Page:In the dozy hours, and other papers.djvu/52

 38 every English larder, which lifted the lid of every pipkin, and divined the contents of every mysterious and forbidding meat pie! Dickens knew when the Micawbers supped on lamb's fry, and when on breaded chops; he knew the contents of Mrs. Bardell's little saucepan simmering by the fire; he knew just how many pigeons lurked under the crust of John Browdie's pasty; he knew every ingredient—and there are nearly a dozen of them—in the Jolly Sandboys' stew. There was not a muffin, nor a bit of toasted cheese, nor a slab of pease-pudding from the cook-shop, nor a rasher of bacon, nor a slice of cucumber, nor a dish of pettitoes eaten without his knowledge and consent. And, as it cost him no apparent effort to remember and tell all these things, it costs us no labor to read them. We are naturally pleased to hear that Mr. Vincent Crummles has ordered a hot beefsteak-pudding and potatoes at nine, and we hardly need to be reminded—even by the author—of the excellence of Mr. Swiveller's purl. The advantage of unconscious realism over the premeditated article is a lack of stress on the author's part, and a corresponding lack of fatigue on ours.