shake, he found an immediate source of pleasure in discovering, first,
that several ladies and gentlemen bore him company in his imprisonment;
and, secondly, in perceiving a huge jug of water within his reach, which,
as his awaking sensation was that of burning thirst, he delightedly
emptied at a draught. He then, stretching himself, looked around with a
wistful earnestness, and discovered a back turned towards him, and
recumbent on the floor, which at the very first glance appeared to him
familiar. "Surely," thought he, "I know that frieze coat, and the
peculiar turn of those narrow shoulders." Thus soliloquizing, he raised
himself, and putting out his leg, he gently kicked the reclining form.
"Muttering strange oaths," the form turned round, and raising itself upon
that inhospitable part of the body in which the introduction of foreign
feet is considered anything but an honour, it fixed its dull blue eyes
upon the face of the disturber of its slumbers, gradually opening them
wider and wider, until they seemed to have enlarged themselves into
proportions fit for the swallowing of the important truth that burst upon
them, and then from the mouth of the creature issued,--

"Queer my glims, if that be n't little Paul!"

"Ay, Dummie, here I am! Not been long without being laid by the heels,
you see! Life is short; we must make the best use of our time!"

Upon this, Mr. Dunnaker (it was no less respectable a person) scrambled
up from the floor, and seating himself on the bench beside Paul, said in
a pitying tone,--

"Vy, laus-a-me! if you be n't knocked o' the head! Your poll's as
bloody as Murphy's face ven his throat's cut!"