PINCH-ME-NEAR FOREST 



the 'pike-man was up; and violent was the 

 clattering, and dread the denunciations that 

 Jorrocks hurled at his white cotton night-capped 

 head, when at length he popped it out to inquire 

 the cause of the row. 



Our friends didn't get much use of the hard 

 road for their money, for Pinch-me-near Forest 

 being quite a back-slum sort of place, that nobody 

 ever wanted to see, the roads all seemed to shun 

 it, and it was only by very vague conjectures and 

 speculative cuts that our friends managed to steer 

 towards it at all. Not that the forest itself was 

 worse than any of its Royal brethren; indeed, 

 it was better than some, for Prettyfat neither 

 stole the wood himself, nor knowingly suffered 

 others to steal it, his being the easy do-nothing 

 style of management, that let the trees grow if 

 they liked, or if they didn't like, let them stand 

 still and die, or be blown down and rot at their 

 leisure. He made his reports regularly and fairly, 

 and so long as he got as much money as paid 

 his own salary and the wages of his labourers, 

 o 105 



