SPECIMENS OF DEATH. 



tell'ee. My missus zaid I'd better zaddle the brood mare, and come 

 up; and here d'ye zee I be. Oh! Doctor Bott ! I can't help crying, 

 just as I did when your vriend Locust were hung Ah !" 



*' What mean you, fellow, by this language ? Are you mad ? How 

 dare you " 



"Zoft, zoft, Doctor; keep quiet. Vor my part, I'll zpake to 'ee in 

 whispers. Who d'ye think I zeed last night ?" 



" How can I tell>" 



" The ould gentleman ! He below you understand. Aye, there he 

 were, natural as life, though 'tware but a dream. I were quite dashed 

 like, to vind myself all ov a zudden in zuch company. ' Walk in, walk 

 in/ zays he, quite affable, just as you might. And there I vound un, zit- 

 ting in his yelbow chair, wi* a vew vriends about un, all jolly as zand-boys. 

 ' How goa the crops ?' zays he.' 'Why, but queerly your honour,' 

 zays I ; ' wheat's a bit touched, and the fly's got into the turnips.' ' Zo 

 I vind,' says he ; ' and how's my friend the lawyer ?' ' Got a bit of a 

 bad cold,' zays I. 'Glad to hear it/ says he, grinning; 'but come, 

 make yourself comfortable, and let me gie you zum zoup.' ' Thank 

 your worship/ zays I, ' but I've had my zupper.' ' Then take a pipe/ 

 says he. ' we're all vriends here.' Zo I takes up a pipe, and was just a 

 going to zit down in a yempty chair, when he roared out ' Ztop, ztop ! 

 you mustn't do that you'll burn your breeches if you do ; that chair is 

 vor a vriend o'mine, DR. ZEBEDEE BOTT ! / expect him here every minute.' 

 Zo with that I woke, and told missus, and she zeemed to think I 

 shouldn't be doing a Christian act if I didn't come and tell'ee ; and in 

 the morning I thought I'd best myzelf ; vor vailing azleep again, I zeed 

 Zatan at his tricks. Behind every one o' them that was zeated at his 

 table, hung a shovel hat just like yours, and zum o'em had got zilk 

 aprons on : and the yempty chair what stood vor you, instead o' being 

 o' polished zilver, az I'd thought it to be at virst, were white hot zteel ; 

 and the zoup were molten gold ; and Zatan ladled it out, and made the 

 volks zwallow it, in zpite o' their teeth ; and when it got low, he tickled 

 them in the ribs wi' the point ov his tail, and they turned guineas out o' 

 their purses in among it, which, I zeed, zoon melted ; zo that the voun- 

 der o' the veast had nothing to vind but the vire ! But I zay, Doctor 

 Doctor Zebedee Doctor Zebedee Bott rouze up man ! Doant'ee be 

 downcast. You be the colour o' beet-root. Wull'ee ha' a draught o' 

 water ? Doctor ! Come, doant be a vool 'twere all a dream. Why, 

 your eyes be quite blood-shot ov a zudden. Come, come, I zay Lord ! 

 Lord ! Doctor ! Doctor Zebedee ! Doctor Zebedee Bott ! As zure 

 az I'm alive he's dead !" 



Honest Rug was right. The pluralist, gross and full of meat, had, in 

 a fit of apoplexy, gone off 



L. 



