placed. Such is the art and mystery of
stipple-engraving upon steel; and so Pickpeck goes on
dotting from day to day, until he has wrought
out, by means of these multitudinous dots, a fair
representation of the "form and pressure" of
a Bunglebutt "in his habit as he lives."

But, say what you will, engraving upon
steel is a very slow process; therefore
Pickpeck has no help for it but to go on dot,
dot, dotting, with his greatest vigour; first
oppressed by the heat of the sun during the
day; then, baked almost beyond endurance
by the heat from his oil lamp at night. And
thus, although the head of Bunglebutt, as it is
being engraved, is no bigger than a bronze
penny-piece, Pickpeck has to dot, dot, dot, his countless
dots day after day, besides suffering from
all the ills which an engraver's flesh is heir to.
These are ills that come in the shape of indifferent
gravers; one graver is too hard, and away
flies its point as soon as it touches the steel
plate, making, instead of a dot beautiful in
shape and clearness, an ill-formed dent,
probably twice as big as was required for the
purpose. Sometimes the result of this sudden
snapping of the point of the graver is a slip,
which, brings with it loss of time — first to erase
the slip, and then to make good the surface
of the steel plate. The next graver, and the
next after that, will be, in all probability, too
soft, and here is more trouble for Pickpeck;
nearly half his time is lost in re-sharpening his
gravers, for, the moment some of them touch
the steel plate, their points get doubled up. Thus,
Pickpeck frets and fumes, and fumes and frets,
and carries on his work "through difficulties of
which it is useless to complain," as Johnson
observed concerning the labour of his Dictionary.
Yes; all this Pickpeck has to do, to an extent
which makes him feel with bitter force the further
words of the great lexicographer; for the
engraver dots away, day after day, "without one
act of assistance, one word of encouragement,
or one smile of favour" from anybody.

But after all this work and labour, after all this
dot, dot, dotting, to get out the true light and
shade of Bunglebutt's sage countenance — upon
taking a proof at this middle stage of the engraving,
the proof looks rather white and ghostly;
consequently, increase of power must be had quickly,
and can be had quickly by what is called
re-biting; therefore, Pickpeck prepares for the more
than usually delicate operation of " a re-bite."

For laying his re-biting ground, Pickpeck
does not use the ground he employed for
etching upon, although that would serve the
purpose very well; but Pickpeck is a particular
fellow in these matters, and has, therefore,
his special corpulent-looking brandy-ball-coloured
ground for re-biting; yet the materials
composing these grounds are the same in
both cases — that is to say, virgin wax,
Burgundy pitch, and asphaltum; but it is by the
most subtle cunning that the proportions have
been varied, so as to make each ground the
more efficacious for its particular department.

In this operation of re-biting, the first thing
that Pickpeck has to do, is, beautifully to clean
the engraved surface of the steel plate with
turpentine; then, placing a lady's silver thimble
full of whiting upon the well-cleaned surface,
with a little fresh turpentine added, wherewith
to make the whiting into a kind of paste, the
same is then laid completely over the plate, and,
when quite dry, the superfluous whiting being
brushed off with a clean piece of cotton rag,
the surface of .the steel plate will suddenly
appear as bright as polished silver, while every
individual engraved dot and line looks somewhat
pretty, being perfectly filled with dry and
hard whiting. But this must be removed before
the ground can be laid; so, with a piece of
carefully selected stale bread, quite free from the
least speck of grease, Pickpeck gently rubs the
stale bread over the engraved parts: when
forthwith the whiting leaves the dots and lines,
which are then observed to sparkle like
diamonds of the purest water.

The steel plate being thus prepared for a
re-biting ground, and at the back or under side
of the plate the proper amount of warmth
having been applied, the first important thing
for Pickpeck to do is to pass down the margin
of the plate the silk-covered ball of re-biting
ground, which, as if by magic, leaves in the
wake of its passage what looks like a stroke of
treacle. This is then gently manipulated about
the margin of the plate by means of a series of
delicate pats or dabs with the re-biting dabber,
until the ground is diffused about and thinned
down into a homogeneous tint, like a layer of
leaf-gold. Now comes the trial of skill; from
this leaf-gold looking tint of re-biting ground,
lying on the margin of the plate, Pickpeck
begins to pass with his dabber over the engraved
surface with the gentlest of all gentle pats,
and, as his manipulation is this time perfect,
the satisfactory result is, that over Bunglebutt's
expressive head and shoulders there presently
appears a golden film of re-biting ground, the
same resting upon the blank bits of steel
situated between and around each line and dot
that has been engraved upon the steel plate;
moreover, every dot is shining away through
the golden film of re-biting ground, like so
many homoeopathic spangles; for if the smallest
particle of the re-biting ground had flowed over
the sides of any line or dot, and so down into
these graver-made cavities, the acid would
very politely decline to act therein.

The next thing to be done is for Pickpeck to
carefully cover over with his Brunswick black all
such parts of the engraving as he does not desire
to re-bite. Then, once again, Pickpeck surrounds
the steel plate with a second little great wall of
China, composed of the same kind of wax that
the first was made with. The Brunswick black
being carried home to the base of this little
great wall of China, the process of stopping-out
the plate for re-biting is complete, while the
Brunswick black will in a comparatively short
time be dry enough and hard enough to decline
letting the acid make way through its coat, so as
to do damage to the surface of the steel beneath.

Pickpeck prepares to pour his re-biting acid on
the plate and within the mystic circle of