EECOLLECTIONS OF GEORGE CARTER. 15 



quote my old friend's own words), at needlework at 

 the table, girls doing something about the house, 

 Charley, well, not in mischief, when comes a knock 

 with a stick or whip-handle against the door ; with a 

 " Yoi-doit there ! " " Come in, sir, here's yerr kennel 

 waiting for ye." And with a cheery greeting from 

 the old man, and a smile of recognition, all round, 

 " the kennel," or the easy chair, on the opposite side 

 of the fire, becomes tenanted, and then we know what 

 will quickly follow. We will suppose it to have been 

 a hunting day, when the writer of these memoirs 

 should have been out with the hounds and the old 

 huntsman, for some reason or other, not having been 

 out. The first question, of course after the greeting 

 all round, comes from the old man, " Well, sir, I beg 

 y'r pardon " ; now, reader, please to remark this, I am 

 going to stick to George Carter's words or expressions, 

 all through. I have said he was never wanting in respect 

 to any one ; he was a man of great dignity of manner, 

 but with it he combined that happy knack of never 

 forgetting himself, especially when he was, as he said, 

 " talking to a gentleman." He never took a liberty with 

 any one, and no one ever dared to try it on with him. 

 He was truly one of " nature's gentlemen," even if he 

 was, as he said, " only a servant." This was his own 

 way of putting it. So now to work. 



