« BOB " 



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giving of brimstone and treacle to the whole Squeers establishment, 

 and some other day — [here I made a suggestion, would he come out 

 to Shelford, dine with my servants (all immensely respectable 

 females ; T wonder what they'll make of Bob), and tell me what he 

 knew]. " And I've got tales of ]\Ir. A. and Mr. B. as I'll tell you 

 what nobody couldn't ever believe, sir!" You might suppose, 

 therefore, that the interview adjourned forthwith; but no! Once 

 Bob's tongue (which is at best an "unruly member") has taken 

 charge, and is well stocked with yarns, it is not easily stopped, 

 especially if stimulated with judicious questions. Yes, it was ]\Ir. 

 ]\Iilne who had brought Bob to Cambridge ; leastways he (Bob) had, 

 when fifteen years of age, run away from a plumber, to whom he 

 had been apprenticed, in order to come and be with Mr. ]\Iilne and 

 the Beagles. He had been 'prenticed to a butcher as well as to the 

 plumber, so I gathered that Bob's boyhood did not lack incident. 

 Indeed, he went on talking while attending to his work till, with 

 the help of a pencil stump and the back of an envelope to aid my 

 memory, I managed to comb out the following : — 



Bob's father was keeper^ to Lord Zouche at Storrington in 

 Sussex, where he was reared in the best 

 traditions of feudalism and, his father 

 being strict, of the dignity of labour. 

 Every morning he and his brother had 

 to earn their breakfast by cleaning out 

 hound kennels, those of the Storrington 

 Beagles, and then they had a long walk 

 to school. School days over, Bob went 

 'prentice to a butcher, and one day, 

 after the slaughter of a bullock which 

 he was set to eviscerate, his master 

 came up from behind and rubbed some 

 of the "innards" in Bob's face. Bob 

 gave a graphic description of their 



1 Bob says "keeper," Mr. Milne, kennelman 

 to the Storrington Beagles; perhaps he "made 

 himself generally useful." 



Bob and the Butcher. 



