into the rough coat,
which was a few sizes too small for him, and then advancing to the coach
window, thrust in his head, and laughed boisterously. 'What a start it
is, isn't it?' cried Bob, wiping the tears out of his eyes, with one of
the cuffs of the rough coat.

'My dear Sir,' said Mr. Pickwick, with some embarrassment, 'I had no
idea of your accompanying us.'

'No, that's just the very thing,' replied Bob, seizing Mr. Pickwick by
the lappel of his coat. 'That's the joke.'

'Oh, that's the joke, is it?' said Mr. Pickwick.

'Of course,' replied Bob. 'It's the whole point of the thing, you
know--that, and leaving the business to take care of itself, as it seems
to have made up its mind not to take care of me.' With this explanation
of the phenomenon of the shutters, Mr. Bob Sawyer pointed to the shop,
and relapsed into an ecstasy of mirth.

'Bless me, you are surely not mad enough to think of leaving your
patients without anybody to attend them!' remonstrated Mr. Pickwick in a
very serious tone.

'Why not?' asked Bob, in reply. 'I shall save by it, you know. None of
them ever pay. Besides,' said Bob, lowering his voice to a confidential
whisper, 'they will be all the better for it; for, being nearly out of
drugs, and not able to increase my account just now, I should have been
obliged to give them calomel all round, and it would have been certain
to have disagreed with some of them. So it's all for the best.'

There was a philosophy and a strength of reasoning about this reply,
which Mr. Pickwick was not prepared for. He paused a few moments, and
added, less firmly than before--

'But this chaise, my young friend, will only hold two; and I am pledged
to Mr. Allen.'

'Don't think of me for a minute,' replied Bob. 'I've arranged it all;
Sam and I will share the dickey between us. Look here. This little bill
is to be wafered on the shop door: "Sawyer, late Nockemorf. Inquire of
Mrs. Cripps over the way." Mrs. Cripps is my boy's mother. "Mr. Sawyer's
very sorry," says Mrs. Cripps, "couldn't help it--fetched away early
this morning to a consultation of the very first surgeons in
the country--couldn't do without him--would have him at any
price--tremendous operation." The fact is,' said Bob, in conclusion,
'it'll do me more good than otherwise, I expect. If it gets into one
of the local papers, it will be the making of me. Here's Ben; now then,
jump in!'

With these hurried words, Mr. Bob Sawyer pushed the post