'There, sir,' said Pott, retreating from the stove, 'and that's the way I

would serve the viper who produces it, if I were not, fortunately for

him, restrained by the laws of my country.'

'Serve him so, sir!' cried Slurk, starting up. 'Those laws shall never be

appealed to by him, sir, in such a case. Serve him so, sir!'

Hear! hear!' said Bob Sawyer.

Nothing can be fairer,' observed Mr Ben Allen.

Serve him so, sir!' reiterated Slurk, in a loud voice.

Mr Pott darted a look of contempt, which might have withered an

anchor.

Serve him so, sir!' reiterated Slurk, in a louder voice than before.

I will not, sir,' rejoined Pott.

Oh, you won't, won't you, sir?' said Mr Slurk, in a taunting manner;

you hear this, gentlemen! He won't; not that he's afraid - , oh, no! he

WON'T. Ha! ha!'

I consider you, sir,' said Mr Pott, moved by this sarcasm, 'I consider

you a viper. I look upon you, sir, as a man who has placed himself

beyond the pale of society, by his most audacious, disgraceful, and

abominable public conduct. I view you, sir, personally and politically,

in no other light than as a most unparalleled and unmitigated viper.'

The indignant Independent did not wait to hear the end of this

personal denunciation; for, catching up his carpet-bag, which was

well stuffed with movables, he swung it in the air as Pott turned away,

and, letting it fall with a circular sweep on his head, just at that

particular angle of the bag where a good thick hairbrush happened to

be packed, caused a sharp crash to be heard throughout the kitchen,

and brought him at once to the ground.

'Gentlemen,' cried Mr Pickwick, as Pott started up and seized the fire-

shovel - 'gentlemen! Consider, for Heaven's sake - help - Sam - here -

pray, gentlemen - interfere, somebody.'

Uttering these incoherent exclamations, Mr Pickwick rushed between

the infuriated combatants just in time to receive the carpet-bag on one

side of his body, and the fire-shovel on the other. Whether the

representatives of the public feeling of Eatanswill were blinded by

animosity, or (being both acute reasoners) saw the advantage of

having a third party between them to bear all the blows, certain it is

The Pickwick Papers