SECTION VIII.

A CONTRAST.

"The rich,

That have abundance and enjoy it not."

2 HENRY IV.

"Poor and content is rich and rich enough."

OTHELLO.

In this disposition of mind I rode up to my comfortable inn, where I was received with the usual welcome of ostlers and waiters, with their pleased faces, and should have been so by the landlady, had she not been too fat to make her way easily through her bar door. "Our hostess, therefore, kept her state;" but I lost nothing by being received by her deputy, the head waiter; whom certainly no superfluous flesh prevented from welcoming me with all possible alacrity.

Locomotion, indeed, and power of speech, were his characteristics. He seemed to be without a capability to stand still; his face expressed all

the varieties of a waiter's civility; he had "nods and becks and wreathed smiles," and yet there was so much hilarity and nature in them, that they appeared anything but deceitful. In short, he was bon enfant, and showed a great promise of happiness in his composition; and, as such, I hoped to make favourable mention of him in my Journal. On asking, I found Willoughby was waiting for me up-stairs, and I told this new acquaintance to lead the way.

On the landing-place, however, we were blocked up for full two minutes, by an exceeding large gentleman, quite large enough in himself to stop the way; but the embarras was increased by a servant, almost as big as himself, helping his master, whose legs by no means seemed a match for the body they were intended to support. We waited till we saw him led into a room next to that in which I found Willoughby; my first compliments to whom were much interrupted by some violent ejaculations of fatigue, and fits of gaping and stretching, issuing palpably from the great person who had preceded me up-stairs. Having asked Willoughby if he knew who this uneasy gentleman was, he said "No," but there was one close at hand who, he was sure, would resolve me in a moment, and was himself an amusing character, quite in my way.

"You must mean the waiter," said I, who had already caught my observation.

"The same," answered he,

"and you must know he is a sort of friend, and, indeed, favourite of mine; for not only I believe he is a very honest fellow, and certainly a happy one; but there is nothing he does not know, or pretend to know. To try him once, I asked him if it would rain. Don't know, Sir,' said he, but let you know directly.' Depend upon it he will give you chapter and verse for your new comer; especially if he is a Nobleman."

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How so?" I asked.

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Why, he one day told me he knew all the carriages that stopped at their arms. I asked what were mine.

house, by the

'O! lord, Sir,'

he answered me, there you must excuse me; I know nothing under a Lord.' He then asked me some questions in blazonry, which he said he could not understand, particularly about the colours; and when I tried to explain them, I found it impossible to fix his attention, for he said it was just like learning Latin-so many things to remember. However, the fellow has mother-wit enough, and I dare say he will find out the object of your inquiry, if he has not done so already."

So saying, he rang the bell, and the waiter

threw himself headlong into the room, as described. Had he said, 'Anon, anon, Sir,' I should have thought he had been Francis: however, he asked our pleasure.

"We wish to know," said Willoughby, "who the fat gentleman is in the next room, who has been gaping so ever since he arrived?"

"I have just asked his man, Sir," said the waiter," who showed me his direction at large on his portmanteau, which was, Edward Yawn, Esq., of Yawn Hall, near Yawn Town;' so, with so many yawns," added the waiter, "I suppose we shall soon have him asleep."

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We don't want your wit," said Willoughby, "but only your information."

Ay! that's always the way with you gentlemen," replied the waiter, whose real name was Thomas Tancred, but which was familiarized by the gentlemen he knew, (for he said he allowed it to nobody else,) into Tom Tankard, or, as some chose to alter it, into Quicksilver Tom.

That's always the way with you gentlemen; you won't let a poor man have a joke when he has got it; and yet, perhaps, it is as good as some of the gentlemen's themselves. I am sure it is the chief thing I have to live upon, barring the victuals in the house."

"What!" said Willoughby, "you have nothing but your good spirits to feed and clothe you?"

"I don't know exactly what your honour means by good spirits," replied Tom; "but if you mean good brandy, that's the only spirits I touch, and right good it is in this house. I suppose I am to bring your Honour up a tumbler and water to-night, as usual?"

Here the bell began ringing violently from Mr. Yawn's room, and Quicksilver Tom made his exit in a hop, step, and a jump; saying he should get anger if he kept the gentleman waiting.

"A curious fellow," said I.

"You may set him down on the right side of your book," observed Willoughby.

"I have no doubt," said I;

and could we see them together, he would make an admirable contrast to Edward Yawn, of Yawn Hall, near Yawn town, Esq."

"And yet," observed Willoughby, "that whole family of Yawn, I have been told, is exceedingly rich, and spreads all over the island, while this poor fellow, who is always on the qui vive, (with better spirits than brandy,) has not at this moment a tester in his pocket; for I saw him empty it half an hour ago of the little that was in it, in favour of a tattered soldier and his wife and