The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-29

the jury shuddered. The other letter read Shall not be home until tomor- row. Slow coach." This, too, became in the hands of Sergeant Buzfuz a damnatory document. Tn short MT. Pick wick lost the case and was mulcted in f750 damage and the part of the cost assessed against him.
 "Tll never pay a penny, not single penny" said MT. Pickwick. "Ill Stay in jail al my life first" So to jail they sent him-to the debtors prison, the Fleet, and Sam went with him. MT. Pickwick made arrangements for an indefinite stay, and told Sam to get out. It was no place for a young man. Sam got out but was back the next day. He put up job with the elder Weller by which the elder Weller loaned his offspring a hundred pounds and then demanded it back. Sam refused to pay, and the elder Weller had him ar rested and sent to the Fleet. T thought l told you to keep out of here" said Mr. Pickwick, when Sam appeared. "I can't I'm prisoner at the suit of a unnatural father" said Sam. MT. Pickwick saw through the trick, but was touched by the fellows faithfulness and let him serve him once more. Anything you like, samivil, except vidders," MT. Weller had said when he became partner in Sans little game. But. oh, Samvil, Samivi, beware of vidders." But the especial widow who had taught Mr. Weller this worldly wisdom came to see Sam in jai bringing along MT. striggins, sort of dissenting lay preacher with red rose who had a considerable following among the women of Dorking, and whose con- tinual presence in the tap room of tho Marquis of Granby consuming pineapple rum was thorn In the side of Mir. Well Ter. Stiggins and Mrs. Weller moaned over Sam a lost sheep, and moaned over his father as a "wessel of wrath" When they had done Sam said: Wont you take something to make you feel better, sir? What Is your favorite tap?" "All taps Is vanity said MT. Stiggins. Quite right" replied Sam, "and what is your peculiar wanity?' Mr. Stiggins in- dicated pineapple rum.
 For three long months MT. Pickwics stuck to. his determination to spend the rest of his days in prison rather than sat- isfy the inlauitous verdict which had been pronounced against him. His health be- gan to suffer, but the pleading of his friends could not move him. Then old acquaintances began to appear in MT. Pickwick's prison. First, to his astonish- ment, he met in the prison yard MT. Alfred Jingle and MT. Job Trotter. They were in wretched condition, hopeless, n Pc arlv cfa r1ra1 Nfr Dioly wick's anger against Jingle vanished away. Queer thing-strange place-serves me right" said MT. Jingle "All gone shirts gone-nothing soon-lie in bed-- starve-little bone house-poor prisoner serves me right" But MT. Pickwick not only got food and clothing for Jingle and Joo, but got them out of jail and shipped them off to the British West Indies, where they reformed and lived happily ever after.
 Then, one day, who should come into the prison yard but Mrs. Bardell. She had ''as matter of form" given a eognovit to Dodson and Fogg for the costs in her suit against MT Pickwek, and not being able to pay Dodson and Fogg had thrown her into the debtors prison. It was rather hard for MT. Pickwick to melt in this case, but at the sight of Mrs. BardelFs distress he did He paid her debt and she signed a release to him for the damage she had obtained in court; also a sworn statement that the suit was not brought on her initiative, but at the solicitation of Dod- son and Fogg.
 As there seemed to be no reason for MT. Pickwick staying in jail longer he paid his own costs, Sam presented the release which his father had given him along with the loan and they both walked out to liberty and the fresh air. But changes were taking place among the Pickwickians. MT. Wrinkle married Ara bella Allen, young lady whom he met at Dingley Dell; Snodgrass married Emily Wardle and Sam became engaged to that Mary whom he had met at the mayors house at Ipswich. Deprived so long of his guidance the club named after MT. Pickwick had dissolved and the good man found himself growing too old for more adventure. So he bought g neat little villa at Dulwich, and Sam and Mary were married and kept house for him. MT. and Mrs. Wrinkle lived nearby. AL nrSt they scared MT. flckWlck by asking him to- stand godfather to their child-but he soon got used to it. MT. Snodgrass went to live at Dingley Dell and Tracy Tupman took lodgings at Richmond, where for many years he walked daily in the Terrace with an extremely youthful and jaunty air, the delight of all the elderly spinsters of the place. Mrs. Bardell continued to take lodgers. The elder Weller upon the death of his wife had an attack of the gout, retired from coaching and lived comfortably at a quiet suburban inn, the oracle of the place.
 But once a year until his death-and he lived to be very old-Mr. Pickwick had gathering of the companions of his travels and adventures, with their fam lilies, at his Dulwieh house, and you may be sure they were right merry gather ings. There is no record of Dodson and Fogg having been hanged,
 Next weeks one-page classic will be "The Fortunes of Nigel" by Sir Walter Scott.
 Aa,.s C,n-nafuinu HIokL