pposition to ’em. If I had had

any but a unnat’ral wife, and this poor boy had had any but a

unnat’ral mother, I might have made some money last week

instead of being counterprayed and countermined and religiously

circumwented into the worst of luck. B-u-u-ust me!” said Mr.

Cruncher, who all this time had been putting on his clothes, “if I

ain’t, what with piety and one blowed thing and another, been

choused this last week into as bad luck as ever a poor devil of a

honest tradesman met with! Young Jerry, dress yourself, my boy,

and while I clean my boots keep an eye upon your mother now

and then, and if you see any signs of more flopping, give me a call.

For, I tell you,” here he addressed his wife once more, “I won’t be

gone agin, in this matter. I am as rickety as a hackney-coach, I’m

as sleepy as laudanum, my lines is strained to that degree that I

shouldn’t know, if it wasn’t for the pain in ’em, which was me and

which somebody else, yet I’m none the better for it in pocket; and

it’s my suspicion that you’ve been at it from morning to night to

prevent me from being the better for it in pocket, and I won’t put

up with it, Aggerawayter, and what do you say now!”

Growling, in addition, such phrases as “Ah! yes! You’re

religious, too. You wouldn’t put yourself in opposition to the

interests of your husband and child, would you? Not you!” and

throwing off other sarcastic sparks from the whirling grindstone of

his ind