friend Mr. Wallis, offered me, as a treat, a row in the boat they had
engaged for the occasion; which, as a matter of course, I did not refuse:
making myself as spruce as my limited wardrobe would permit, I trotted at
their heels to the foot of London-bridge, the point of embarkation.

The party, including the boatman, consisted of eight souls; the tide was
in our favour, and away we went, as merry a company as ever floated on
the bosom of Father Thames. Mr. Crobble was the chief mark for all their
sallies, and indeed he really appeared, from his size, to have been
intended by Nature for a "butt," as Mr. Wallis wickedly remarked.

"You told, me, Crobble, of your hunting exploit in Hertfordshire," said
Mr. Wallis; "I'll tell you something as bangs that hollow; I'm sure I
thought I should have split with laughter when I heard of it. You know
the old frump, my Aunt Betty, Timmis?"

"To be sure--she with the ten thousand in the threes," replied Mr.
Timmis; "a worthy creature; and I'm sure you admire her principal."

"Don't I," cried Wallis; and he winked significantly at his friend.

"Well, what d'ye think; she, and Miss Scragg, her toady, were in the
country t'other day, and must needs amuse themselves in an airing upon a
couple of prads.

"Well; they were cantering along--doing the handsome--and had just come
to the border of a pond, when a donkey pops his innocent nose over a
fence in their rear, and began to heehaw' in a most melodious strain.
The nags pricked up their ears in a twinkling, and made no more ado but
bolted. Poor aunty tugged! but all in vain; her bay-cob ran into the