him in the sludge in the
toad-pond over the hedge.'

'So we will,' said the man, 'drown him anon in the mud!'

'Drown me, will you?' said I; 'I should like to see you! What's all this
about? Was it because I saw you with your hands full of straw plait, and
my mother there--'

'Yes,' said the woman; 'what was I about?'

_Myself_. How should I know? Making bad money, perhaps!

And it will be as well here to observe, that at this time there was much
bad money in circulation in the neighbourhood, generally supposed to be
fabricated by the prisoners, so that this false coin and straw plait
formed the standard subjects of conversation at Norman Cross.

'I'll strangle thee,' said the beldame, dashing at me. 'Bad money, is
it?'

'Leave him to me, wifelkin,' said the man, interposing; 'you shall now
see how I'll baste him down the lane.'

_Myself_. I tell you what, my chap, you had better put down that thing
of yours; my father lies concealed within my tepid breast, and if to me
you offer any harm or wrong, I'll call him forth to help me with his
forked tongue.

_Man_. What do you mean, ye Bengui's bantling? I never heard such
discourse in all my life: playman's speech or Frenchman's talk--which, I
wonder? Your father! Tell the mumping villain that if he comes near my
fire I'll serve him out as I will you. Take that--Tiny Jesus! what have
we got here?

Oh, delicate Jesus! what is the matter with the child?

I had made a motion which the viper understood; and now, partly
disengaging itself from my bosom, where it had lain perdu, it raised its
head to a level with my face, and stared upon my enemy with its
glittering eyes.

The man stood like one transfixed, and the ladle, with which he had aimed
a blow at me, now hung in the air like the hand which held it; his mouth
was extended, and his cheeks became of a pale yellow, save alone that
place which bore the mark which I have already described, and this shone
now portentously, like fire. He stood in this manner for some time; at
last the ladle fell from his hand, and its falling appeared to rouse him
from his stupor.

'I say, wifelkin,' said he, in a faltering tone, 'did you ever see the
like of this here?'

But the woman had retreated to the tent, from the entrance of which her
loathly face was now thrust, with an expression partly of terror and
partly of curiosity. After gazing some time longer at the viper and
myself, the man stooped down and took