Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/292

228 228 rosTHUAfous papers of

Blessed if I don't think that ven a man's wery poor, he rushes out of l)is lodgings, and eats oysters in reg'lar desperation."

" To be sure he does," said Mr. Weller senior, " and it's just the same vith pickied salmon ! "

" Those are two very remarkable facts, which never occurred to me before," said Mr. Pickwick. " The very first place we stop at, I'll make a note of them."

By this time they had reached the turnpike at Mile End ; a profound silence prevailed, until they had got two or three miles further on, when Mr. Weller senior turning suddenly to Mr. Pickwick, said —


 * ' Wery queer life is a pike-keeper's, Sir."


 * ' A what ? " said Mr. Pickwick.

" A pike-keeper."

" What do you mean by a pike-keeper ? " inquired Mr. Peter Magnus.

" The old *un means a turnpike keeper, gen'lm'n," observed Mr. Weller, in explanation.

" Oh," said Mr. Pickwick, " I see. Yes; very curious life. Very uncomfortable."

" They're all on *em, men as has met vith some disappointment in life," said Mr. Weller senior.

" Ay, ay ? " said Mr. Pickwick.

" Yes. Consequence of vich, they retires from the world, and shuts* themselves up in pikes ; partly vith the view of being solitary, and partly to rewenge themselves on mankind, by takin' tolls."


 * ' Dear me,'* said Mr. Pickwick, " I never knew that before."

" Fact, Sir," said Mr. Weller, " if they was gen'lm'n you'd call 'em misanthropes, but as it is they only takes to pike-keepin'."

With such conversation, possessing the inestimable charm of blending amusement with instruction, did Mr. Weller beguile the tediousness of the journey, during the greater part of the day. Topics of conversation were never wanting, for even when any pause occurred in Mr. Weller's loquacity, it was abundantly supplied by the desire evinced by Mr. Magnus to make himself acquainted with the whole of the personal history of his fellow-travellers, and his loudly-expressed anxiety at every stage, respecting the safety and well-being of the two bags, the leather hat-box, and the brown paper parcel.

In the main street of Ipswich, on the left-hand side of the way, a short distance after you have passed through the open space fronting the Town Hall, stands an inn known far and wide by the appellation of statue of some rampacious animal with flowing mane and tail, distantly resembling an insane cart-horse, which is elevated above the principal door. The Great White Horse is famous in the neighbourhood, in the same degree as a prize ox, or county paper-chronicled turnip, or un- ^vieldy pig — for its enormous size. Never were such labyrinths of uncarpeted passages, such clusters of mouldy, badly-lighted rooms, such Luge numbers of small dens for eating or sleeping in, beneath any one
 * The Great White Horse," rendered the more conspicuous by a stone