hink so now,' said Mr. Weller, with the gravity of age, 'but
you'll find that as you get vider, you'll get viser. Vidth and visdom,
Sammy, alvays grows together.'

As Mr. Weller delivered this infallible maxim--the result of many years'
personal experience and observation--he contrived, by a dexterous twist
of his body, to get the bottom button of his coat to perform its office.
Having paused a few seconds to recover breath, he brushed his hat with
his elbow, and declared himself ready.

'As four heads is better than two, Sammy,' said Mr. Weller, as they
drove along the London Road in the chaise-cart, 'and as all this here
property is a wery great temptation to a legal gen'l'm'n, ve'll take a
couple o' friends o' mine vith us, as'll be wery soon down upon him if
he comes anythin' irreg'lar; two o' them as saw you to the Fleet
that day. They're the wery best judges,' added Mr. Weller, in a
half-whisper--'the wery best judges of a horse, you ever know'd.'

'And of a lawyer too?' inquired Sam.

'The man as can form a ackerate judgment of a animal, can form a
ackerate judgment of anythin',' replied his father, so dogmatically,
that Sam did not attempt to controvert the position.

In pursuance of this notable resolution, the services of the
mottled-faced gentleman and of two other very fat coachmen--selected
by Mr. Weller, probably, with a view to their width and consequent
wisdom--were put into requisition; and this assistance having been
secured, the party proceeded to the public-house in Portugal Street,
whence a messenger was despatched to the Insolvent Court over the way,
requiring Mr. Solomon Pell's immediate attendance.

The messenger fortunately found Mr. Solomon Pell in court, regaling
himself, business being rather slack, with a cold collation of an
Abernethy biscuit and a saveloy. The message was no sooner whispered
in his ear than he thrust them in his pocket among various professional
documents, and hurried over the way with such alacrity that he reached
the parlour before the messenger had even emancipated himself from the
court.

'Gentlemen,' said Mr. Pell, touching his hat, 'my service to you all. I
don't say it to flatter you, gentlemen, but there are not five other men
in the world, that I'd have come out of that court for, to-day.'

'So busy, eh?' said Sam.

'Busy!' replied Pell; 'I'm completely sewn up, as my friend the late
Lord Chancellor many a time used to say to me, gentlemen, when he came