he afternoon, but, some days, he went further, and was
rather noisy. At such times, too, his face flamed with augmented
blazonry, as if cannel coal had been heaped on anthracite. He made an
unpleasant racket with his chair; spilled his sand-box; in mending his
pens, impatiently split them all to pieces, and threw them on the floor
in a sudden passion; stood up, and leaned over his table, boxing his
papers about in a most indecorous manner, very sad to behold in an
elderly man like him. Nevertheless, as he was in many ways a most
valuable person to me, and all the time before twelve o'clock,
meridian, was the quickest, steadiest creature, too, accomplishing a
great deal of work in a style not easily to be matched--for these
reasons, I was willing to overlook his eccentricities, though, indeed,
occasionally, I remonstrated with him. I did this very gently, however,
because, though the civilest, nay, the blandest and most reverential of
men in the morning, yet, in the afternoon, he was disposed, upon
provocation, to be slightly rash with his tongue--in fact, insolent.
Now, valuing his morning services as I did, and resolved not to lose
them--yet, at the same time, made uncomfortable by his inflamed ways
after twelve o'clock--and being a man of peace, unwilling by my
admonitions to call forth unseemly retorts from him, I took upon me, one
Saturday noon (he was always worse on Saturdays) to hint to him, very
kindly, that, perhaps, now that he was growing old, it might be well to
abridge his labors; in short, he need not come to my chambers after
twelve o'clock, but, dinner over, had best go home to his lodgings, and
rest himself till tea-time. But no; he insisted upon his afternoon
devotions. His countenance became intolerably fervid, as he
oratorically assured me--gesticulating with a long ruler at the other
end of the room--that if his services in the morning were useful, how
indispensable, then, in the afternoon?

"With submission, sir," said Turkey, on this occasion, "I consider
myself your right-hand man. In the morning I but marshal and deploy my
columns; but in the afternoon I put myself at their head, and gallantly
charge the foe, thus"--and he made a violent thrust with the ruler.

"But the blots, Turkey," intimated I.

"True; but, with submission, sir, behold these hairs! I am getting old.
Surely, sir, a blot or two of a warm afternoon is not to be severely
urged against gray hairs. Old age--even if it blot the p