Paul Clifford

fondly sto

endours of tha

ted V

was sometimes familiarly called, Peggy, or Piggy, Lob. The good dame, drawing a more than sufficient income from the profits of a house which, if situated in an obscure locality, enjoyed very general and lucrative repute, and being a lone

n our hostess of the Mug; and after some deliberation, she blessed him with the name of Paul. It was a name of happy omen, for it had belonged to Mrs. Lobkins's grandfather, who had been three times transported and twice hanged (at the first occurrence of the latter description, he had been restored by the surgeons, much to the chagrin of a young anatomist who was to have had the honour of cutting him up). The boy did not seem likely to merit the distinguished appellation he bore, for he testified no remarkable predisposition to the property of other people. Nay, although he sometimes emptied the pockets of any stray visitor to the coffee-room of Mrs. Lobkins, it appeared an act originating rather in a love of the frolic than a desire of the profit; for after the plundered person had been sufficiently tormented by the loss, haply, of such utilities as a toba

ducation. The key of knowledge (the art of reading) she had, indeed, two years prior to the present date, obtained for him; but this far from satisfied her conscience - nay, she felt that if she could not also obtain for him the discretion to use it, it would have been wise even to have withheld a key which the boy seemed perversely to apply

f the celebrated Richard Turpin. The form on which the boy sat was worn to a glassy smoothness, save only in certain places, where some ingenious idler or another had amused himself by carving sundry names, epithets, and epigrammatic niceties of language. It is said that the organ of carving upon wood is pr

sfactorily demonstrated by ruining three printers and demolishing a publisher. We need not add that Mr. MacGrawler was Scotch by birth, since we believe it is pretty well known that all periodicals of this country have, from time immemorial, been monopolized by the gentlemen of the Land of Cakes. We know not how it may be the fashion to eat the said cakes in Scotland, but here the good emigrators seem to like them carefully buttered on both sides. By the side of the editor stood a large pewter tankard; above him hung an engraving of the "wonderfully fat boar formerly in the possession of Mr. Fattem, grazier." To his left rose the dingy form of a

oved a s

with famou

two facts so instructive you

his bottle - Charley

ost full and true Relation how a Maid there is supposed to have been carried away by an Evil Spirit on Wednesday, 15th of April last, about Midnight." There, too, no less interesting and no less veracious, was that uncommon anecdote touching the chief of many-throned

as the account of "a young lady, the daughter of a duke, with three legs and the face of a porcupine." Nor less so "The Awful Judgment of God upon Swearers, as exemplified i

l to the tranquil countenance of Dummie Dunnaker, and now, re-settling

said she, "what gibbe

student, without lifting his eyes from the page,

nnaker, as he applied his pipe to an illumined piece of pa

stfully eyed the hopeful boy, and calling him to her side, communicated some order, in a dejected whisper. Paul, on receiving it, disappeared behind the blanket, and presently returned w

The jaws of Lobkins had devoured it up:

acing her hand on the boy's curly head, she said (like Andromache, dakruon gelas

hou didst not spill a drop of the tape! Tell m

he said as how you ought to

ticks for a blowen - it has been the ruin of many a man afore you; and when two men goes to quarrel for a 'oman, they doesn't know the natur' of the thing they quarrels about. Mind thy

the Mug, fixing her eyes upon Mr. Dunnaker, said, "Dum

came scarcely audible even to Mrs. Lobkins; but his whisper seemed to imply an insinuation that the illustri

to satisfy Dunnaker, for with a look of great contempt he

s of the hostess and the guest approached each other, the glowing light playing cheerily on the countenance of each, there was an honest simplicity in the picture that would have merited the racy

little Paul shou

uff, but remained silent; and Mrs. Lobkins, turning to Paul, who sto

they'd have the h

e the rope, dame!"

hen, inspired by the spirit of moralizing, she turned round to the youth, and gaz

Paul, and stick to your sitivation in life. Go not with fine tobymen, who burn out like a candle wot has a thief in it - all flare, and gone in a whiffy! Leave liquor to the aged, who can't do without it. Tape often proves a halter, and there be's no ruin like blue ruin! Read your Bible, and talk like a pious 'un. People goe

at the signification of the pause, drew forth and placed i

right not to play for nothing - it's loss of time; but play with those as be less t

ame, laying her hand on

nd somehow or other, I thinks as how you knows mor

Dummie, with a broad

fore she died than she did of 'ere one of us. Noar, now, noa

think I knows? Vot put suc

dith brought the poor cretur here - you knows she had been some months in my house afore ever I see'd the urchin; and when she brought it, she looked so pale and ghostly

s head. "But howsomever, the hurchin fell into good 'ands; for I

bkins; "and I thinks as how little Paul was sent to b

th was once blowen to a

e of mine, for she had a spuret [spirit] as big as my own; and she paid her ri

your vay to let a room to a voman! You says as how 't is

can a lone 'oman do? Many's the gentleman highwayman wot comes here, whose money is as good as the clerk's

after all, though you 'as a mixture like, I does not know a halehouse where a cove

tankard, now rose to depart. First, however, approaching Mrs. Lobkins, he observed that he had gone on credit for some days, and demanded the amount of his bill. Glancing towards certain ch

unted into one corner a solitary half-crown, and having caught it betwe

. Giles's "the oil of palms," her countenance softened into a complacent smile; and when she gave the

ditor of "The Asinaeum." "There is no

Scotsman buttoned his

e dog's-meat man, said I war all the better for it, and that she left I a treasure to bring up the urchin. One would think a thumper makes a man rich

or the hold box of rags - much of a treasure I fo

bargain. I thought you war too old a ragmerchant to be so free with the

Dummie, who to his various secret professions added the os

bargain in the box of rags

od-humouredly - "drink; I sco

lass, and the hospitable matron, knocking out

im as much as if I war his raal mother - I wants to make h

ies at Surgeons' Hall!" add

I wants Paul to have a long life. I would send him to school, but you knows as how the boys only corrupt on

ie; aghast at the gra

ntinued the dame; "but I does not think the books h

me he to re

ayer, taught him his letters,

anting Rob tache the

ged [Transported for burglary] for doing

mie. Slapping his thigh with the gesticulatory veh

thought of a tutor

s me; you 'as no marcy on my na

Dummie, putting his finger to his nose

he Scotc

same!" retu

gestion had made an impression on her. But she recognized two doubts as to its feasibility: one, whether t

nts on her hospitality; and Dummie soon after taking his leave, the suspense of Mrs. Lobkins's mind touchi