esteem in which the clergy as a class were held in London was one of
the very evil signs of the times. Ambrose was invited to dine and
sup at the Dragon court every Sunday and holiday, and he was glad to
accept, since the hospitality was so free, and he thus was able to
see his brother and Tibble; besides that, it prevented him from
burthening Mistress Randall, whom he really liked, though he could
not see her husband, either in his motley or his plain garments,
without a shudder of repulsion.

Ambrose found that setting up type had not much more to do with the
study of new books than Stephen's turning the grindstone had with
fighting in the lists; and the mistakes he made in spelling from
right to left, and in confounding the letters, made him despair, and
prepare for any amount of just indignation from his master; but he
found on the contrary that Master Hansen had never had a pupil who
made so few blunders on the first trial, and augured well of him
from such a beginning. Paper was too costly, and pressure too
difficult, for many proofs to be struck off, but Hansen could read
and correct his type as it stood, and assured Ambrose that practice
would soon give him the same power; and the correction was thus
completed, when Will Wherry, a big, stout fellow, came in to dinner-
-the stall being left during that time, as nobody came for books
during the dinner-hour, and Hansen, having an understanding with his
next neighbour, by which they took turns to keep guard against
thieves.

The master and the two lads dined together on the contents of a
cauldron, where pease and pork had been simmering together on the
stove all the morning. Their strength was then united to work the
press and strike off a sheet, which the master scanned, finding only