The time came, without bringing with it any relief to my feelings, and

the company came. Mr. Wopsle, united to a Roman nose and a large shining

bald forehead, had a deep voice which he was uncommonly proud of; indeed

it was understood among his acquaintance that if you could only give him

his head, he would read the clergyman into fits; he himself confessed

that if the Church was "thrown open," meaning to competition, he would

not despair of making his mark in it. The Church not being "thrown

open," he was, as I have said, our clerk. But he punished the Amens

tremendously; and when he gave out the psalm,--always giving the whole

verse,--he looked all round the congregation first, as much as to say,

"You have heard my friend overhead; oblige me with your opinion of this

style!"

I opened the door to the company,--making believe that it was a habit

of ours to open that door,--and I opened it first to Mr. Wopsle, next

to Mr. and Mrs. Hubble, and last of all to Uncle Pumblechook. N.B. I was

not allowed to call him uncle, under the severest penalties.

"Mrs. Joe," said Uncle Pumblechook, a large hard-breathing middle-aged

slow man, with a mouth like a fish, dull staring eyes, and sandy hair

standing upright on his head, so that he looked as if he had just been

all but choked, and had that moment come to, "I have brought you as the

compliments of the season--I have brought you, Mum, a bottle of sherry

wine--and I have brought you, Mum, a bottle of port wine."

Every Christmas Day he presented himself, as a profound novelty, with

exactly the same words, and carrying the two bottles like dumb-bells.

Every Christmas Day, Mrs. Joe replied, as she now replied, "O, Un--cle

Pum-ble--chook! This is kind!" Every Christmas Day, he retorted, as

he now retorted, "It's no more than your merits. And now are you all

bobbish, and how's Sixpennorth of halfpence?" meaning me.

We dined on these occasions in the kitchen, and adjourned, for the nuts

and oranges and apples to the parlor; which was a change very like

Joe's change from his working-clothes to his Sunday dress. My sister was

uncommonly lively on the present occasion, and indeed was generally more

gracious in the society of Mrs. Hubble than in other company. I remember

Mrs. Hubble as a little curly sharp-edged person in sky-blue, who held a

conventionally juvenile position, because she had married Mr. Hubble,--I

don't know at what remote period,--when she was much younger than he. I

remember Mr Hubble as a tough, high-shouldered, stooping old man, of a

sawdusty fragrance, with his legs extraordinarily wide apart: so that in

my short days I always saw some miles of open country between them when

I met him coming up the lane.




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