lawyer, and commenced an action for assault and battery, and all the
neighbourhood did nothing but talk about the affray which had taken
place, and the action at law which it was said would take place in the
ensuing term.

But with the exception of this fracas, which ended in the action not
holding good, whereby the animosity was increased, I have little to
recount during the remainder of the time I served under Mr Cophagus. I
had been more than three years with him when my confinement became
insupportable. I had but one idea, which performed an everlasting cycle
in my brain--Who was my father? And I should have abandoned the
profession to search the world in the hope of finding my progenitor, had
it not been that I was without the means. Latterly, I had hoarded up all
I could collect; but the sum was small, much too small for the proposed
expedition. I became melancholy, indifferent to the business, and
slovenly in my appearance, when a circumstance occurred which put an end
to my further dispensing medicines, and left me a free agent.




Chapter VII

Looking out for business not exactly minding your own business--The
loss of the scales occasions the loss of place to Timothy and me,
who when weighed in other scales were found wanting--We bundle off
with our bundles on.


It happened one market-day that there was an overdriven, infuriated