Pickwick Abroad: A Companion to the Pickwick Papers — page 78: what you’re looking at

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

> - hy a “se <? 68 ; SONG. / A Tone— There is not in this.wide world a valley So sweet.” There’s not in all London a tavern so gay, As that where the knowing ones meet of a day ; So long as a farthing remains to my share, Tl drink at that tavern, and never elsewhere ! -~Yetit is not that comforts there only combine, Nor because it produces good brandy and wine ; ’Tis not the sweet odor of pipe nor cigar—_ Oh ! no—-’tis a something more cozie by far ! 'T is that friends of the Hell and the Turf are all nig Who'd drink till the cellar itself should be dry, And teach you to feel how existence may please, When pass’d in the presence of cronies like these. Sweet sign of the Fiddle ! how long could I dwell In thy tap fullof smoke, with the friends J love well! , When bailiffs no longer the alleys infest, And duns, like their bills, have relapsed into rest ! It were useless to detail the trivial events which occurred upon the road; or how the travellers fell asleep shortly after this beau- tiful air was brought to a conclusion—how they awoke on the following morning to find themselves at Amiens, where they break- fasted—how they dined at St. Pol at about three o’clock—and how they entered the strongly fortified town of St. Omers towards nine in the evening, after a journey that had occupied very nearly eight-and-twenty hours. They hastened to the Hotel Canon d’Or, _ where three bed-rooms and a sitting-room were placed at their immediate disposal ; and a good supper was ordered for purposes of subsequent discussion. — It is not our purpose to dwell minutely \pon this portion of our narrative. Suffice t to say that Mr. Crashem took charge of the cash that had originally appertained to Mademoiselle de Volage, Mr. Tupman, and himself; and as none of them had carried away a treasure from the French metropolis, it cannot be wondered at if the exchequer » were exhausted at the expiration of four days. They were now involved in a little dilemma, and were constrained to hold a consultation to resolve upon measures to extricate themselves from their difficulties. Mr. Tupman could not write to his bankers in London, as he fancied that those gentle- men would be the very first to whom Mr. Pickwick would address himself relative to | his absence; and Mr. Adolphus Crashem and Mademoiselle Anastasie, with the best of all possible inclinations, had no bankers towrite to It was therefore suggested by % << PICKWICK ABROAD. : ( Mr. Crashem that Mr, Tupman should con- | sign his watch to the custody “ of his uncle” “T would willingly do so, my dear friend,” exclaimed: Mr. Tupman, “but I have not a single relative—much less an uncle, in the whole town” || | Mr. Adolphus Crashem imdulged in a hearty laugh, and then condescended. to explain himself by declaring that he had alluded to the pawnbroker. | “Oh, I see,” said Mr. Tupman; “you are disposed to be facetious. But recollect, that if I consent to adopt this method of procur- ing money, we proceed to England to- morrow morning ; and— | : A glance at Anastasie spoke the rest; for that look expressed as goodly a folio volume as ever issued from the publishing house of Messieurs Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper. A blush on the part of Mademoiselle de Volage, and an imprecation against his eyes, coupled with an affirmative, on that of Mr. Adolphus Crashem, made known a recipro- cal concurrence with the suggestion of the enamored swain. Re “But who is'to go?” inquired Mr. Tracy Tupman. ' “You,” responded Mr. Adolphus Crashem, “And how am I to find it?” demanded Mr. Tupman, alluding to the pawnbroker’s shop. a “ Leave that to me;” exclaimed Mr. Crash- em; and that gentleman glided hastily from the room. In a few minutes he returned with a small book in his hand. It was a “ Guide to St. Omers,” and happily afforded, through the mediwm of a lettered map the information required. Mr, Crashem accord- ingly conducted his mtimate and most par- ticular frend to the door of the pawn- broker’s, and there left him to shift for himself. Mr. Tupman, finding himself thus aban. doned, rushed wildly into the shop, or rather office, and, hastening up to the compter, laid his watch upon the dirty board. A thin, sallow-faced man, with short, grey hair standing bolt upright upon his head, and a pen behind his ear, proceeded to the immediate inspection of the handsome re- peater, while its owner became the object of attention to half a dozen wretches that crowded near him, A young girl of fifteen, whose features had once worr. the traces of beauty, but which were now disfigured with the unheaithy glow of dissipation and irreg- ularity of life, abandoned the old shawl she (EO) DOG <SriGO