eat of the same roast and boiled, and drink of
the same beer! So that the people in my
employment may lodge under the same roof with
me! So that we may one and all—- I beg your
pardon, Mr. Bintrey, but that old singing in my
head has suddenly come on, and I shall feel
obliged if you will lead me to the pump."

Alarmed by the excessive pinkness of his
client, Mr. Bintrey lost not a moment in leading
him forth into the court-yard. It was easily
done, for the counting-house in which they
talked together opened on to it, at one side
of the dwelling-house. There, the attorney
pumped with a will, obedient to a sign
from the client, and the client laved his
head and face with both hands, and took a
hearty drink. After these remedies, he declared
himself much better.

"Don't let your good feelings excite you,"
said Bintrey, as they returned to the counting-
house, and Mr. Wilding dried himself on a jack-
towel behind an inner door.

"No, no. I won't," he returned, looking
out of the towel. "I won't. I have not been
confused, have I?"

"Not at all. Perfectly clear."

"Where did I leave off, Mr. Bintrey?"

"Well, you left off—but I wouldn't excite
myself, if I was you, by taking it up again just
yet."

"I'll take care. I'll take care. The singing
in my head came on at where, Mr. Bintrey?"

"At roast, and boiled, and beer," answered
the lawyer, prompting—" lodging under the
same roof—and one and all—"

"Ah! And one and all singing in the head
together——"

"Do you know I really would not let my
good feelings excite me, if I was you," hinted
the lawyer again, anxiously. "Try some more
pump."

"No occasion, no occasion. All right, Mr.
Bintrey. And one and all forming a kind of
family! You see, Mr. Bintrey, I was not used
in my childhood to that sort of individual
existence which most individuals have led, more or
less, in their childhood. After that time I
became absorbed in my late dear mother.
Having lost her, I find that I am more fit for
being one of a body than one by myself one.
To be that, and at the same time to do my duty
to those dependent on me, and attach them to
me, has a patriarchal and pleasant air about it.
I don't know how it may appear to you, Mr.
Bintrey, but so it appears to me."

"It is not I who am all-important in the
case, but you," returned Bintrey. "Consequently,
how it may appear to me, is of very
small importance."

"It appears to me" said Mr. Wilding, in a
glow, " hopeful, useful, de-lightful!"

"Do you know," hinted the lawyer again,
"I really would not ex—"

"I am not going to. Then there's Handel."

"There's who?" asked Bintrey.

"Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Kent, Purcell,
Doctor Arne, Greene, Mendelssohn. I know
the choruses to those anthems by heart.
Foundling Chapel Collection. Why shouldn't
we learn them together!"

"Who learn them together?" asked the
lawyer, rather shortly.

"Employer and employed."

"Aye, aye!" returned Bintrey, mollified; as
if he had half expected the answer to be, Lawyer
and client. "That's another thing."

"Not another thing, Mr. Bintrey! The
same thing. A part of the bond among us.
We will form a Choir in some quiet church
near the Corner here, and, having sung
together of a Sunday with a relish, we will come
home and take an early dinner together with a
relish. The object that I have at heart now,
is to get this system well in action without
delay, so that my new partner may find it
founded when he enters on his partnership."

"All good be with it!" exclaimed Bintrey,
rising. "May it prosper! Is Joey Ladle to
take a share in Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Kent,
Purcell, Doctor Arne, Greene, and Mendelssohn?"

"I hope so."

"I wish them all well out of it," returned
Bintrey, with much heartiness. "Good-bye,
sir."

They shook hands and parted. Then (first
knocking with his knuckles for leave) entered
to Mr. Wilding, from a door of communication
between his private counting-house and that in
which his clerks sat, the Head Cellarman of the
cellars of Wilding and Co. Wine Merchants,
and erst Head Cellarman of the cellars of
Pebbleson Nephew. The Joey Ladle in
question. A slow and ponderous man, of the drayman
order of human architecture, dressed in a
corrugated suit and bibbed apron, apparently a
composite of door-mat and rhinoceros-hide.

"Respecting this same boarding and lodging,
Young Master Wilding," said he.

"Yes, Joey?"

"Speaking for myself, Young Master Wilding
—and I never did speak and I never do speak
for no one else—I don't want no boarding
nor yet no lodging. But if you wish to
board me and to lodge me, take me. I can
peck as well as most men. Where I peck,
ain't so high a object with me as What I
peck. Nor even so high a object with me as
How Much I peck. Is all to live in the house,
Young Master Wilding? The two other cellarmen,
the three porters, the two 'prentices, and
the odd men?"

"Yes. I hope we shall all be an united
family, Joey."

"Ah!" said Joey. "I hope they may be."

"They? Rather say we, Joey."

Joey Ladle shook his head. "Don't look to
me to make we on it, Young Master Wilding,
not at my time of life and under the
circumstarnces which has formed my disposition. I
have said to Pebbleson Nephew many a time,
when they have said to me, 'Put a livelier face
upon it, Joey'—I have said to them, 'Gentlemen,
it is all wery well for you that has been
accustomed to take your wine into your systems