lady in a poke-bonnet came out of the
parlor, and put on her spectacles, and looked at the letter, and fumbled
in her pocket for eightpence, and apologized to the postman for keeping
him waiting. And when I said, "Never mind, Ma'am, it's no trouble,"
the old lady gave a start, and then she pulled off her spectacles, and
staggered back; and then she began muttering, as if about to choke;
and then she gave a great screech, and flung herself into my arms, and
roared out, "MY SON, MY SON!"

"Law, mamma," said I, "is that you?" and I sat down on the hall bench
with her, and let her kiss me as much as ever she liked. Hearing the
whining and crying, down comes another lady from up stairs,--it was my
sister Eliza; and down come the lodgers. And the maid gets water and
what not, and I was the regular hero of the group. I could not stay
long then, having my letters to deliver. But, in the evening, after
mail-time, I went back to my mamma and sister; and, over a bottle of
prime old port, and a precious good leg of boiled mutton and turnips,
made myself pretty comfortable, I can tell you.

DECEMBER.--"THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT."

Mamma had kept the house in Duke Street for more than two years. I
recollected some of the chairs and tables from dear old Sloffemsquiggle,
and the bowl in which I had made that famous rum-punch, the evening she
went away, which she and my sisters left untouched, and I was obliged to
drink after they were gone; but that's not to the purpose.

Think of my sister Lucy's luck! that chap, Waters, fell in love with
her, and married her; and she now keeps her carriage, and lives in state
near Sloffemsquiggle. I offered to make it up with Waters; but he bears
malice, and never will see or speak to me.--He had the impudence, too,
to say, that he took in all letters for mamma at Sloffemsquiggle; and
that as mine were all begging-letters, he burned them, and never said a
word to her concerning them. He allowed mamma fifty pounds a year, and,
if she were not such a fool, she might have had three times as much; but
the old lady was high and mighty forsooth, and would not be beholden,
even to her own daughter, for more than she actually wanted. Even this
fifty pound she was going to refuse; but when I came to live with her,
of course I wanted pocket-money as well as board and lodging, and so
I had the fifty pounds for MY share, and eked out with it as well as I
could.

Old Bates and the Captain, between t