replied Bob Sawyer, with
great glee. 'The lamplighter has eighteenpence a week to pull the
night-bell for ten minutes every time he comes round; and my boy always
rushes into the church just before the psalms, when the people have
got nothing to do but look about 'em, and calls me out, with horror and
dismay depicted on his countenance. "Bless my soul," everybody says,
"somebody taken suddenly ill! Sawyer, late Nockemorf, sent for. What a
business that young man has!"'

At the termination of this disclosure of some of the mysteries of
medicine, Mr. Bob Sawyer and his friend, Ben Allen, threw themselves
back in their respective chairs, and laughed boisterously. When they
had enjoyed the joke to their heart's content, the discourse changed to
topics in which Mr. Winkle was more immediately interested.

We think we have hinted elsewhere, that Mr. Benjamin Allen had a way of
becoming sentimental after brandy. The case is not a peculiar one, as
we ourself can testify, having, on a few occasions, had to deal with
patients who have been afflicted in a similar manner. At this precise
period of his existence, Mr. Benjamin Allen had perhaps a greater
predisposition to maudlinism than he had ever known before; the cause
of which malady was briefly this. He had been staying nearly three weeks
with Mr. Bob Sawyer; Mr. Bob Sawyer was not remarkable for temperance,
nor was Mr. Benjamin Allen for the ownership of a very strong head; the
consequence was that, during the whole space of time just mentioned,
Mr. Benjamin Allen had been wavering between intoxication partial, and
intoxication complete.

'My dear friend,' said Mr. Ben Allen, taking advantage of Mr. Bob
Sawyer's temporary absence behind the counter, whither he had retired
to dispense some of the second-hand leeches, previously referred to; 'my
dear friend, I am very miserable.'

Mr. Winkle professed his heartfelt regret to hear it, and begged to know
whether he could do anything to alleviate the sorrows of the suffering
student.

'Nothing, my dear boy, nothing,' said Ben. 'You recollect Arabella,
Winkle? My sister Arabella--a little girl, Winkle, with black eyes--when
we were down at Wardle's? I don't know whether you happened to notice
her--a nice little girl, Winkle. Perhaps my features may recall her
countenance to your recollection?'

Mr. Winkle required nothing to recall the charming Arabella to his mind;
and it was rather fortunate he did not, for the features of