or dropsical spider.

'That reptile,' whispered Pott, catching Mr. Pickwick by the arm, and
pointing towards the stranger. 'That reptile Slurk, of the INDEPENDENT!'

'Perhaps we had better retire,' whispered Mr. Pickwick.

'Never, Sir,' rejoined Pott, pot-valiant in a double sense--'never.'
With these words, Mr. Pott took up his position on an opposite settle,
and selecting one from a little bundle of newspapers, began to read
against his enemy.

Mr. Pott, of course read the INDEPENDENT, and Mr. Slurk, of course, read
the GAZETTE; and each gentleman audibly expressed his contempt at the
other's compositions by bitter laughs and sarcastic sniffs; whence
they proceeded to more open expressions of opinion, such as 'absurd,'
'wretched,' 'atrocity,' 'humbug,' 'knavery', 'dirt,' 'filth,' 'slime,'
'ditch-water,' and other critical remarks of the like nature.

Both Mr. Bob Sawyer and Mr. Ben Allen had beheld these symptoms of
rivalry and hatred, with a degree of delight which imparted great
additional relish to the cigars at which they were puffing most
vigorously. The moment they began to flag, the mischievous Mr. Bob
Sawyer, addressing Slurk with great politeness, said--

'Will you allow me to look at your paper, Sir, when you have quite done
with it?'

'You will find very little to repay you for your trouble in this
contemptible THING, sir,' replied Slurk, bestowing a Satanic frown on
Pott.

'You shall have this presently,' said Pott, looking up, pale with rage,
and quivering in his speech, from the same cause. 'Ha! ha! you will be
amused with this FELLOW'S audacity.'

Terrible emphasis was laid upon 'thing' and 'fellow'; and the faces of
both editors began to glow with defiance.

'The ribaldry of this miserable man is despicably disgusting,' said
Pott, pretending to address Bob Sawyer, and scowling upon Slurk. Here,
Mr. Slurk laughed very heartily, and folding up the paper so as to get
at a fresh column conveniently, said, that the blockhead really amused
him.

'What an impudent blunderer this fellow is,' said Pott, turning from
pink to crimson.

'Did you ever read any of this man's foolery, Sir?' inquired Slurk of
Bob Sawyer.

'Never,' replied Bob; 'is it very bad?'

'Oh, shocking! shocking!' rejoined Slurk.

'Really! Dear me, this is too atrocious!' exclaimed Pott, at this
juncture; still feigning to be absorbed in his reading.

'If you can wade through a few sentences of malice, meanness, falsehood,