ech.

'Wery much obliged to you, old fellers,' said Sam, ladling away at
the punch in the most unembarrassed manner possible, 'for this here
compliment; which, comin' from sich a quarter, is wery overvelmin'.
I've heered a good deal on you as a body, but I will say, that I never
thought you was sich uncommon nice men as I find you air. I only hope
you'll take care o' yourselves, and not compromise nothin' o' your
dignity, which is a wery charmin' thing to see, when one's out
a-walkin', and has always made me wery happy to look at, ever since
I was a boy about half as high as the brass-headed stick o' my wery
respectable friend, Blazes, there. As to the wictim of oppression in the
suit o' brimstone, all I can say of him, is, that I hope he'll get jist
as good a berth as he deserves; in vitch case it's wery little cold
swarry as ever he'll be troubled with agin.'

Here Sam sat down with a pleasant smile, and his speech having been
vociferously applauded, the company broke up.

'Wy, you don't mean to say you're a-goin' old feller?' said Sam Weller
to his friend, Mr. John Smauker.

'I must, indeed,' said Mr. Smauker; 'I promised Bantam.'

'Oh, wery well,' said Sam; 'that's another thing. P'raps he'd resign if
you disappinted him. You ain't a-goin', Blazes?'

'Yes, I am,' said the man with the cocked hat.

'Wot, and leave three-quarters of a bowl of punch behind you!' said Sam;
'nonsense, set down agin.'

Mr. Tuckle was not proof against this invitation. He laid aside the
cocked hat and stick which he had just taken up, and said he would have
one glass, for good fellowship's sake.

As the gentleman in blue went home the same way as Mr. Tuckle, he was
prevailed upon to stop too. When the punch was about half gone, Sam
ordered in some oysters from the green-grocer's shop; and the effect of
both was so extremely exhilarating, that Mr. Tuckle, dressed out with
the cocked hat and stick, danced the frog hornpipe among the shells on
the table, while the gentleman in blue played an accompaniment upon an
ingenious musical instrument formed of a hair-comb upon a curl-paper. At
last, when the punch was all gone, and the night nearly so, they sallied
forth to see each other home. Mr. Tuckle no sooner got into the open
air, than he was seized with a sudden desire to lie on the curbstone;
Sam thought it would be a pity to contradict him, and so let him have
his own way. As the cocked hat would have been spoiled if left there,
S