rnal friendly
they are jammed together so they can't leave each other. Inseparable
friends; you must choke 'em off, or you can't part 'em. Well, I ain't
jist so thick and intimate with none o' them in this country as all that
comes to nother. I won't lay down my life for none on 'em; I don't see
no occasion for it, _do you_?

"I'll dine with you, John Bull, if you axe me; and I ain't nothin' above
particular to do, and the cab hire don't cost more nor the price of a
dinner; but hang me if ever I go to a Swoi-ree agin. I've had enough of
that, to last me _my_ life, I know. A dinner I hante no objection to,
though that ain't quite so bright as a pewter button nother, when you
don't know you're right and left, hand man. And an evenin' party, I
wouldn't take my oath I wouldn't go to, though I don't know hardly what
to talk about, except America; and I've bragged so much about that, I'm
tired of the subject. But a _Swoi-ree is the devil, that's a fact_."

CHAPTER XII. TATTERSALL'S OR, THE ELDER AND THE GRAVE DIGGER.

"Squire," said Mr. Slick, "it ain't rainin' to-day; suppose you come
along with me to Tattersall's. I have been studyin' that place a
considerable sum to see whether it is a safe shop to trade in or no. But
I'm dubersome; I don't like the cut of the sportin' folks here. If I can
see both eends of the rope, and only one man has hold of one eend, and
me of the tother, why I know what I am about; but if I can only see my
own eend, I don't know who I am a pullin' agin. I intend to take a rise
out o' some o' the knowin' ones here, that will make 'em scratch their
heads, and stare, I know. But here we are. Cut round this corner, into
this Lane. Here it is; this is it to the right."

We entered a sort of coach-yard, which was filled with a motley and
mixed crowd of people. I was greatly disappointed in Tattersall's.
Indeed, few things in London have answered my expectations. They have
either exceeded or fallen short of the description I had heard of them.
I was prepared, both from what I was told by Mr. Slick, and heard, from
others, to find that there were but very few gentlemen-like looking men
there; and that by far the greater number neither were, nor affected to
be, any thing but "knowing ones." I was led to believe that there
would be a plentiful use of the terms _of art_, a variety of provincial
accent, and that the conversation of the jockeys and grooms would be
liberally garnished with appropriate sla