Going into Society | Page 8

to have your bones picked dry by
Wulturs, like the dead Wild Ass of the Prairies that you deserve to be!"

Here he giv himself the most tremendious one of all, and dropped.
I thought he was gone. His Ed was so heavy, and he knocked it so hard,
and he fell so stoney, and the sassagerial disturbance in him must have
been so immense, that I thought he was gone. But, he soon come round
with care, and he sat up on the floor, and he said to me, with wisdom
comin out of his eyes, if ever it come:
"Magsman! The most material difference between the two states of
existence through which your unhappy friend has passed;" he reached
out his poor little hand, and his tears dropped down on the moustachio
which it was a credit to him to have done his best to grow, but it is not
in mortals to command success,--"the difference this. When I was out
of Society, I was paid light for being seen. When I went into Society, I
paid heavy for being seen. I prefer the former, even if I wasn't forced
upon it. Give me out through the trumpet, in the hold way, to-morrow."
Arter that, he slid into the line again as easy as if he had been iled all
over. But the organ was kep from him, and no allusions was ever made,
when a company was in, to his property. He got wiser every day; his
views of Society and the Public was luminous, bewilderin, awful; and
his Ed got bigger and bigger as his Wisdom expanded it.
He took well, and pulled 'em in most excellent for nine weeks. At the
expiration of that period, when his Ed was a sight, he expressed one
evenin, the last Company havin been turned out, and the door shut, a
wish to have a little music.
"Mr. Chops," I said (I never dropped the "Mr." with him; the world
might do it, but not me); "Mr. Chops, are you sure as you are in a state
of mind and body to sit upon the organ?"
His answer was this: "Toby, when next met with on the tramp, I forgive
her and the Indian. And I am."
It was with fear and trembling that I began to turn the handle; but he sat
like a lamb. I will be my belief to my dying day, that I see his Ed
expand as he sat; you may therefore judge how great his thoughts was.

He sat out all the changes, and then he come off.
"Toby," he says, with a quiet smile, "the little man will now walk three
times round the Cairawan, and retire behind the curtain."
When we called him in the morning, we found him gone into a much
better Society than mine or Pall Mall's. I giv Mr. Chops as comfortable
a funeral as lay in my power, followed myself as Chief, and had the
George the Fourth canvass carried first, in the form of a banner. But,
the House was so dismal arterwards, that I giv it up, and took to the
Wan again.
"I don't triumph," said Jarber, folding up the second manuscript, and
looking hard at Trottle. "I don't triumph over this worthy creature. I
merely ask him if he is satisfied now?"
"How can he be anything else?" I said, answering for Trottle, who sat
obstinately silent. "This time, Jarber, you have not only read us a
delightfully amusing story, but you have also answered the question
about the House. Of course it stands empty now. Who would think of
taking it after it had been turned into a caravan?" I looked at Trottle, as
I said those last words, and Jarber waved his hand indulgently in the
same direction.
"Let this excellent person speak," said Jarber. "You were about to say,
my good man?" -
"I only wished to ask, sir," said Trottle doggedly, "if you could kindly
oblige me with a date or two in connection with that last story?"
"A date!" repeated Jarber. "What does the man want with dates!"
"I should be glad to know, with great respect," persisted Trottle, "if the
person named Magsman was the last tenant who lived in the House. It's
my opinion--if I may be excused for giving it--that he most decidedly
was not."
With those words, Trottle made a low bow, and quietly left the room.

There is no denying that Jarber, when we were left together, looked
sadly discomposed. He had evidently forgotten to inquire about dates;
and, in spite of his magnificent talk about his series of discoveries, it
was quite as plain that the two stories he had just read, had really and
truly exhausted his present stock. I thought myself bound,