admonitions to call forth unseemly retorts from him, I took upon me, one
Saturday noon (he was always worse on Saturdays) to hint to him, very
kindly, that, perhaps, now that he was growing old, it might be well to
abridge his labors; in short, he need not come to my chambers after
twelve o'clock, but, dinner over, had best go home to his lodgings, and
rest himself till tea-time. But no; he insisted upon his afternoon
devotions. His countenance became intolerably fervid, as he
oratorically assured me--gesticulating with a long ruler at the other
end of the room--that if his services in the morning were useful, how
indispensable, then, in the afternoon?

"With submission, sir," said Turkey, on this occasion, "I consider
myself your right-hand man. In the morning I but marshal and deploy my
columns; but in the afternoon I put myself at their head, and gallantly
charge the foe, thus"--and he made a violent thrust with the ruler.

"But the blots, Turkey," intimated I.

"True; but, with submission, sir, behold these hairs! I am getting old.
Surely, sir, a blot or two of a warm afternoon is not to be severely
urged against gray hairs. Old age--even if it blot the page--is
honorable. With submission, sir, we _both_ are getting old."

This appeal to my fellow-feeling was hardly to be resisted. At all
events, I saw that go he would not. So, I made up my mind to let him
stay, resolving, nevertheless, to see to it that, during the afternoon,
he had to do with my less important papers.

Nippers, the second on my list, was a whiskered, sallow, and, upon the
whole, rather piratical-looking young man, of about five and twenty. I