MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 327 



if. " Puffington's servants," he said, " had beer whenever they 

 chose," and he thought it "awful mean," restricting the quantity. 

 Mr. Jog, however, was not to be moved. Thus time crawled 

 heavily on. 



Mr. and Mrs. Jog had a long confab one night on the expediency 

 of getting rid of Mr. Sponge. Mrs. Jog wanted to keep him on 

 till after the christening ; while Jog combated her reasons by 

 representing the improbability of its doing Gustavus James any 

 good having him for a godpapa, seeing Sponge's age, and the 

 probability of his marrying himself. Mrs. Jog, however, was very 

 determined ; rather too much so, indeed, for she awakened Jog's 

 jealousy, who lay tossing and tumbling about all through the 

 night. 



He was up very early, and as Mrs. Jog was falling into a 

 comfortable nap, she was aroused by his well-known voice hallooing 

 as loud as he could in the middle of the entrance-passage. 



" BA'RT'soLO-me-e-iv ! " the last syllable being pronounced or 

 prolonged like the mew of a cat. 



" BARTHOLO-me-e-?t'/" repeated he, not getting an answer to the 

 first shout. 



" Murry Ann ! " shouted he, after another pause. 



" Murry Ann ! " exclaimed he, still louder. 



Just then, the iron latch of a door at the top of the house opened, 

 and a female voice exclaimed hurriedly over the banisters, — 



" Yes, sir ! here, sir ! comin', sir ! comin' ! " 



" Oh, Murry Ann (puff), that's (wheeze) you, is it?" asked Jog, 

 still speaking at the top of his voice. 



"Yes, sir," replied Mary Ann. 



" Oh ! then, Murry Ann, I wanted to (puff) — that you'd better 

 get the (puff) breakfast ready early. I think Mr. (gasp) — Sponge 

 will be (wheezing) away to day." 



" Yes, sir," replied Mary Ann. 



All this was said in such a tone as could not fail to be heard all 

 over the house ; certainly into Mr. Sponge's room, which was 

 midway between the speakers. 



"What prevented Mr. Sponge wheezing away, will appear in the 

 next chapter. 



