Iflil 



T WAS lucky for Charley Clare that he had an uncle. 

 I don't mean a relative of the type distinguished by 

 that prince of humorists, George Augustus Sala, who, 

 when introduced to a prominent member of the class 

 of "uncles" by his friend Barkis, scanned the stranger's 

 legs curiously, remarking, by way of apology, that he had 

 never seen him below the waistcoat before. No ; Charley's 

 uncle was a real, and not a putative relative, and it was 

 fortunate, indeed, that he took on himself to "go where 

 the good (or bad) niggers go," just after that Doncaster when Charley 

 came to such grief ; for had the old gentleman only hung on for another 

 day or two news of that grief would have reached him from a sanctimonious 

 cousin of Charley's, who was running for the " succession stakes," and Charley 

 would have been cut out of the avuncular will to a dead certainty ; but the 

 letter came twelve hours too late, and uncle Timothy died with it in his 

 hand, without being able to amend his testament, and Charley came into 

 70,000Z. in hard cash and some houses in the city, which of themselves were 

 a snug income, with other etceteras not necessary to mention, while 

 to " my nephew Samuel" the sum of 99/. 19s. were allotted as a small 



