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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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ever breed any Suffolk Punches yourself, sir?' 'N-no,' I said, 'not exactly.' 'Here's a gen'lm'n behind me, I'll pound it,' said William, 'as has bred 'em by wholesale.' The gentleman spoken of was a gentleman with a very unpromising squint, and a prominent chin, who had a tall white hat on with a narrow flat brim, and whose close-fitting drab trousers seemed to button all the way up outside his legs from his boots to his hips. His chin was cocked over the coachman's shoulder, so near to me, that his breath quite tickled the back of my head; and as I looked at him, he leered at the leaders with the eye with which he didn't squint, in a very knowing manner. 'Ain't you?' asked William. 'Ain't I what?' said the gentleman behind. 'Bred them Suffolk Punches by wholesale?' 'I should think so,' said the gentleman. 'There ain't no sort of orse that I ain't bred, and no sort of dorg. Orses and dorgs is some men's fancy. They're wittles and drink to me - lodging, wife, and children - reading, writing, and Arithmetic - snuff, tobacker, and sleep.' 'That ain't a sort of man to see sitting behind a coach-box, is it though?' said William in my ear, as he handled the reins. I construed this remark into an indication of a wish that he should have my place, so I blushingly offered to resign it. 'Well, if you don't mind, sir,' said William, 'I think it would be more correct.' I have always considered this as the first fall I had in life. When I booked my place at the coach office I had had 'Box Seat' written against the entry, and had given the book-keeper half-a-crown. I was got up in a special great-coat and shawl, expressly to do honour to that distinguished eminence; had glorified myself upon it a good deal; and had felt that I was a credit to the coach. And here, in the very first stage, I was supplanted by a shabby man with a squint, who had no other merit |
