f the door with the back of his head,
and a cuffing from Mr. Brown junior, who happens to be coming in with
the key, taking his respected governor for a burglar.

[Illustration]

The Browns are next door:--Victoria is fraternizing with Albert, and
both are exceedingly happy, although the latter has won greatly at the
game of _speculation_--having played his cards well; so, Mr. Brown,
after being packed in brown paper, steeped in vinegar, and well
soda-watered, joins the social party;--finding Captain de Camp busy
concocting an extraordinary oriental mixture (the name of which we quite
forget) out of old bottles, from Victoria's cellar; and telling a
tremendous Eastern _story_ of a tiger captured in a jungle, after a
chase of ten hours--he should have said minutes, in a penny magazine!

Mr. Brown and the Captain soon became familiar--in twenty minutes
you would have thought them friends of twenty years:--so,--before
the last speculator had invested his last weekly sixpence in a
goose-club, and drawn the last adamantine old gander; or the last
Christmas-pudding-sweep swept away the chimerical puddings, that ought
to have been very rich, and everybody thought everybody else had won;
before the last trader, who had sold out, dared to mount a notice,
intimating that he had joined an "Association to suppress
Christmas-boxes,"--the Browns and De Camps had attained that state
denominated "thick"--an appellation that might, with propriety, have
been applied to Mr. Brown's brains;--for he had obliged Captain de Camp
by discounting a bill, due twelve days after date (Christmas), and had
invited him to dine on the morrow, to partake of the poultry, that
always came up at Christmas, from Plumpsworth; and was taken out in a
visit made by the worthy donor, Great-uncle Clayclod, during the
"May-meetings," when he does a dozen shilling exhibitions in a day, and
knocks up a fly-horse. So, rather late to bed; Mr. Brown making up his
Diary, as usual, on the dressing-table--a rule he always observed,
though, in some cases, it would have been better left until the morning;
for, against December 24th, Tuesday, we find his feelings richly
expressed in cramped caligraphy, upside down, bearing evident marks of
excitement;--having been penned--in a dream--with hair-dye, mistaken
for ink; pounced with carmine, and blotted with the small-tooth-comb
in lieu of paper; it is, moreover, curious for its allegorical
allusions--likening Captain de Ca