Oh! it is a happy country this, a great
and a good country; and how base, how wicked, how diabolical
it is to try to set such a family as this against their
best friends, their pastor and their landlord; to instil
dissatisfaction and distrust into their simple minds,
and to teach them to loathe the hand, that proffers
nothing but regard or relief. It is shocking, isn't it?"
"That's what I often say, Sir," said Mrs. Hodgins, "to
my old man, to keep away from them Chartists."
"Chartists! dear, who are they? I never heard of them."
"Why, Sir, they are the men that want the five pints."
"Five pints! why you don't say so; oh! they are bad men,
have nothing to do with them. Five pints! why that is
two quarts and a half; that is too much to drink if it
was water; and if any thing else, it is beastly drunkenness.
Have nothing to do with them."
"Oh! no, Sir, it is five points of law."
"Tut--tut--tut! what have you got to do with law, my
dear?"
"By gosh, Aunty," said Mr. Slick, "you had better not
cut that pie: you will find it rather sour in the apple
sarce, and tough in the paste, I tell _you_."
"Yes, Sir," she replied, "but they are a unsettling of
his mind. What shall I do? for I don't like these night
meetings, and he always comes home from 'em cross and
sour-like."
"Well, I am sorry to hear that," said Mr. Hopewell, "I
wish I could see him; but I can't, for I am bound on a
journey. I am sorry to hear it, dear.
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