acknowledgments and turned,
with unimpaired cheerfulness of countenance, towards Serjeant Buzfuz.

'Now, Mr. Weller,' said Serjeant Buzfuz.

'Now, sir,' replied Sam.

'I believe you are in the service of Mr. Pickwick, the defendant in this
case? Speak up, if you please, Mr. Weller.'

'I mean to speak up, Sir,' replied Sam; 'I am in the service o' that
'ere gen'l'man, and a wery good service it is.'

'Little to do, and plenty to get, I suppose?' said Serjeant Buzfuz, with
jocularity. 'Oh, quite enough to get, Sir, as the soldier said ven they
ordered him three hundred and fifty lashes,' replied Sam.

'You must not tell us what the soldier, or any other man, said, Sir,'
interposed the judge; 'it's not evidence.'

'Wery good, my Lord,' replied Sam.

'Do you recollect anything particular happening on the morning when
you were first engaged by the defendant; eh, Mr. Weller?' said Serjeant
Buzfuz.

'Yes, I do, sir,' replied Sam.

'Have the goodness to tell the jury what it was.'

'I had a reg'lar new fit out o' clothes that mornin', gen'l'men of
the jury,' said Sam, 'and that was a wery partickler and uncommon
circumstance vith me in those days.'

Hereupon there was a general laugh; and the little judge, looking with
an angry countenance over his desk, said, 'You had better be careful,
Sir.'

'So Mr. Pickwick said at the time, my Lord,' replied Sam; 'and I was
wery careful o' that 'ere suit o' clothes; wery careful indeed, my
Lord.'

The judge looked sternly at Sam for full two minutes, but Sam's features
were so perfectly calm and serene that the judge said nothing, and
motioned Serjeant Buzfuz to proceed.

'Do you mean to tell me, Mr. Weller,' said Serjeant Buzfuz, folding his
arms emphatically, and turning half-round to the jury, as if in mute
assurance that he would bother the witness yet--'do you mean to tell
me, Mr. Weller, that you saw nothing of this fainting on the part of the
plaintiff in the arms of the defendant, which you have heard described
by the witnesses?' 'Certainly not,' replied Sam; 'I was in the passage
till they called me up, and then the old lady was not there.'

'Now, attend, Mr. Weller,' said Serjeant Buzfuz, dipping a large pen
into the inkstand before him, for the purpose of frightening Sam with
a show of taking down his answer. 'You were in the passage, and yet saw
nothing of what was going forward. Have you a pair of eyes, Mr. Weller?'

'Yes, I have a pair of eyes,' replied