

Solomon Pell.

The attorney was in high glee, for the embarrassed coach- horser was

ordered to be discharged forthwith. He highly approved of Sam's

attachment to his master; declared that it strongly reminded him of

his own feelings of devotion to his friend, the Chancellor; and at once

led the elder Mr Weller down to the Temple, to swear the affidavit of

debt, which the boy, with the assistance of the blue bag, had drawn

up on the spot.

Meanwhile, Sam, having been formally introduced to the whitewashed

gentleman and his friends, as the offspring of Mr Weller, of the Belle

Savage, was treated with marked distinction, and invited to regale

himself with them in honour of the occasion - an invitation which he

was by no means backward in accepting.

The mirth of gentlemen of this class is of a grave and quiet character,

usually; but the present instance was one of peculiar festivity, and

they relaxed in proportion. After some rather tumultuous toasting of

the Chief Commissioner and Mr Solomon Pell, who had that day

displayed such transcendent abilities, a mottled-faced gentleman in a

blue shawl proposed that somebody should sing a song. The obvious

suggestion was, that the mottled- faced gentleman, being anxious for

a song, should sing it himself; but this the mottled-faced gentleman

sturdily, and somewhat offensively, declined to do. Upon which, as is

not unusual in such cases, a rather angry colloquy ensued.

'Gentlemen,' said the coach-horser, 'rather than disturb the harmony

of this delightful occasion, perhaps Mr Samuel Weller will oblige the

company.'

'Raly, gentlemen,' said Sam, 'I'm not wery much in the habit o' singin'

without the instrument; but anythin' for a quiet life, as the man said

wen he took the sitivation at the lighthouse.'

With this prelude, Mr Samuel Weller burst at once into the following

wild and beautiful legend, which, under the impression that it is not

generally known, we take the liberty of quoting. We would beg to call

particular attention to the monosyllable at the end of the second and

The Pickwick Papers