Pickwick Abroad: A Companion to the Pickwick Papers — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

a a ae > ' a . | 4 * ® : i é a : 12 » PICKWICK ABROAD. a “Kallis, france. nowember 12. « And a wery eligant little he-pistle it is,” “Mi dear mari, Wee said Sam, complacently eyeing the'effort of “Ve got safe to france, and a nati n quere pee it is. the houses alone is like inglish ouses. but the metes Is quite other. so jis the vimen. they givd us froge’s leggs for lunshun. and Mister tuppman womitted is shair in the guverner’s lapp and over is un- menshunables, vithout sain bye or vith yer leve. the guverner maid a speche on the okkashun vich vos unanymusly applorded by all the servints as vos prezint. and wery much to is creditt it vos tu. “ As ve cum along the rode to dover ve stopp’d at shuter’s ill and see the old gen- elman vich vos in good elth and sperets, he vos a smoakin and drinkin brandi-and-vater. he arsk’d wery kind arter you, mari, and the babbies. he hadnt sene nothink of the red- nose man since he left dorkin, an dusn’t vont. for to see him agin nayther, as the schule- boy said o’ the goast. “you must ekskuse this bad ritiny but french penns von’t spel inglish like inglish vons, and the paper is so thin you dropp sum 0’ the letters threw on t’other side vich gets on the blottin-paper and is lost in, con- , sekvence. J dus’nt get sich good bakker in france as 1 does in ingland and the peple ere alvays drinks vine, cos there’s no strong bere. clarit.is wery plentifull in this cun- try. and the sudgers vears redd britches. the servint gals all vears vite capps an gouns that dusnt cum lower than their vaistis, _ “now, my dere mari, take cair o’ the babbies an o’ yerself as is more preshuser still if possible. 1 don’t now ven ve shall be back. butt you now Mister, Vinkle tolde his vife that he vouldnt be long avay, and as he’s going to parris on his father’s aginey bisness, ar the guverner vent vith him under pretense o’ takin care of him tho raly as,an ekskuse for sein parris his-self, it is all rite as the eksicushoner said ven he ajusted the corde round the genelman’s neck at the old baly. “take cair o’ yerself, mari, and so no = now from yer ever affecshonate us- an, “SAMIVEL VELLER. “P.s. 1 forgot to sai that the servint gals vears petticotes altho’ their gouns don’t cum lower than their vaistises. ““'To Missus mari veller, ouskeper, Dullich “lodge, rezzidents 0’ Samivell pickwick esk-vire. “*Dullich, nere lundun. by way o’ dover.”? his imagination and mental capacity, which will for ever remain a monument of the genius of the Weller family... “ Now for a vafer, and to the post, as the vinning orse said at the races.” ‘i Having discussed: his brandy and-water, wafered his letter, and made some little arrangements of a domestic nature in his bed-room, Mr. Weller hastened down stairs, and requested the waiter to show him the way to the post-office—a demand that was immediately complied with by that indivi- — dual, who had forgotten the black eye, in- flicted by Mr. Weller, in the contemplation | of an English sovereign which Mr, Pick- wick had administered to his especial com- fort. " f . In the meantime Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Winkle had finished their brandy-and-water, and had looked at. their watches to ascer- tain the hour, and had come to the unani- mous conclusion that it was three o’clock, p. m., after a shrewd suspicion, on the part . — of Mr. Winkle, that there was a difference > of at least eight minutes between French © © and English time. They then discussed © their plans as deliberately and business-like as they had before done their brandy-and- water, and resulved, with the conditional consent of Mr. Tupman, to depart for Paris early the following morning by the’ dili- gence. | n now arose, How were they » The queen to dispose of their time till six o’clock, the hour at which dinner was ordered? Mr. Winkle proposed a game of chess or back- gammon ; but this suggestion was declined » by Mr. Pickwick, who fancied, as he beauti- fully expressed himself, that it was indecent to have even the appearance of gambling in a public coffee-room. Mr. Winkle, there- fore, relapsed into silence, and looked at the fire, and then at the ceiling, and at length hit upon the happy expedient, by way of pastime, of burning several slips of paper that he found on the mantel. Mr. ‘Pickwick watched Mr. Winkle’s motions’ with a smile ; and while the world without fondly deemed those great men to be de- bating on weighty matters, the great men themselves did nothing more nor less impor- tant than divert themselves in a manner at once cheap, innocent, and far from un- common, thus affording an example emi- nently calculated to illustrate the folly of speculation with regard to the proceedings (CO) <S ” com “d DOG es Ta