290 SWAMP HALL. 



" Have a care, Mr. Penny defamation, sir Mr. Rogers is, I repeat, 

 an honourable man ; and, not that I would desire my wishes to weigh 

 with you in fact, I have no right none whatever yet, Mr. Penny, 

 allow me to say, that you will best support your character as a liberal 

 man, by obliging Mr. Rogers with" 

 "But my dear sir?" 



" I don't wish to persuade you as I said, I have no claim to any in- 

 fluence how should I have none !" 



Mr. Penny had no remedy : Mrs. Penny ably advocated the character 

 of ft their old friend Rogers." Mr. Solon, with wounded dignity, took 

 " a more removed ground" and, to be brief, Mr. Penny wrote the 

 cheque, and enclosing it in a letter despatched it by a special messenger 

 to London. " Hem," cried Mr. Solon and as the missive was borne 

 away, he repeated with a college air, " Bis dat, qui cito dat." - At this 

 moment, little master Nicodemus Solon Penny was ushered into the 

 apartment with the nursery maid, previous to his departure on a visit to 

 his grandmother, at Hackney, Mr. Solon having promised the old lady 

 the long-expected treat. " Just like the head of the old philosophers," 

 cried Mr. Solon, as, rubbing up the stubbly hair of Nicodemus, he looked 

 with uncommon sagacity in the child's face ; " Come, master Nicode- 

 mus," cried the girl, * f or we shall lose the coach!" "Coach!" ex- 

 claimed Mr. Solon, " I thought I desired the child should go in the 

 steam-boat ? To be sure I have no right to interfere, but I thought I 

 said the steam-boat !" 



A look of anxiety overspread Mrs. Penny's face, as she endeavoured 

 to smile, and indistinctly, urged something about " the machinery !" 



" That's it ! look at the child's head has a genius for mechanics 

 nothing like early cultivation ; Sally, go in the steam-boat but mind, 

 not too near the boiler. You hear, Sally the steam-boat !" 



Mr. and Mrs. Penny looked at each other kissed the child, who, 

 enriched with a shilling from the purse of Mr. Solon, started for his 

 voyage down the Thames. Scarcely had little Nicodemus departed, 

 when Frankenstein Penny, (for the sake of Mr. P. we must repeat the 

 names of his younger branches were the arbitrary taste of Mr. Solon), at 

 home for the vacation from a preparatory school, bounced into the room, 

 but having apologized for his violence by a particularly humble bow to 

 the friend of the family, was graciously received by Mr. Solon, who, as 

 was usual with his fortunate god- children, began to expatiate on the 

 extraordinary capacity of Frankenstein. " I tried him last night," cried 

 Mr. Penny, " he can read any thing!" 



" No doubt. I'll be sworn he can with such a head as that." The 

 mother had placed the " Times" in the hands of the young scholar, for 

 the display of his precocity. Master Frankenstein, holding the leading 

 journal of Europe crumpled in his little fists, with his eyes and mouth 

 widely opened, stared at Mr. Solon for the word. " Any where, my 

 dear read any thing the first thing you see," cried the godfather, who 

 with a significant glance at Mr. Penny, raised his hand above the child's 

 head in admiration of its extraordinary development. " Any thing, my 

 dear !" 



The child, after a little stammering, literally astounded his hearers 

 with his reading, for he began in a loud voice. 



" Bankrupts. Jonathan Rogers, St. Margaret's Hill, Southwark, 

 hop-merchant." 



