had lost the trick of it, and mostly let 'em drop and broke 'em. As the
old lady had been used to sit in the cart, and hand the articles out one
by one to the old gentleman on the footboard to sell, just in the same
way she handed him every item of the family's property, and they disposed
of it in their own imaginations from morning to night. At last the old
gentleman, lying bedridden in the same room with the old lady, cries out
in the old patter, fluent, after having been silent for two days and
nights: "Now here, my jolly companions every one,--which the Nightingale
club in a village was held, At the sign of the Cabbage and Shears, Where
the singers no doubt would have greatly excelled, But for want of taste,
voices and ears,--now, here, my jolly companions, every one, is a working
model of a used-up old Cheap Jack, without a tooth in his head, and with
a pain in every bone: so like life that it would be just as good if it
wasn't better, just as bad if it wasn't worse, and just as new if it
wasn't worn out. Bid for the working model of the old Cheap Jack, who
has drunk more gunpowder-tea with the ladies in his time than would blow
the lid off a washerwoman's copper, and carry it as many thousands of
miles higher than the moon as naught nix naught, divided by the national
debt, carry nothing to the poor-rates, three under, and two over. Now,
my hearts of oak and men of straw, what do you say for the lot? Two
shillings, a shilling, tenpence, eightpence, sixpence, fourpence.
Twopence? Who said twopence? The gentleman in the scarecrow's hat? I
am ashamed of the gentleman in the scarecrow's hat. I really am ashamed
of him for his want of public spirit. Now I'll tell you what I'll do
with you. Come! I'll throw you in a working model of a old woman that
was married to the old Cheap Jack so long ago that upon my word and
honour it took place in Noah's Ark, before the Unicorn could get in to
forbid the banns by blowing a tune upon his horn. There now! Come! What
do you say for both? I'll tell you what I'll do with you. I don't bear
you malice for being so backward. Here! If you make me a bid that'll