be wery careful o' widders all your life,
'specially if they've kept a public-house, Sammy.' Having delivered this
parental advice with great pathos, Mr. Weller, senior, refilled his pipe
from a tin box he carried in his pocket; and, lighting his fresh pipe
from the ashes of the old One, commenced smoking at a great rate.

'Beg your pardon, sir,' he said, renewing the subject, and addressing
Mr. Pickwick, after a considerable pause, 'nothin' personal, I hope,
sir; I hope you ha'n't got a widder, sir.'

'Not I,' replied Mr. Pickwick, laughing; and while Mr. Pickwick laughed,
Sam Weller informed his parent in a whisper, of the relation in which he
stood towards that gentleman.

'Beg your pardon, sir,' said Mr. Weller, senior, taking off his hat, 'I
hope you've no fault to find with Sammy, Sir?'

'None whatever,' said Mr. Pickwick.

'Wery glad to hear it, sir,' replied the old man; 'I took a good deal o'
pains with his eddication, sir; let him run in the streets when he
was wery young, and shift for hisself. It's the only way to make a boy
sharp, sir.'

'Rather a dangerous process, I should imagine,' said Mr. Pickwick, with
a smile.

'And not a wery sure one, neither,' added Mr. Weller; 'I got reg'larly
done the other day.'

'No!' said his father.

'I did,' said the son; and he proceeded to relate, in as few words
as possible, how he had fallen a ready dupe to the stratagems of Job
Trotter.

Mr. Weller, senior, listened to the tale with the most profound
attention, and, at its termination, said--

'Worn't one o' these chaps slim and tall, with long hair, and the gift
o' the gab wery gallopin'?'

Mr. Pickwick did not quite understand the last item of description, but,
comprehending the first, said 'Yes,' at a venture.

'T' other's a black-haired chap in mulberry livery, with a wery large
head?'

'Yes, yes, he is,' said Mr. Pickwick and Sam, with great earnestness.
'Then I know where they are, and that's all about it,' said Mr. Weller;
'they're at Ipswich, safe enough, them two.'

'No!' said Mr. Pickwick.

'Fact,' said Mr. Weller, 'and I'll tell you how I know it. I work an
Ipswich coach now and then for a friend o' mine. I worked down the wery
day arter the night as you caught the rheumatic, and at the Black Boy at
Chelmsford--the wery place they'd come to--I took 'em up, right through
to Ipswich, where the man-servant--him in the mulberries--told me they
was a-goin' to put up for a long time.'

'I'