92 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



tliouglit of by tliis lionest fellow; but going at 

 once up to the front cloor, he aclmmisterecl such a 

 tlmndermg knock, that a flunkey came out almost 

 on his nose. 



^^Here, guv'nor," said the offended royal and 

 loyal tar, ^'take this here book back to your lady 

 what shoves 'em about, and tell her I won't have 

 it nor none of it ; I never was rated as a ' sinner ' 

 afore by any skipper under whom I sailed, and 

 she 'd no sort of business whatsomever to put me 

 down as sitch in that blessed log of hers." 



So saying, the mortal breaker, having broken 

 on the philanthropical beach, he receded, and left 

 the flunkey puzzled in the spray. 



Of such anecdotes as these, if I tliought it would 

 amuse my readers to narrate them, there are many; 

 but as my chief object is, at this moment, to show 

 the extreme mischief occasioned in a rural j)^i'i'*^h 

 by indiscriminate charity, I leave the donors of it 

 and tlie j^retendcrs to extreme godliness, to the 

 oj)inion pronounced by that eminent solicitor, 

 Mr. Bruff, in Wilkie Collins's admirable tale 

 of ^ The Moonstone,' which runs as follows, 

 where the learned gentleman sjoeaks of Godfrey 

 Ablet wliyte : — '' I am told he is an eminent 



