ge. (Punch, it may be
remarked, seemed to be pointing with the tip of his cap to a most
flourishing epitaph, and to be chuckling over it with all his heart.)

'Why do you come here to do this?' said the old man, sitting down
beside them, and looking at the figures with extreme delight.

'Why you see,' rejoined the little man, 'we're putting up for to-night
at the public-house yonder, and it wouldn't do to let 'em see the
present company undergoing repair.'

'No!' cried the old man, making signs to Nell to listen, 'why not, eh?
why not?'

'Because it would destroy all the delusion, and take away all the
interest, wouldn't it?' replied the little man. 'Would you care a
ha'penny for the Lord Chancellor if you know'd him in private and
without his wig?--certainly not.'

'Good!' said the old man, venturing to touch one of the puppets, and
drawing away his hand with a shrill laugh. 'Are you going to show 'em
to-night? are you?'

'That is the intention, governor,' replied the other, 'and unless I'm
much mistaken, Tommy Codlin is a calculating at this minute what we've
lost through your coming upon us. Cheer up, Tommy, it can't be much.'

The little man accompanied these latter words with a wink, expressive
of the estimate he had formed of the travellers' finances.

To this Mr Codlin, who had a surly, grumbling manner, replied, as he
twitched Punch off the tombstone and flung him into the box, 'I don't
care if we haven't lost a farden, but you're too free. If you stood in
front of the curtain and see the public's faces as I do, you'd know
human natur' better.'

'Ah! it's been the spoiling of you, Tommy, your taking to that branch,'
rejoined his companion. 'When you played the ghost in the reg'lar
drama in the fairs, you believed in everything--except ghosts. But now
you're a universal mistruster. I never see a man so changed.'

'Never mind,' said Mr Codlin, with the air of a discontented
philosopher. 'I know better now, and p'raps I'm sorry for it.'

Turning over the figures in the box like one who knew and despised
them, Mr Codlin drew one forth and held it up for the inspection of his
friend:

'Look here; here's all this judy's clothes falling to pieces again.
You haven't got a needle and thread I suppose?'

The little man shook his head, and scratched it ruefully as he
contemplated this severe indisposition of a principal performer.
Seeing that they were at a loss, the child said timidly:

'I have