376 OLD, BUT NOT OLD ENOUGH. 



ning at him, when, " It will do now, old cock," from 

 the crowd, sent him, regardless of mud, to the middle 

 of the street, where he plunged into a cab, perfectly 

 satisfied that he did not quite know all that might 

 be taught him. In fact, if a man means to get among 

 knowing ones, he must live some years and be pretty 

 wide awake before he can venture to say of and to 

 himself, " You'll do now, old cock ! " 



It will not do, however, unless I now return to Mr. 

 Nickem ; and I will place him by supposition in about 

 as awkward a position as possible, and one that it 

 might be thought difficult to get out of. If he suc- 

 ceeds in doing so with credit to himself, instead of 

 being detected, we must allow he had taken a few 

 more lessons in " wide-awake-ism " than the Lord of 

 Goose Green Manor. Now, the term wide-awake-ism 

 is rather a long one ; I allow I certainly never heard 

 it used in a drawing-room, nor is it to be found in 

 Johnson : it is a little manufacture or compilation of 

 my own, of which I am rather proud, and for this 

 reason. Although there is a most mortifying falling 

 off from the talent of the worthy lexicographer to 

 my own, still no half dozen words he ever wrote or 

 used can convey just the same meaning. (I dare 

 say, however, he never intended that they should.) If 

 I wanted to convey an idea of the ridiculous, I would 

 suppose the scene between the Dr. and any man who 

 had told the former that he was wide awake : still to 

 be so is useful sometimes ; so it will be seen it was to 

 Nickem. 



He had, no matter from what cause, got leave to 

 sell a gentleman's horse for sixty : the gentleman was 

 leaving the town to go abroad, and had taken his 

 place in the mail for that purpose. All this Nickem 



