n hard put to it, indeed!"

Sir Joseph looked at his lady, and at Mr. Fish, and at Trotty, one after
another, twice all round. He then made a despondent gesture with both
hands at once, as if he gave the thing up altogether.

"How a man, even among this improvident and impracticable race; an old
man; a man grown grey; can look a New Year in the face with his affairs
in this condition; how he can lie down on his bed at night, and get up
again in the morning, and--There!" he said, turning his back on Trotty.

"Take the letter! Take the letter!"

"I heartily wish it was otherwise, sir," said Trotty, anxious to excuse
himself. "We have been tried very hard."

Sir Joseph still repeating "Take the letter, take the letter!" and Mr.
Fish not only saying the same thing, but giving additional force to the
request by motioning the bearer to the door, he had nothing for it but
to make his bow and leave the house. And in the street, poor Trotty
pulled his worn old hat down on his head to hide the grief he felt at
getting no hold on the New Year, anywhere.

He didn't even lift his hat to look up at the Bell tower when he came to
the old church on his return. He halted there a moment, from habit; and
knew that it was growing dark and that the steeple rose above him
indistinct and faint in the murky air. He knew, too, that the Chimes
would ring immediately, and that they sounded to his fancy, at such a
time, like voices in the clouds. But he only made the more haste to
deliver the Alderman's letter and get out of the way before they began;
for he dreaded to hear them tagging "Friends and Fathers, Friends and
Fathers," to the burden they had rung out last.

Toby discharged himself of his commission, therefore, with all possible
speed and set off trotting homeward. But what with his pace, which was
at best an awkward one in the street; and what with his hat, which
didn't improve it; he trotted against somebody in less than no time and
was sent staggering out into the road.

"I beg your pardon, I'm sure!" said Trotty, pulling up his hat in great
confusion, and between the hat and the torn lining, fixing his head
into a kind of bee-hive. "I hope I haven't hurt you."

As to hurting anybody, Toby was not such an absolute Samson, but that he
was much more likely to be hurt himself; and indeed he had flown out
into the road like a shuttle-cock. He had such an opinion of his own
strength, however, that he was in real concern for the ot