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Relevant to the topic of my blog here was one theme that stood out in analysis of all the ancient bodies that had been preserved through time: Ancient people, no matter what time period they lived in or where they lived, carried a significant load of parasites.
The parasites most commonly found in these munmies included hookworms, tape worms and the roundworms that cause trichanosis. Besides sickening us, these parasites can make a significant difference in how we metabolize foods.
The tapeworm, for example, allows people infected with it to live out the dubious fantasy of "eat all you want and never gain weight." Unfortunately, when this happens in a situation where the food supply is marginal--i.e. just about everywhere on earth before the 20th century--worm infestation can predispose people to starve to death.
The roundworms lay eggs in human muscle, which probably produces inflammation, though they also can infect nerves and the brain. In either case, they have a strong effect on metabolism.
Parasites get into our bodies in many ways. Some come from eating meat that hasn't been thoroughly cooked. Some are carried in water where other animals have defecated. Some enter the body from the soil. Others are transmitted by insect bites.
Because parasites were such a common feature of life until very recently, it makes sense that our bodies are highly adapted to live with them. And because the loss of the usual human parasites load is so very recent, some scientists who study the development of the human immune system speculate that the current explosion of autoimmune disease is partly caused by changes in the way that the immune system develops in children whose immune cells don't encounter parasites early in life.
This theory was discussed in detail in the book, Good Germs, Bad Germs: Health and Survival in a Bacterial World, by Jessica Snyder Sachs.
However, while there may be something to this theory, there are plenty of other factors besides parasite exposure that also explain the increase in autoimmune diseases. And a big problem with the parasite explanation is that it doesn't explain why this explosion in diagnoses only kicked in about twenty years ago.
My belief is that the invasion of our food supply by soy protein and its ability to damage the gut and make it permeable to proteins like gluten is probably a better explanation for the changes seen in the past generation. I've discussed that theory HERE.
Still, there is no question that the elimination of parasites from our system is a huge change in human health and one that only took place in developed nations during the past century.
Caleb Finch, a gerontologist from the University of Southern California (USC), has come up with an intriguing theory, published in December issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that links the loss of our parasite burden with the increase in heart disease and Alzheimers.
His theory explains the fact that humans have much longer natural lifespans than apes, as a result of their having developed new gene variants that allow them to tolerate the higher burden of inflammation that comes with eating a meat-rich diet.
You can read the text of the press release describing this study sent out by USC displayed here:
Science Daily: Why Humans Outlive Apes: Human Genes Have Adapted to Inflammation, but We Are More Susceptible to Diseases of Aging
It quotes Finch as saying:
"Over time, ingestion of red meat, particularly raw meat infected with parasites in the era before cooking, stimulates chronic inflammation that leads to some of the common diseases of aging,"From reading the Mummies book, I would correct this statement, because the data reported in the mummies book makes it very clear that ancient meat-eating humans who did cook their food still carried a high load of meat-borne intestinal and muscle parasites.
But Finch goes on to explain that one way humans adapted genetically that allowed them to flourish with a higher burden of meat-borne parasites is by evolving a human-unique form of Apo(E).
Finch is quoted as saying,
In addition to differences in diets between species of primates, humans evolved unique variants in a cholesterol transporting gene, apolipoprotein E, which also regulates inflammation and many aspects of aging in the brain and arteries.Other primates who do not have the human forms of Apo(E)develop heart disease very quickly if they eat diets rich in meat, an argument that is often cited by those promoting vegetarian diets.
Still, unlike gorillas who develop heart disease in just a few years after adopting a meat rich diet, humans eating meat-rich diets do not develop heart disease until they are in middle age-- after they have reproduced, which Finch links to the human-only Apo(E) variant. And later-onset heart disease because it happens after reproduction does not impact evolution.
Finch does not pursue this point, but it strikes me that this argument suggests that the loss of the usual human parasite load may also partially explain why the incidence of heart disease has increased over the past century--the period in which humans for the first time cleaned up water supplies and eliminated wild meats with their high parasite load from their diets.
It is possible that when the immune system is not kept busy dealing with a high level of inflammation caused by invading parasites it is more apt to attack cardiac tissue. Recent research suggests very strongly that heart disease is an inflammatory condition. There are also intriguing hints that morbid obesity may be linked to inflamed fat tissue.
None of these theories are fully fleshed out. Though Finch's finding that only humans have the special forms of Apo(E) required for primates to metabolize meats should give us another reason to ignore ALL diet research performed in rodents or other non-human species because these other species do not carry the human adaptations to meat eating that Finch suggests are a large part of why humans have evolved so successfully.
Beyond the changes that allow us to eat parasite-infested meat safely, there are probably human physiological adaptations to parasites that impact on our ability to store fat in an environment were we are competing with parasites for the nutrients in our food.
This suggests to me that followers of the so-called Paleo diet cannot faithfully reproduce the supposed health effects of that diet unless they have taken on the load of intestinal worms early in life and allowed them to mold their immune systems and other physiological parameters.
Even adding these worms in mid-life won't help because, as Sachs' book explains, the balance of the kinds of T cells produced by the immune system throughout life seems to be shaped by the antibodies transmitted from the mother (infected with parasites in a true Paleo state) and the organisms the young creature encounters early in life.
Without a gut full of worms no one is eating a true Paleo Diet. Which is another reason to avoid extremism in dietary theory and to eat a diet that resembles that which your long lived ancestors in the past 150 years were eating.
The Colonial era graveyards in rural New England where I live are filled with graves of people who lived into their late 80s and 90s. Those who died young typically died of infectious disease, child birth, or, surprisingly frequently, fire and drowning.
We know a great deal about their diet. It was made up of fresh meat in summer and fall, salty preserved ham, salt beef, and lots of salt cod the rest of the year, dried fruit, corn meal, wheat, squash, turnips, and potatoes, preserves made with sugar, and milk, butter and cheese.


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The message that "peak oil" may be a problem is now reaching respected publications like Business Week. But how can a person learn more? Information about peak oil is often fragmented, and the quality of the sources is questionable. The purpose of this article is to document some of what is known about peak oil, so that readers have a better framework for understanding our current situation. Many links are provided, so that readers can dig deeper if they like.
1. What is peak oil?
"Peak oil" is the term used to describe the situation when the amount of oil that can be extracted from the earth in a given year begins to decline, because geological limitations are reached. Extracting oil becomes more and more difficult, so that costs escalate and the amount of oil produced begins to decline. The term peak oil generally relates to worldwide production, but a similar phenomenon exists for individual countries and other smaller areas.
2. Why would oil production begin to decline? Can't we extract oil as fast as we want to, until it finally runs out, many years from now?
What happens isn't quite as simple as "running out". Instead of running out, oil gets progressively more difficult to extract. When a well is first drilled, the oil is often under pressure, so comes out quickly with virtually no effort. Later, pressure drops, and it becomes necessary to inject one of several gasses to repressurize the wells. Finally, when even this ceases to keep production up, the remaining oil is pumped out at a slow rate.
Another reason for production tapering off is that oil companies tend to develop the fields which are expected to have the highest return first, and save the smaller fields and fields with more challenging production profiles (such as deep sea oil, very viscous oil, and oil combined with toxic chemicals) until later.
3. Do we have any historical reason to expect that oil production will begin to decline at some point?
When we look at oil production in any given area, the production tends to rise until approximately 50% of the oil that will eventually be extracted is gone, and then begins to decline. For example,
Figure 1 shows oil production of the United States.
A similar pattern holds for North Sea oil production (Figure 2).
We have now reached the point where oil production is declining, apparently for geological reasons, in the majority of oil-producing countries. It logical to expect that world oil production will eventually begin to decline.
4. What does world oil production look like?
Figure 3 shows recent world oil production (blue line), plus a rough estimate of future demand for oil (red line), assuming world oil desired usage continues to grow at 2% per year.
On this graph, a person can see that world oil production was rising fairly steadily, but recently has "stalled out". Based on data of the United States Energy Information Agency (EIA), oil production for 2005 was a little higher than that for 2006. Partial 2007 data suggests that 2007 production may be a little lower than that for 2006.
Because of this "stalled out" condition, there is a growing gap between what the world would like for petroleum production, and what is actually being produced. At this point, the countries that are suffering a shortfall because the current price is too expensive are mostly third world countries from Africa and Asia. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has expressed concern that oil production is not high enough, and believes that Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) should produce more.
5. Can OPEC raise its production of petroleum?
Many people suspect that the answer to this question may be no. Some publications report that Saudi Arabia is having production difficulties, as are several other OPEC countries (Kuwait, Iran, Nigeria and Venezuela). Saudi Arabia does not admit to any production problems. EIA data indicates declining oil production for Saudi Arabia, even before OPEC production cuts were announced in the fall of 2006.
It is likely that we will learn the truth about OPEC's ability to raise production this winter. OPEC has its next planned meeting in September. Unless something very unusual happens, there will be a need for significantly higher oil production. OPEC's actions at that time will tell what the real situation is.
6. Doesn't OPEC report very large oil reserves? It seems like those high reserves would assure us that OPEC can increase its production at will.
No, the high reserves aren't all that helpful. First, there are serious doubts about the accuracy of OPEC's oil reserves. The reserves are not audited numbers. Countries may be motivated to exaggerate them, so as to increase their OPEC production allocations. Analyses such as this one suggest that the reserves are likely overstated.
Second, even if OPEC reserves are accurate, the reserves tell us nothing about the flow rate. If the reserves include much very viscous oil, it may take years and large amounts of other resources to produce a relatively small flow of oil.
One important piece of detective work regarding Saudi oil reserves was done a couple of years ago. Matt Simmons analyzed published scientific papers relating to Saudi oil wells, and determined that Saudi wells were reaching a serious state of depletion. He documented his findings in the book Twilight in the Desert. This book is now available in paperback, and has been translated into German and Chinese.
7. What is the pattern of world oil production in the next few years expected to look like?
We can't know for certain, but Figure 4 shows three possible oil production scenarios as dotted lines.
If OPEC production is now falling, it is likely that we are at "peak oil" now, because production for the rest of the world is flat. If we are at peak oil, we might expect future oil production to follow a pattern similar to Scenario 3 (the lowest dotted line, with production falling immediately) or possibly Scenario 2 (the middle dotted line, with production falling after a plateau). Several respected energy industry insiders, including Matt Simmons, energy investment banker and author of Twilight in the Desert, and Samsam Bakhtiari, retired iranian oil executive, believe that we are at peak oil now.
Scenario 1 (the top dotted line) shows a scenario in which peak oil is still a few years off. Some scientists believe that this is a more likely scenario. The Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas Newsletter forecasts peak oil in 2011, four years from now. The PhD thesis of Fredrik Robelius showed that peak oil is expected to occur between 2008 and 2018. Chris Skrebowski, author of the Megaprojects analysis forecasts a worldwide peak in 2011/2012.
8. Does everyone forecast peak oil within approximately the next 10 years?
No. The US Energy Information Administration's model is based on an approach that does not consider geological constraints. Instead, it is based more on expected demand. In Figures 3 and 4, expected demand is the red top line. Forecasts on this basis tend to be higher than those considering geological constraints. Forecasts of the IEA appear to use similar logic, since IEA also assumes that OPEC can meet supply shortfalls.
Another organization that is known for its rosy production forecasts is Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA). CERA's production forecasts are widely quoted in the news media, but it is not clear that they are particularly accurate. Some concerns:
• CERA's clients are companies in the energy field. One would expect that these companies would like to hear "good news" about future growth prospects. Thus, CERA is likely to be under more pressure to produce favorable forecasts than are independent scientists.
• CERA's forecasts do not appear to be reproducible by independent scientists. Chris Skrebowski and Fredrik Robelius (see Question 7) both use field-by-field analyses that are in many ways similar to CERA's approach, but come to very different conclusions.
• Where it is possible to test actual production against forecasts, CERA's forecasts seem high. Euan Mearns notes that in March 2006 CERA presented a model for UK 2006 oil production capacity showing around 2,350,000 barrels per day — around 700,000 barrels per day higher than the actual production figure.
9. When was peak oil first predicted?
M. King Hubbert, in 1956, first predicted that US oil production for the 48 states would peak in 1970. This prediction turned out to be correct, to everyone's surprise. He also predicted a world-wide peak around 2000.
10. Will alternative energy sources be able to make up for the shortfall in petroleum production?
At this point, it seems unlikely that they will make up the shortfall.
On Exhibit 4, the gap that needs to be filled is the gap between future demand (the top line) and actual future production (something in the vicinity of the dotted lines). Clearly, the sooner production begins to drop and the steeper the decline in oil production, the bigger the gap that needs to be filled. Even if production stays level, there can be a gap because demand continues to increase.
At this point, there does not seem to be any "silver bullet" for replacing the lost oil production. Oil is unique in its abundance, its high energy density, and its portability. There do appear to be a number of possible silver BBs, however. These include:
• ethanol from corn,
• ethanol from sugar (generally imported),
• biodiesel,
• cellulosic ethanol from biomass, and
• coal-to-liquid.
None of these appears to be very scalable, especially in a short time-frame. In addition, there are other drawbacks — cost, environmental damage, and for coal-to-liquid, climate change issues. Indirect approaches to circumventing the shortage, like using battery operated cars, may be part of the picture as well. If these are used, they will probably need to be phased in slowly, as existing cars are retired. It is likely that conservation will need to be part of the mix.
11. What is "Energy Returned on Energy Invested" or "EROEI"?
This is a concept that a person runs into frequently, if one reads any of the more advanced articles about peak oil on the internet. Analysis based on EROEI helps to explain why many scientists are discouraged about the newer energy prospects – both alternatives like ethanol and "unconventional" oil like oil sands.
EROEI is a measure of how much energy an investor gets out, compared to how much energy the investor puts in. Some of the energy invested is not in fuel directly, but in things that are made using fuel, like oil rigs and refining equipment.
In the early days of oil, much of the oil extracted came from highly pressurized wells, so little effort was required to get the oil out. At that time, the typical EROEI was about 100. As those wells became depleted, more and more effort was required to get the oil out. A typical EROEI for oil is now about 15, considering additional costs like repressurization of wells and drilling in underwater locations.
One problem that we are running into with "unconventional oil" and alternatives is that it takes a huge amount of effort (in terms of energy expended) to get the energy out. EROEI is in the low single digits for oil sands, and is barely above 1 for ethanol from corn. Oil in very deep sea locations is also expected to have a low energy return (assuming it can be extracted at all), because of all the very fancy equipment required.
If we had a huge amount of other energy from a readily available source that we could use for producing oil and oil alternatives, such as natural gas or coal, a low EROEI would not necessarily be a big issue. But it is now becoming clear that natural gas is in nearly as short supply as oil, at least in North America. And coal has a lot of issues as well — it is implicated in climate change, is mixed with toxic pollutants, is not as easy to transport, and is not in as unlimited supply as most believe.
When we have energy sources with a low EROEI, we are using a lot of fuel to get oil or oil alternative. The energy we have left to do everything else we do — build roads, build shopping malls, produce food — is less. I once heard an estimate that it takes an average EROEI of 6 to have enough energy left over to fuel today's society. If new energy sources all have EROEIs of 3 or less, we are likely to
• Need a large share of workers to work in energy-related occupations
• Have less energy left over for other uses
• Experience a significant fall in our standard of living
12. What are the indirect impacts of peak oil likely to be?
We don't know for certain. Some issues that have been raised include:
• Will the food supply be adequate, if farmers are not able to get fuel for for their equipment and transportation is disrupted?
• Will it be possible to supply all of the products that are currently made with petroleum, including asphalt, many chemicals, fabrics, and building supplies?
• If there is a shortage of oil, will the new alternative energy sources really be sustainable? For example, will it be possible to service windmills adequately, if there is a severe shortage of oil? Will it be possible to produce enough corn for ethanol?
• Will people be able to repay their debt, if standards of living fall? Will lenders be willing to provide more long-term loans, if it appears likely that future transportation will be disrupted?
• Will there be problems with the monetary system, if there are major debt defaults?
• Will the many economic concepts that we hear so frequently continue to apply, such as "globalization", "companies should grow", "fungible oil supply", and "increased price will lead to greater supply or substitution"?
• Will countries fight about the remaining oil supply?
13. If the peak oil story is really this important, why haven't we been reading about it in the newspapers for years? Are you claiming there has been some sort of conspiracy?
No conspiracy. Just of a lot of things that seem to work together:
• Oil = Power. A country with lots of oil (and other fossil fuels) has great power. It can manufacture what it wants, outfit big armies, and generally be at the top of the pecking order. For this reason, government officials may be tempted to exaggerate strengths and gloss over weaknesses on the energy front. This is true for almost every country with oil — US, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela, and others.
• Embarrassment about the drop in US oil production. Prior to 1970, the US was the world leader in oil production. It was the undisputed world leader in manufacturing, and the economy was growing rapidly. In 1970, oil production started to drop. This was a shock, because very few believed the prediction Hubbert had made in 1956. The drop in oil production meant a changing world role – to more of a service economy, and relatively less power. This whole discussion was left out of textbooks. If it had been included, people would have realized that a decline in world oil production would be coming some day, just like the decline in US production.
• Faith in OPEC oil reserves. The Saudi oil company Aramco was taken over by Saudi Arabia in 1980. Shortly thereafter, the amount of oil reserves was doubled, without finding any more oil. Other OPEC countries soon followed suit, since higher reserves meant higher oil production targets under OPEC rules. Current OPEC reserves appear to be seriously overstated, but they are repeated endlessly as fact, in news media and textbooks.
• Faith in technology. The fact that oil production would eventually decline has been known for about 50 years. But many people who were aware of this problem assumed that technology would somehow overcome the problem. If peak oil is viewed as an easily solvable problem, there is no reason to tell the public about it.
• Faith in economic theory. Economic theory says that if there is a shortage, higher prices will encourage greater production or substitution. Therefore, there should be no reason to worry.
14. Even with all of these things going on, it seems like the peak oil story would be better publicized than it has been. What else has kept the story off the front page?
There are number of other things:
• The people who have discovered the peak oil story are by and large technical people — people working in academia, people working for oil companies, and scientists who are close enough to the situation to say:
Wait a minute. We see a huge change coming. Oil is near the point where world-wide production will drop and we aren't finding any major technological solutions. All we are finding is some little things that together don't look like they will cover more than a small percentage of the problem. The economy cannot continue to grow the way it has grown. In fact, it looks like a major cutback is in store.
• Peak oil people are not well funded. Their organizations are volunteer organizations. Some of their work is done on internet blogs. It is hard for them to match well-funded organizations like CERA.
• Peak oil does not mix well with standard economic theory. Economic theory is repeated so often that nearly everyone takes it as science or fact. It is only when people step back and realize that economic theory is just a theory, and that it does not necessarily apply in a resource constrained world, that they can understand the peak oil situation.
• Newspapers have a happy story to tell — one of growth, entertainment, selling lots of SUVs. It is hard for a news organization to publish the peak oil story when it is so much at odds with the main message of the paper.
15. So who are the people who know the peak oil story?
In Washington D. C., Representative Roscoe Bartlett (R – MD) is the leader on the issue of peak oil.
There are many others who are peak oil aware. The Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO) now has organizations in 11 countries. There are also quite a number of local peak oil organizations.
There are quite a few people involved with internet sites that publish peak oil information and discuss the peak oil story. A few of note:
• TheOilDrum.com – "Discussions about energy and our future" Features well-researched articles written by its staff. 40% of its readers have postgraduate degrees.
• EnergyBulletin.net – Publishes peak oil and related articles that others submit. Has good indexing features. Little discussion.
• Globalpublicmedia.com – Publishes speeches and other audio media related to "a postcarbon world".
• Speeches by Matt Simmons Slides for the speeches by the author of "Twilight in the Desert" can be found at this site.
• aspo-usa.com – The web site of the US version of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas. Offers a weekly and daily newsletter.
There are also many others web sites dealing with peak oil. Many of these can be found by searching for the words "Peak Oil".
16. Are governmental leaders aware of peak oil?
Many of them seem to be.
We know that the leaders of OPEC are aware of peak oil because OPEC's magazine talks about the issue. A speech by one of their members on peak oil is printed on page 58 of the November 2006 OPEC Bulletin.
We strongly suspect that Russian and Venezuelan leaders are peak oil aware, because of their aggressive recent actions. They know that because of peak oil, they have more power, and are acting accordingly.
Representative Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) reports that based on his meetings in China, Chinese leaders are very peak oil aware. He reports that they have a five point plan for dealing with peak oil and are buying up all of the oil assets they can.
George W. Bush and Dick Cheney do not talk about peak oil, but there are many governmental reports relating to peak oil. Some of these include
• Uncertainty About Future Supply Makes it Important to Develop a Strategy for a Peak and Decline in Oil Production. US Government Accountability Office, February 2007.
• Energy Trends and Implications for U. S. Army Installations E. T. Westervelt and D. F. Fournier, September 2005.
• Peaking of World Oil Production, Impacts, Mitigation, and Risk Management R. L. Hirsch, R. Bezdek, and R. Wending, February 2005. For US Department of Energy.
A number of people have noted that both Iraq and Iran report significant oil reserves. The question has been raised whether the US involvement in these countries is more than coincidence, given peak oil concerns.

subset: commoncrawl


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From her humble roots as a French-language teenage pop singer to international superstardom, Canada's Céline Dion became a multi-platinum, Grammy-winning crossover success after breaking into the English-language market with heartfelt ballads that shined a spotlight on her powerful and inimitable voice. In addition to winning first prize at the 1988 Eurovision song contest, her award-winning contributions to film soundtracks helped expand her presence into the pop culture mainstream, most notably with songs like "Beauty and the Beast" from the 1991 Disney animated film and the blockbuster "My Heart Will Go On" from 1997's box office smash Titanic. Meanwhile, Dion also scored multiple Grammy awards, including Album of the Year for the 1996 Falling Into You, an international chart-topper. Alongside further hit songs like her 2003 cover of "I Drove All Night," her streak of number one albums stretched well into the next century in her native Canada, where 2019's Courage became her 14th straight studio LP to top the Billboard chart. In the meantime, her status as a beloved pop icon was further cemented with record-breaking Las Vegas residencies at Caesar,s Palace, making her one of its highest-grossing artists of all time.
Born on March 30, 1968 in Charlemagne, Quebec, Céline Marie Claudette Dion was one of 14 children in a large family that fostered a love of music. She started singing at a young age, performing at the family's piano bar and at her older brother's wedding. Pursuing her dream of becoming a singer, she wrote her first song "Ce N'etait Qu'un Rêve" (It Was Only a Dream) in 1980 with her mother and brother. Released in June 1981, the single peaked in the Top 20 of the Quebec singles chart and landed on her debut full-length La Voix Du Bon Dieu (Super Etoiles/Saisons), which was released in November of the same year. Under the guidance of producer and manager René Angélil, Dion went on to win "Top Performer" and "Best Song" at the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo and multiple Felix Awards in her native Quebec for her third effort, Tellement J'ai D'amour…, which won Best Pop Album, Newcomer of the Year, and Female Vocalist of the Year. The album was certified platinum in Canada while leaping to France, where it also became a hit. A steady stream of releases followed into the late '80s, including four studio albums, a handful of compilations, and a pair of Christmas collections, which helped her make inroads into international markets like Belgium and Switzerland.
In 1987, Dion received a full pop makeover on her eighth LP, Incognito (CBS Records). The double-platinum set spawned five hit singles and was promoted with a Canadian tour that included a multi-month residency at the Saint-Denis Theatre in Montreal. In the midst of Incognito's whirlwind success, Dion won the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, representing Switzerland with "Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi." Poised for greater international exposure, Dion finally made her move beyond her French-language Canadian releases, taking aim at the U.S. pop mainstream at the turn of the decade.
Released on Columbia Records in April 1990, Unison was Dion's first English-language album, following a concerted effort to improve her language skills and vocal training. The leap paid off and Unison was a massive success, selling more than a million copies in the U.S. and millions worldwide. In addition to singles "Have a Heart" and "Unison," the album also included Billboard hits like "The Last to Know," "(If There Was) Any Other Way," and "Where Does My Heart Beat Now," which peaked at number four on the Hot 100 and number two on the Adult Contemporary chart. Unison's performance helped Dion attract the attention of Disney and she was recruited for 1991's "Beauty and the Beast," a duet with Peabo Bryson from the animated film of the same name. Produced by Walter Afanasieff and penned by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, the ballad was a Top Ten hit, winning Dion a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.
Her second English-language album arrived in 1992. Riding the success of "Beauty and the Beast" -- included as the set's first single -- Celine Dion made confident steps away from the youthful pop of her previous releases, presenting a matured rebranding for the singer on yearning ballads and confident, R&B-inspired dance numbers. Featuring songwriting by Afanasieff, Diane Warren, and Prince, the self-titled effort entered the top 40 of the Billboard 200, eventually outselling Unison. It included hit singles "If You Asked Me To," "Nothing Broken but My Heart," and "Love Can Move Mountains." Meanwhile, away from the public eye, Dion and Angelil began a romantic relationship, which was subtly unveiled in 1993 in the liner notes of her next album (the couple would wed at the end of 1994).
Issued in November, The Colour of My Love topped charts across Europe and in Canada, entering the Top Ten in the U.S. and even Japan. It was her highest-selling effort to date with over 20-million copies sold. The Juno- and Grammy-winning album yielded romantic hits like the Clive Griffin duet "When I Fall in Love" (from the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack), U.K. chart-topper "Think Twice," and the international smash "The Power of Love," a cover of a Jennifer Rush song that went on to win the Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s). As Love became Dion's biggest album to date, she shifted focus back to her French audience with another blockbuster.
Following the release of live album À L'olympia, recorded in Paris in September 1994, Dion issued D'eux (released as The French Album in the U.S.) in 1995. The set included chart-topping singles like "Pour Que Tu E" and "Je Sais pas," which both shot to number one in France and Belgium. The album itself stayed atop the French chart for a whopping 44 weeks, becoming the best-selling French album of all time. Her months of French chart dominance came to an end in 1996 when she was toppled from the top spot by her own album, Falling Into You.
Returning to English-language output, Dion hit another career high point with Falling Into You. Surpassing the success of her previous two efforts, the LP found Dion at a peak in popularity, extending her chart dominance around the world with platinum singles like "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" and the Grammy-winning "Because You Loved Me" (from the Up Close and Personal soundtrack). Frequent collaborators Diane Warren and David Foster returned to work on the project, which won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Pop Album while becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. In support of the effort, Dion embarked on a world tour that lasted over a year, hitting spots in Asia and Australia. Mere months after the tour's final date in Switzerland, Dion returned to the top of the charts with a follow-up.
Let's Talk About Love arrived in late 1997. Afanasieff and Foster, among others, returned to produce the effort, while guests like Barbra Streisand, the Bee Gees, Luciano Pavarotti, Bryan Adams, Diana King, Brownstone, Carole King, and George Martin were enlisted for vocal duties and songwriting. In addition to hit duets "Tell Him" and "Immortality," Let's Talk About Love featured what would become Dion's signature song, "My Heart Will Go On," the James Horner-penned theme from the blockbuster film Titanic. With its unmistakable flute melody and cinematic scope, the single matched the film's cultural dominance, becoming a ubiquitous radio staple and topping charts in Canada, Europe, Australia, and the U.S. After winning an Academy Award in 1997 for Best Original Song, "My Heart Will Go On" scored a Golden Globe in 1998 before sweeping the 1999 Grammys with wins for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal, and Best Song for a Motion Picture or Television. While touring in support of Let's Talk About Love, Dion issued the holiday album These Are Special Times; a greatest-hits compilation, All the Way: A Decade of Song; and another French release, S'il Suffisait D'aimer. She capped off the decade by receiving the titles of Officer of the Order of Canada for Outstanding Contribution to the World of Contemporary Music and Officer of the National Order of Quebec. After her unbroken run of '90s chart success and international touring, Dion took a well-deserved break to focus on her family, prompted in part by a cancer diagnosis for Angelil and the 2001 birth of their first child.
Dion returned to music in 2002 with a refreshed pop sound on A New Day Has Come. Another multi-platinum chart-topper, the album was inspired by the birth of her son and the September 11th attacks, which pushed Dion to focus on love, hope, and fresh beginnings. In addition to familiar faces like Afanasieff, Christopher Neil, Ric Wake, and Guy Roche, Dion also enlisted Swedish pop producers Anders Bagge, Peer Astrom, and Arnthor Birgisson, as well as songwriters Kara DioGuardi and Corey Hart. While not as globe-conquering as her late-'90s releases, A New Day managed to yield uplifting hits like "A New Day Has Come" and "I'm Alive," a pair of sweeping tracks that highlighted her new-millennium pop confidence. Settling into this reenergized comfort zone, Dion quickly followed with 2003's One Heart, home to the urgent dance-pop single "I Drove All Night," a cover of the Roy Orbison song that was popularized by Cyndi Lauper in 1989. The rest of the album showcased this sleek, pop-friendly rebirth, hiring producers like Cathy Dennis and Max Martin, known for their work with acts like Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue. Despite the attempt at reinvention, One Heart's stylistic shift was met with criticism, becoming her lowest-selling English-language effort in over a decade. Yet, even with this seemingly commercial disappointment, the album was still certified platinum and sold over five million copies worldwide.
The mid-aughts remained relatively quiet for Dion. Taking a step back from the pop world, she entered the studio with Jean-Jacques Goldman, Erick Benzi, Jacques Veneruso, and Gildas Arzel for the folk-and-country-influenced 1 Fille & 4 Types, a surprising dip into hitherto unexplored genres for the artist that ended up being a hit for her French-language fans. A year later, she retreated to familiar adult contemporary territory on the baby-centric, multimedia collaboration with photographer Anne Geddes, Miracle, which featured Dion's covers of songs by John Lennon, Louis Armstrong, Roberta Flack, and others. 2004 also saw the release of A New Day...Live in Las Vegas, a concert recording of her multi-million-dollar, five-year residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Occupied by these live shows -- which had Dion booked for nightly performances five days a week -- she released a comprehensive greatest-hits collection, On Ne Change Pas, which compiled her French-language hits from 1981 to 2005. In 2007, after the release of another French album, D'elles -- an ambitious concept featuring songs written by French female authors -- Dion returned with a course-correcting follow-up to One Heart.
Taking Chances arrived at the end of 2007. A comeback of sorts, the LP included the set's sole hit "Taking Chances," written with Kara DioGuardi and the Eurythmics' David A. Stewart, and a cover of Heart's "Alone," reimagined with guitarist Ben Moody (ex-Evanescence). Despite being one of her lowest-selling English efforts, Taking Chances was supported with a record-breaking international tour that made stops in South Africa, China, Malaysia, and Australia, becoming one of the highest-grossing treks of all time.
Another best-of compilation, My Love: Essential Collection (which collected hits released after 1999's All the Way…), kept Dion on the charts following the conclusion of her world tour, which was commemorated on 2010's Taking Chances World Tour: The Concert, recorded in Boston and Montreal. She also signed on for a second multi-year concert residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, which had a planned run that extended into 2019. Meanwhile, she issued another French album, Sans Attendre, in late 2012. Topping charts in worldwide French markets, the effort featured duets with Johnny Hallyday ("L'amour Peut Prendre Froid"), Jean-Pierre Ferland ("Une Chance Qu'on S'a"), and Henri Salvador ("Tant de Temps"). Eleventh English album, Loved Me Back to Life, followed in 2013. In addition to the Sia-penned title track, Loved Me also included duets with Ne-Yo ("Incredible") and Stevie Wonder ("Overjoyed").
In 2014, Dion's Vegas residency and an Asia tour were abruptly halted after Angelil's health began to further deteriorate. Although her performances resumed a year later in mid-2015, they were once again halted in early 2016 with the tragic deaths of both Angelil and her brother, Daniel Dion, which came within two days of each other. A devastated Dion took time away from the spotlight for a month, returning to the stage in February.
That summer, she released Encore un Soir, an introspective set of uplifting pop that peaked at number one in Canada, France, Belgium, and Switzerland, notably becoming Dion's first French-language effort to chart on the U.S. Billboard charts. Encore was home to singles like the title track and "L'étoile," co-written by French slam poet Grand Corps Malade.
Dion returned to the world of film soundtracks in 2017. Reuniting with a property that helped break her into the American pop culture landscape over 25 years earlier, she contributed "How Does a Moment Last Forever" to Disney's live action remake of Beauty and the Beast. Composed by Alan Menken with lyrics by Tim Rice, the song topped the Quebec charts and even entered the Top Ten across Asia. In 2018, she contributed to another, though slightly more unorthodox, soundtrack: Deadpool 2. "Ashes" landed that May, accompanied by a music video starring Dion and the titular superhero that quickly went viral.
The following year, Dion released the club-friendly anthem "Flying on My Own" as the first track from her 12th English-language album, Courage. A triumph of spirit, the set showcased a revitalized Dion, who was aided by pop and electronic guests such as Sia, David Guetta, Sam Smith, and Skylar Grey, as well as LAUV and DallasK, who collaborated on the first proper single, "Imperfections." The album topped the Canadian and U.S. charts. The accompanying world tour met with numerous delays and cancellations due to both the COVID-19 pandemic and reported health issues for the singer, although some shows and a brief Las Vegas residency (Resorts World Theatre, November 2021) did take place. Dion also contributed vocals to the song "Superwoman" for Diane Warren's 2021 LP The Cave Sessions, Vol. 1. Persistent muscle spasms and an eventual diagnosis of stiff-person syndrome led to further tour cancellations in early 2022. In April, however, Dion released "Love Again," the lead single from her soundtrack to a romantic comedy/drama of the same name, which also marked her big-screen acting debut. Consisting of five original songs and six prior hits, the Love Again album was released alongside the film in May of 2023.


text: Developers who adopt the Google App Engine for their cloud computing platform today may fear data lock-in, since the only way to import or export data is using a Python-based API. Google is working on a tool to improve data exchange to improve data portability.The Google App Engine is intended to help developers build and scale applications to run on Google's infrastructure, says Peter Koomen, Google's product manager for App Engine. "It's still difficult to build Web apps," he notes.Here's why in a nutshell: a Web developer who has a bright idea has a steep ramp to climb before she can really get underway. She has to set up an infrastructure stack\u2014renting or buying servers, setting up a Web server, configuring a database engine\u2014burning up both time and money. That's before a single line of code is written. Then, when her website gets popular (see, it was a bright idea), it can't handle the load. The site needs to scale, and to do it quickly. So the developer has to burn even more time and money (under pressure) to rent or provision more infrastructure, while figuring out how to split access across multiple Web servers. It isn't an easy job.It's also a common issue. "You see this a lot with the newer social apps coming out," says Koomen. Certainly we can point to several such examples, including Twitter's scalability problems, but the need is similar for any cloud-based enterprise application. Business developers, too, need to worry about getting the right infrastructure in place and making it secure and scalable.\nGoogle App Engine, says Koomen, fixes these problems. The application developer can focus on the application, because the App Engine takes care of the infrastructure. To quote Web technologist Niall Kennedy's blog post last April explaining the then just-announced runtime environment: "Google App Engine lets any Python developer execute CGI-driven Web applications, store its results and serve static content from a fault-tolerant geo-distributed computing grid built exclusively for modern Web applications."\nSounds cool. So what's the problem?Data Lock-In\u2014or Nervous Nellie?The Google App Engine uses a data store that is... different. It's not precisely SQL, says Koomen, because the data store is built to run across multiple servers. While most developers who are familiar with SQL databases (from Microsoft SQL Server to MySQL) won't have a problem using the data store, some things aren't technically possible. "These restrictions aren't as terrible as you'd think," adds Koomen.Using Google App Engine today also requires Python, which might present a problem to developers who are more familiar with other languages\u2014whether dynamic languages like PHP and Perl, or traditional languages like Java or C#. (Personally, I don't think Python is a significant turn-off to most Web developers, but programming language preferences are passionate.)For more on Python, see You Used Python to Write What?! by Martin Aspelli, and Python Upgrades Readied for 2008.The bigger question\u2014a real one from a developer friend, which is what inspired me to call Google\u2014is whether that data store creates a lock-in, preventing data-based applications from being portable. Start-ups might worry whether their companies are less attractive to investors if they've tied themselves to a single vendor's data store. Enterprise computing professionals would worry that, on top of their concerns about any corporate data living in the cloud, they'd have information they could not easily retrieve or would have trouble migrating to another database. Or, probably more important over the long term, they might worry whether database interactions involving Google App Engine would require fancy custom programming to interoperate with in-house applications, Web services components, a service-oriented architecture or other situations in which the leg bone data must connect to the thigh bone data.\nIn its current "preview" state, the Google App Engine requires that data be stored and retrieved using a Python API called GQL, which Koomen says is as similar as possible to SQL. You can get data out of your data store only programmatically, not by copying a SQL file from one server to another.\nHowever, Koomen says Google sees this limitation, and the company has actively been soliciting input on how best to address it. In fact, that's one of the reasons Google makes preview versions available, says Koomen. "We wanted to get it out early and see what developers thought."As a result, Koomen says, Google will be releasing a tool that makes it easy to get data out of the data store without writing code. They aren't ready to go into specifics, other than it'll be available "within the next two quarters," but Koomen said the intent is to make it easy to get data out of App Engine. The new tool promises to address the data portability issue, to provide a "home brew backup" and to be "completely open," according to Koomen.This isn't the first time user input has affected the development of Google App Engine. For example, for security reasons they had to remove the Python image library from Google App Engine. (Google App Engine supports 100% of the Python language, Koomen says, and 90% of the Python libraries.) However, developers made it clear that they needed to manipulate images in the data store, such as to scale or rotate images or to create thumbnails. "So that ability is in there, now," says Koomen.\nIn the short term, developers who use App Engine don't have their data locked in. Getting data out of the App Engine data store may be awkward, or at least you should build "Darnit, I have to write that from scratch" time into the project schedule, but these limitations are temporary. That's worth knowing, certainly, because every developer adopting a new-to-her technology wants to know where the bodies are buried and where her assumptions are incorrect.Within six months, however, the data lock-in concerns\u2014and the need to write a hack\u2014in Google App Engine should go away. "We still have some ways to go," says Koomen.


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text:
Davey D: What appeared as President Obama's unexpected comments on race should be seen as calculated, while he considers NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly as the next Homeland Security Secretary
Story Transcript
JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.
Last Friday, President Obama made an unexpected appearance in the White House briefing room and discussed, of all things, race.
Now joining us to unpack what the president had to say is Davey D. Davey is a hip-hop historian, journalist, DJ, and community activist. He hosts his own radio show called Hard Knock Radio on KPFA in San Francisco, as well as other Pacifica station. And he teaches at San Francisco State. Thanks for joining us, Davey D.
DAVEY D, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Thanks for having me.
DESVARIEUX: So, Davey D, what were your impressions of the president's speech?
DAVEY D: I think it was good that he spoke about race in a little bit more personal tone. But with Obama nothing is ever off-the-cuff as he tried to portray. I don't think everything–I think what he does is always cautious and it's always calculated. And so I found myself going, hmm, what else is going on in the background? What is this really about? Because I think him as a black man already knows what's going on in terms of our community, or he should. He probably is around enough people to let him know how the room temperature is. And so when he doesn't speak, it's very calculated and very deliberate, and when he does, it's very deliberate, and it's usually designed to further a particular agenda or to keep us misdirected.
So I found myself asking what else is going on. And the reason why is because although he talked on a personal tip, he didn't really offer some solid–I wouldn't say solutions. He didn't make a commitment towards a particular path. I mean, he said stuff that I think anybody who is African-American already knows. And I don't think it was something that white folks who have an issue with race were going to pick up and suddenly come to some sort of understanding.
DESVARIEUX: Take a listen at some of the comments that the president made about his own personal experience with racial bias.
BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: There are very few African-American men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me. There are very few African-American men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator. There are very few African-Americans who haven't had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often. And I don't want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida.
DESVARIEUX: So, Davey D, the president said that he doesn't want to orchestrate this conversation about race in America. But do you think it's the president's role, and particularly an African-American president's role, to orchestrate a conversation like this in America?
DAVEY D: Well, let's kind of put things into perspective. Conversations on race have been going on for the past two centuries in this country. So, you know, to make it seem like the president is coming in and he's going to lead a conversation on race kind of–it omits a lot of history and it doesn't do service to the people who are on the ground making moves and trying to really bridge, you know, create bridges between various populations.
I think, you know, the president might have–it would have been good if the president pointed out and highlighted work that people were doing all over the country, whether it was the roundtables that they were doing in Michigan, whether or not it was the race conference that he conveniently didn't show up to in 2009 after he got elected after being pressured by AIPAC; whether or not it's the on-the-ground work that people do like Color Struck, which is a play that Donald Lacy puts together out here that talks about race; or whether it's Dr. Joey DeGruy, who talks about posttraumatic slave syndrome; or Dr. Shakti Butler, who does a couple of films that deal with race, including one that focuses specifically on racial inequities, and it has a whole bunch of folks in the film that are considered racial justice people; or whether or not it's, you know, the type of conversations that are taking place in churches all around the country on a daily basis. So I think there were points that he could have highlighted and said, let's do more of this, here are some key examples. But he just pretty much said, I'm not going to have this conversation. He bounced out of the room and left people kind kind of to their own devices.
Really what's going on with–there's a couple of things. The president's main role should be to push policy. And the fact that he's not even doing that is problematic to me. I mean, here's a guy who talks about the fact that he was being profiled and followed around. In one breath, he has people cheering, and then in the next breath, he's sitting there praising somebody like New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who's the head of stop and frisk, which is all about following people around, which is all about furthering suspicions, which is all about profiling, which is why he even had this conversation in the first place. It was because Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old, was seen as suspicious, he was followed, he was profiled, and he wound up dead. So the president needs to at the very least say, these are new policy changes that I will absolutely be pushing. In fact, I'm not going to push them; I'm going to have zero tolerance on the type of things that black and other Americans have found problematic for a very long time. So to me he just kind of kicked the can down the road.
And we're still going to have these conversations on race. Those never stop. The only–the challenge is that people who are doing this work are now kind of stuck because the president is not really pushing for particular policies. He's not highlighting the solutions that people have offered. And so we're left with this understanding that we're going to now have this conversation. The question is: with who? Is it going to be Al Sharpton? Is he going to be the person now? Or are we going to have a big speech? We're going to have a panel discussion on C-SPAN? Or are we going to really dig in deep and build off of what's already been started?
DESVARIEUX: Okay. There are some that are claiming that the conversation is now over. There's an interesting column in Politico by Roger Simon, and the headline is "Race talk over. Problem solved." How do you think those in the mainstream press have been covering the Trayvon Martin case, and particularly this whole race issue? And some people are sort of feeling like, oh, the president has spoken, now the conversation is over and we can move on from race now in public discourse. What is your impression of all this?
DAVEY D: Well, the only people that I know that would say that the race question is over and they want to move on are usually political enemies to the president, so they don't like anything that he's doing, and people that have a racial axe to pick, so to speak, and don't want to have the conversation. So I don't really give them a lot of credit and I don't really pay too much attention to them. I think the conversations about race are always ongoing, even when you feel there's racial harmony.
Me, I feel like I'm a forward-thinking person, and I'm constantly having to re-energize the type of relations I have with people from different ethnic backgrounds. I'm talking about stuff that goes beyond friendships. But how do you align yourself? How do you be a support for people who are facing challenges that are based upon race? So if I'm African American, how do I support my Latino brothers and sisters who find themselves on the front line in an immigration debate that is racially charged? How do I find myself on the front–how do I re-energize my relationship with, say, Middle Eastern Americans who may find themselves on the front line in terms of being seen as terrorist or potential terrorist and are also be surveilled? And the list goes on and on. And vice versa. They need to reinvigorate the relationships they have with the African-American community. So that's an ongoing discussion and an ongoing work in progress.
But with respect to people who say that it's time to move on, I think that's a privileged type of position that you can take. It means, like, you're not affected by these day-to-day going ons and challenges that people have, so it's no big deal for you to say, let's close up shop and keep it moving. And I would just say to folks that sooner or later that problem will be at your front stoop, so it's better to deal with it now, it's better to engage people as they're engaging in it now and be a part of a larger global community that is dealing with race head-on versus putting your head in the sand.
And I say that very deliberately. If you look around the world, you see that race is a global problem. It is something that's happening in all sectors of the world. And so we might as well really deal with it head-on. And if you don't want to, then stand out the way.
DESVARIEUX: Thanks so much for joining us, Davey D.
DAVEY D: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
DESVARIEUX: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.


text:
SYNOPSISdwww-convert [--no-path-info] type location
DESCRIPTIONdwww-convert is part of the dwww package, which provides access to on-line documentation on a Debian system via WWW. dwww-convert converts documentation to HTML so that it can be viewed with a WWW browser. dwww-convert is usually run by the WWW server, but can also be run by hand.
The type argument gives the type of the file, one of:
- file
- An arbitrary file; the type is guessed using simple heuristics based on the filename.
- dir
- A directory. If the directory contains the file index.html or index.htm that file will be returned. Otherwise, A listing of the files in the directory is generated.
- html
- An HTML file. The file is returned as is.
- man
- A manual page. The location is the pathname of the nroff source file.
- runman
- A manual page. The location is the name of the manual page and its section, separated by a slash. For example, the location would be intro/1 to refer to the intro(1) manual page.
- info
- An Info file.
- text
- A plain text file (using the ISO-8859-1 character set).
An unknown file type is treated as text.
The location argument gives the filename of the file. The name must be complete, i.e., it must start at the root directory (/). The name must not contain any symbolic links (cf. realpath(1)). The file must be located in or below a directory that has been allowed by the system administrator; see dwww(7) for more info.
The file may be compressed with gzip(1) or bzip2(1). It is uncompressed automatically and invisibly. Compression is indicated by a filename that ends in `.gz' or `.bz2'.
- --no-path-info
- Internal option used by the dwww's CGI script to let dwww-convert know, that the arguments following the option do not come from the PATH_INFO variable, but from the QUERY_STRING.
AUTHORLars Wirzenius. Modified by Robert Luberda.
See dwww(7) for copyrights and stuff.


text:
Pickwick Papers (version 3)

 CHAPTER L. HOW MR. PICKWICK SPED UPON HIS MISSION, AND HOW HE WAS REINFORCED IN THE OUTSET BY A MOST UNEXPECTED AUXILIARY

 The horses were put to, punctually at a quarter before nine next morning, and Mr. Pickwick and Sam Weller having each taken his seat, the one inside and the other out, the postillion was duly directed to repair in the first instance to Mr. Bob Sawyer's house, for the purpose of taking up Mr. Benjamin Allen.

It was with feelings of no small astonishment, when the carriage drew up before the door with the red lamp, and the very legible inscription of 'Sawyer, late Nockemorf,' that Mr. Pickwick saw, on popping his head out of the coach window, the boy in the gray livery very busily employed in putting up the shutters—the which, being an unusual and an unbusinesslike proceeding at that hour of the morning, at once suggested to his mind two inferences: the one, that some good friend and patient of Mr. Bob Sawyer's was dead; the other, that Mr. Bob Sawyer himself was bankrupt.

'What is the matter?' said Mr. Pickwick to the boy.

'Nothing's the matter, Sir,' replied the boy, expanding his mouth to the whole breadth of his countenance.

'All right, all right!' cried Bob Sawyer, suddenly appearing at the door, with a small leathern knapsack, limp and dirty, in one hand, and a rough coat and shawl thrown over the other arm. 'I'm going, old fellow.'

'You!' exclaimed Mr. Pickwick.

'Yes,' replied Bob Sawyer, 'and a regular expedition we'll make of it. Here, Sam! Look out!' Thus briefly bespeaking Mr. Weller's attention, Mr. Bob Sawyer jerked the leathern knapsack into the dickey, where it was immediately stowed away, under the seat, by Sam, who regarded the proceeding with great admiration. This done, Mr. Bob Sawyer, with the assistance of the boy, forcibly worked himself into the rough coat, which was a few sizes too small for him, and then advancing to the coach window, thrust in his head, and laughed boisterously.

'What a start it is, isn't it?' cried Bob, wiping the tears out of his eyes, with one of the cuffs of the rough coat.

'My dear Sir,' said Mr. Pickwick, with some embarrassment, 'I had no idea of your accompanying us.'

'No, that's just the very thing,' replied Bob, seizing Mr. Pickwick by the lappel of his coat. 'That's the joke.'

'Oh, that's the joke, is it?' said Mr. Pickwick.

'Of course,' replied Bob. 'It's the whole point of the thing, you know—that, and leaving the business to take care of itself, as it seems to have made up its mind not to take care of me.' With this explanation of the phenomenon of the shutters, Mr. Bob Sawyer pointed to the shop, and relapsed into an ecstasy of mirth.

'Bless me, you are surely not mad enough to think of leaving your patients without anybody to attend them!' remonstrated Mr. Pickwick in a very serious tone.

'Why not?' asked Bob, in reply. 'I shall save by it, you know. None of them ever pay. Besides,' said Bob, lowering his voice to a confidential whisper, 'they will be all the better for it; for, being nearly out of drugs, and not able to increase my account just now, I should have been obliged to give them calomel all round, and it would have been certain to have disagreed with some of them. So it's all for the best.'

There was a philosophy and a strength of reasoning about this reply, which Mr. Pickwick was not prepared for. He paused a few moments, and added, less firmly than before—

'But this chaise, my young friend, will only hold two; and I am pledged to Mr. Allen.'

'Don't think of me for a minute,' replied Bob. 'I've arranged it all; Sam and I will share the dickey between us. Look here. This little bill is to be wafered on the shop door: "Sawyer, late Nockemorf. Inquire of Mrs. Cripps over the way." Mrs. Cripps is my boy's mother. "Mr. Sawyer's very sorry," says Mrs. Cripps, "couldn't help it—fetched away early this morning to a consultation of the very first surgeons in the country—couldn't do without him—would have him at any price—tremendous operation." The fact is,' said Bob, in conclusion, 'it'll do me more good than otherwise, I expect. If it gets into one of the local papers, it will be the making of me. Here's Ben; now then, jump in!'

With these hurried words, Mr. Bob Sawyer pushed the postboy on one side, jerked his friend into the vehicle, slammed the door, put up the steps, wafered the bill on the street door, locked it, put the key in his pocket, jumped into the dickey, gave the word for starting, and did the whole with such extraordinary precipitation, that before Mr. Pickwick had well begun to consider whether Mr. Bob Sawyer ought to go or not, they were rolling away, with Mr. Bob Sawyer thoroughly established as part and parcel of the equipage.

So long as their progress was confined to the streets of Bristol, the facetious Bob kept his professional green spectacles on, and conducted himself with becoming steadiness and gravity of demeanour; merely giving utterance to divers verbal witticisms for the exclusive behoof and entertainment of Mr. Samuel Weller. But when they emerged on the open road, he threw off his green spectacles and his gravity together, and performed a great variety of practical jokes, which were calculated to attract the attention of the passersby, and to render the carriage and those it contained objects of more than ordinary curiosity; the least conspicuous among these feats being a most vociferous imitation of a key-bugle, and the ostentatious display of a crimson silk pocket-handkerchief attached to a walking-stick, which was occasionally waved in the air with various gestures indicative of supremacy and defiance.

'I wonder,' said Mr. Pickwick, stopping in the midst of a most sedate conversation with Ben Allen, bearing reference to the numerous good qualities of Mr. Winkle and his sister—'I wonder what all the people we pass, can see in us to make them stare so.'

'It's a neat turn-out,' replied Ben Allen, with something of pride in his tone. 'They're not used to see this sort of thing, every day, I dare say.'

'Possibly,' replied Mr. Pickwick. 'It may be so. Perhaps it is.'

Mr. Pickwick might very probably have reasoned himself into the belief that it really was, had he not, just then happening to look out of the coach window, observed that the looks of the passengers betokened anything but respectful astonishment, and that various telegraphic communications appeared to be passing between them and some persons outside the vehicle, whereupon it occurred to him that these demonstrations might be, in some remote degree, referable to the humorous deportment of Mr. Robert Sawyer.

'I hope,' said Mr. Pickwick, 'that our volatile friend is committing no absurdities in that dickey behind.'

'Oh dear, no,' replied Ben Allen. 'Except when he's elevated, Bob's the quietest creature breathing.'

Here a prolonged imitation of a key-bugle broke upon the ear, succeeded by cheers and screams, all of which evidently proceeded from the throat and lungs of the quietest creature breathing, or in plainer designation, of Mr. Bob Sawyer himself.

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Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Ben Allen looked expressively at each other, and the former gentleman taking off his hat, and leaning out of the coach window until nearly the whole of his waistcoat was outside it, was at length enabled to catch a glimpse of his facetious friend.

Mr. Bob Sawyer was seated, not in the dickey, but on the roof of the chaise, with his legs as far asunder as they would conveniently go, wearing Mr. Samuel Weller's hat on one side of his head, and bearing, in one hand, a most enormous sandwich, while, in the other, he supported a goodly-sized case-bottle, to both of which he applied himself with intense relish, varying the monotony of the occupation by an occasional howl, or the interchange of some lively badinage with any passing stranger. The crimson flag was carefully tied in an erect position to the rail of the dickey; and Mr. Samuel Weller, decorated with Bob Sawyer's hat, was seated in the centre thereof, discussing a twin sandwich, with an animated countenance, the expression of which betokened his entire and perfect approval of the whole arrangement.

This was enough to irritate a gentleman with Mr. Pickwick's sense of propriety, but it was not the whole extent of the aggravation, for a stage-coach full, inside and out, was meeting them at the moment, and the astonishment of the passengers was very palpably evinced. The congratulations of an Irish family, too, who were keeping up with the chaise, and begging all the time, were of rather a boisterous description, especially those of its male head, who appeared to consider the display as part and parcel of some political or other procession of triumph.

'Mr. Sawyer!' cried Mr. Pickwick, in a state of great excitement, 'Mr. Sawyer, Sir!'

'Hollo!' responded that gentleman, looking over the side of the chaise with all the coolness in life.

'Are you mad, sir?' demanded Mr. Pickwick.

'Not a bit of it,' replied Bob; 'only cheerful.'

'Cheerful, sir!' ejaculated Mr. Pickwick. 'Take down that scandalous red handkerchief, I beg. I insist, Sir. Sam, take it down.'

Before Sam could interpose, Mr. Bob Sawyer gracefully struck his colours, and having put them in his pocket, nodded in a courteous manner to Mr. Pickwick, wiped the mouth of the case-bottle, and applied it to his own, thereby informing him, without any unnecessary waste of words, that he devoted that draught to wishing him all manner of happiness and prosperity. Having done this, Bob replaced the cork with great care, and looking benignantly down on Mr. Pickwick, took a large bite out of the sandwich, and smiled.

'Come,' said Mr. Pickwick, whose momentary anger was not quite proof against Bob's immovable self-possession, 'pray let us have no more of this absurdity.'

'No, no,' replied Bob, once more exchanging hats with Mr. Weller; 'I didn't mean to do it, only I got so enlivened with the ride that I couldn't help it.'

'Think of the look of the thing,' expostulated Mr. Pickwick; 'have some regard to appearances.'

'Oh, certainly,' said Bob, 'it's not the sort of thing at all. All over, governor.'

Satisfied with this assurance, Mr. Pickwick once more drew his head into the chaise and pulled up the glass; but he had scarcely resumed the conversation which Mr. Bob Sawyer had interrupted, when he was somewhat startled by the apparition of a small dark body, of an oblong form, on the outside of the window, which gave sundry taps against it, as if impatient of admission.

'What's this?' exclaimed Mr. Pickwick.

'It looks like a case-bottle;' remarked Ben Allen, eyeing the object in question through his spectacles with some interest; 'I rather think it belongs to Bob.'

The impression was perfectly accurate; for Mr. Bob Sawyer, having attached the case-bottle to the end of the walking-stick, was battering the window with it, in token of his wish, that his friends inside would partake of its contents, in all good-fellowship and harmony.

'What's to be done?' said Mr. Pickwick, looking at the bottle. 'This proceeding is more absurd than the other.'

'I think it would be best to take it in,' replied Mr. Ben Allen; 'it would serve him right to take it in and keep it, wouldn't it?'

'It would,' said Mr. Pickwick; 'shall I?'

'I think it the most proper course we could possibly adopt,' replied Ben.

This advice quite coinciding with his own opinion, Mr. Pickwick gently let down the window and disengaged the bottle from the stick; upon which the latter was drawn up, and Mr. Bob Sawyer was heard to laugh heartily.

'What a merry dog it is!' said Mr. Pickwick, looking round at his companion, with the bottle in his hand.

'He is,' said Mr. Allen.

'You cannot possibly be angry with him,' remarked Mr. Pickwick.

'Quite out of the question,' observed Benjamin Allen.

During this short interchange of sentiments, Mr. Pickwick had, in an abstracted mood, uncorked the bottle.

'What is it?' inquired Ben Allen carelessly.

'I don't know,' replied Mr. Pickwick, with equal carelessness. 'It smells, I think, like milk-punch.'

Oh, indeed?' said Ben.

'I think so,' rejoined Mr. Pickwick, very properly guarding himself against the possibility of stating an untruth; 'mind, I could not undertake to say certainly, without tasting it.'

'You had better do so,' said Ben; 'we may as well know what it is.'

'Do you think so?' replied Mr. Pickwick. 'Well; if you are curious to know, of course I have no objection.'

Ever willing to sacrifice his own feelings to the wishes of his friend, Mr. Pickwick at once took a pretty long taste.

'What is it?' inquired Ben Allen, interrupting him with some impatience.

'Curious,' said Mr. Pickwick, smacking his lips, 'I hardly know, now. Oh, yes!' said Mr. Pickwick, after a second taste. 'It is punch.'

Mr. Ben Allen looked at Mr. Pickwick; Mr. Pickwick looked at Mr. Ben Allen; Mr. Ben Allen smiled; Mr. Pickwick did not.

'It would serve him right,' said the last-named gentleman, with some severity—'it would serve him right to drink it every drop.'

'The very thing that occurred to me,' said Ben Allen.

'Is it, indeed?' rejoined Mr. Pickwick. 'Then here's his health!' With these words, that excellent person took a most energetic pull at the bottle, and handed it to Ben Allen, who was not slow to imitate his example. The smiles became mutual, and the milk-punch was gradually and cheerfully disposed of.

'After all,' said Mr. Pickwick, as he drained the last drop, 'his pranks are really very amusing; very entertaining indeed.'

'You may say that,' rejoined Mr. Ben Allen. In proof of Bob Sawyer's being one of the funniest fellows alive, he proceeded to entertain Mr. Pickwick with a long and circumstantial account how that gentleman once drank himself into a fever and got his head shaved; the relation of which pleasant and agreeable history was only stopped by the stoppage of the chaise at the Bell at Berkeley Heath, to change horses.

'I say! We're going to dine here, aren't we?' said Bob, looking in at the window.

'Dine!' said Mr. Pickwick. 'Why, we have only come nineteen miles, and have eighty-seven and a half to go.'

'Just the reason why we should take something to enable us to bear up against the fatigue,' remonstrated Mr. Bob Sawyer.

'Oh, it's quite impossible to dine at half-past eleven o'clock in the day,' replied Mr. Pickwick, looking at his watch.

'So it is,' rejoined Bob, 'lunch is the very thing. Hollo, you sir! Lunch for three, directly; and keep the horses back for a quarter of an hour. Tell them to put everything they have cold, on the table, and some bottled ale, and let us taste your very best Madeira.' Issuing these orders with monstrous importance and bustle, Mr. Bob Sawyer at once hurried into the house to superintend the arrangements; in less than five minutes he returned and declared them to be excellent.

The quality of the lunch fully justified the eulogium which Bob had pronounced, and very great justice was done to it, not only by that gentleman, but Mr. Ben Allen and Mr. Pickwick also. Under the auspices of the three, the bottled ale and the Madeira were promptly disposed of; and when (the horses being once more put to) they resumed their seats, with the case-bottle full of the best substitute for milk-punch that could be procured on so short a notice, the key-bugle sounded, and the red flag waved, without the slightest opposition on Mr. Pickwick's part.

At the Hop Pole at Tewkesbury, they stopped to dine; upon which occasion there was more bottled ale, with some more Madeira, and some port besides; and here the case-bottle was replenished for the fourth time. Under the influence of these combined stimulants, Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Ben Allen fell fast asleep for thirty miles, while Bob and Mr. Weller sang duets in the dickey.

It was quite dark when Mr. Pickwick roused himself sufficiently to look out of the window. The straggling cottages by the road-side, the dingy hue of every object visible, the murky atmosphere, the paths of cinders and brick-dust, the deep-red glow of furnace fires in the distance, the volumes of dense smoke issuing heavily forth from high toppling chimneys, blackening and obscuring everything around; the glare of distant lights, the ponderous wagons which toiled along the road, laden with clashing rods of iron, or piled with heavy goods—all betokened their rapid approach to the great working town of Birmingham.

As they rattled through the narrow thoroughfares leading to the heart of the turmoil, the sights and sounds of earnest occupation struck more forcibly on the senses. The streets were thronged with working people. The hum of labour resounded from every house; lights gleamed from the long casement windows in the attic storeys, and the whirl of wheels and noise of machinery shook the trembling walls. The fires, whose lurid, sullen light had been visible for miles, blazed fiercely up, in the great works and factories of the town. The din of hammers, the rushing of steam, and the dead heavy clanking of engines, was the harsh music which arose from every quarter.

The postboy was driving briskly through the open streets, and past the handsome and well-lighted shops that intervene between the outskirts of the town and the Old Royal Hotel, before Mr. Pickwick had begun to consider the very difficult and delicate nature of the commission which had carried him thither.

The delicate nature of this commission, and the difficulty of executing it in a satisfactory manner, were by no means lessened by the voluntary companionship of Mr. Bob Sawyer. Truth to tell, Mr. Pickwick felt that his presence on the occasion, however considerate and gratifying, was by no means an honour he would willingly have sought; in fact, he would cheerfully have given a reasonable sum of money to have had Mr. Bob Sawyer removed to any place at not less than fifty miles' distance, without delay.

Mr. Pickwick had never held any personal communication with Mr. Winkle, senior, although he had once or twice corresponded with him by letter, and returned satisfactory answers to his inquiries concerning the moral character and behaviour of his son; he felt nervously sensible that to wait upon him, for the first time, attended by Bob Sawyer and Ben Allen, both slightly fuddled, was not the most ingenious and likely means that could have been hit upon to prepossess him in his favour.

'However,' said Mr. Pickwick, endeavouring to reassure himself, 'I must do the best I can. I must see him to-night, for I faithfully promised to do so. If they persist in accompanying me, I must make the interview as brief as possible, and be content that, for their own sakes, they will not expose themselves.'

As he comforted himself with these reflections, the chaise stopped at the door of the Old Royal. Ben Allen having been partially awakened from a stupendous sleep, and dragged out by the collar by Mr. Samuel Weller, Mr. Pickwick was enabled to alight. They were shown to a comfortable apartment, and Mr. Pickwick at once propounded a question to the waiter concerning the whereabout of Mr. Winkle's residence.

'Close by, Sir,' said the waiter, 'not above five hundred yards, Sir. Mr. Winkle is a wharfinger, Sir, at the canal, sir. Private residence is not—oh dear, no, sir, not five hundred yards, sir.' Here the waiter blew a candle out, and made a feint of lighting it again, in order to afford Mr. Pickwick an opportunity of asking any further questions, if he felt so disposed.

'Take anything now, Sir?' said the waiter, lighting the candle in desperation at Mr. Pickwick's silence. 'Tea or coffee, Sir? Dinner, sir?'

'Nothing now.'

'Very good, sir. Like to order supper, Sir?'

'Not just now.'

'Very good, Sir.' Here, he walked slowly to the door, and then stopping short, turned round and said, with great suavity—

'Shall I send the chambermaid, gentlemen?'

'You may if you please,' replied Mr. Pickwick.

'If you please, sir.'

'And bring some soda-water,' said Bob Sawyer.

'Soda-water, Sir! Yes, Sir.' With his mind apparently relieved from an overwhelming weight, by having at last got an order for something, the waiter imperceptibly melted away. Waiters never walk or run. They have a peculiar and mysterious power of skimming out of rooms, which other mortals possess not.

Some slight symptoms of vitality having been awakened in Mr. Ben Allen by the soda-water, he suffered himself to be prevailed upon to wash his face and hands, and to submit to be brushed by Sam. Mr. Pickwick and Bob Sawyer having also repaired the disorder which the journey had made in their apparel, the three started forth, arm in arm, to Mr. Winkle's; Bob Sawyer impregnating the atmosphere with tobacco smoke as he walked along.

About a quarter of a mile off, in a quiet, substantial-looking street, stood an old red brick house with three steps before the door, and a brass plate upon it, bearing, in fat Roman capitals, the words, 'Mr. Winkle.' The steps were very white, and the bricks were very red, and the house was very clean; and here stood Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Benjamin Allen, and Mr. Bob Sawyer, as the clock struck ten.

A smart servant-girl answered the knock, and started on beholding the three strangers.

'Is Mr. Winkle at home, my dear?' inquired Mr. Pickwick.

'He is just going to supper, Sir,' replied the girl.

'Give him that card if you please,' rejoined Mr. Pickwick. 'Say I am sorry to trouble him at so late an hour; but I am anxious to see him to-night, and have only just arrived.'

The girl looked timidly at Mr. Bob Sawyer, who was expressing his admiration of her personal charms by a variety of wonderful grimaces; and casting an eye at the hats and greatcoats which hung in the passage, called another girl to mind the door while she went upstairs. The sentinel was speedily relieved; for the girl returned immediately, and begging pardon of the gentlemen for leaving them in the street, ushered them into a floor-clothed back parlour, half office and half dressing room, in which the principal useful and ornamental articles of furniture were a desk, a wash-hand stand and shaving-glass, a boot-rack and boot-jack, a high stool, four chairs, a table, and an old eight-day clock. Over the mantelpiece were the sunken doors of an iron safe, while a couple of hanging shelves for books, an almanac, and several files of dusty papers, decorated the walls.

'Very sorry to leave you standing at the door, Sir,' said the girl, lighting a lamp, and addressing Mr. Pickwick with a winning smile, 'but you was quite strangers to me; and we have such a many trampers that only come to see what they can lay their hands on, that really—'

'There is not the least occasion for any apology, my dear,' said Mr. Pickwick good-humouredly.

'Not the slightest, my love,' said Bob Sawyer, playfully stretching forth his arms, and skipping from side to side, as if to prevent the young lady's leaving the room.

The young lady was not at all softened by these allurements, for she at once expressed her opinion, that Mr. Bob Sawyer was an 'odous creetur;' and, on his becoming rather more pressing in his attentions, imprinted her fair fingers upon his face, and bounced out of the room with many expressions of aversion and contempt.

Deprived of the young lady's society, Mr. Bob Sawyer proceeded to divert himself by peeping into the desk, looking into all the table drawers, feigning to pick the lock of the iron safe, turning the almanac with its face to the wall, trying on the boots of Mr. Winkle, senior, over his own, and making several other humorous experiments upon the furniture, all of which afforded Mr. Pickwick unspeakable horror and agony, and yielded Mr. Bob Sawyer proportionate delight.

At length the door opened, and a little old gentleman in a snuff-coloured suit, with a head and face the precise counterpart of those belonging to Mr. Winkle, junior, excepting that he was rather bald, trotted into the room with Mr. Pickwick's card in one hand, and a silver candlestick in the other.

'Mr. Pickwick, sir, how do you do?' said Winkle the elder, putting down the candlestick and proffering his hand. 'Hope I see you well, sir. Glad to see you. Be seated, Mr. Pickwick, I beg, Sir. This gentleman is—'

'My friend, Mr. Sawyer,' interposed Mr. Pickwick, 'your son's friend.'

'Oh,' said Mr. Winkle the elder, looking rather grimly at Bob. 'I hope you are well, sir.'

'Right as a trivet, sir,' replied Bob Sawyer.

'This other gentleman,' cried Mr. Pickwick, 'is, as you will see when you have read the letter with which I am intrusted, a very near relative, or I should rather say a very particular friend of your son's. His name is Allen.'

'That gentleman?' inquired Mr. Winkle, pointing with the card towards Ben Allen, who had fallen asleep in an attitude which left nothing of him visible but his spine and his coat collar.

Mr. Pickwick was on the point of replying to the question, and reciting Mr. Benjamin Allen's name and honourable distinctions at full length, when the sprightly Mr. Bob Sawyer, with a view of rousing his friend to a sense of his situation, inflicted a startling pinch upon the fleshly part of his arm, which caused him to jump up with a shriek. Suddenly aware that he was in the presence of a stranger, Mr. Ben Allen advanced and, shaking Mr. Winkle most affectionately by both hands for about five minutes, murmured, in some half-intelligible fragments of sentences, the great delight he felt in seeing him, and a hospitable inquiry whether he felt disposed to take anything after his walk, or would prefer waiting 'till dinner-time;' which done, he sat down and gazed about him with a petrified stare, as if he had not the remotest idea where he was, which indeed he had not.

All this was most embarrassing to Mr. Pickwick, the more especially as Mr. Winkle, senior, evinced palpable astonishment at the eccentric—not to say extraordinary—behaviour of his two companions. To bring the matter to an issue at once, he drew a letter from his pocket, and presenting it to Mr. Winkle, senior, said—

'This letter, Sir, is from your son. You will see, by its contents, that on your favourable and fatherly consideration of it, depend his future happiness and welfare. Will you oblige me by giving it the calmest and coolest perusal, and by discussing the subject afterwards with me, in the tone and spirit in which alone it ought to be discussed? You may judge of the importance of your decision to your son, and his intense anxiety upon the subject, by my waiting upon you, without any previous warning, at so late an hour; and,' added Mr. Pickwick, glancing slightly at his two companions—'and under such unfavourable circumstances.'

With this prelude, Mr. Pickwick placed four closely-written sides of extra superfine wire-wove penitence in the hands of the astounded Mr. Winkle, senior. Then reseating himself in his chair, he watched his looks and manner: anxiously, it is true, but with the open front of a gentleman who feels he has taken no part which he need excuse or palliate.

The old wharfinger turned the letter over, looked at the front, back, and sides, made a microscopic examination of the fat little boy on the seal, raised his eyes to Mr. Pickwick's face, and then, seating himself on the high stool, and drawing the lamp closer to him, broke the wax, unfolded the epistle, and lifting it to the light, prepared to read.

Just at this moment, Mr. Bob Sawyer, whose wit had lain dormant for some minutes, placed his hands on his knees, and made a face after the portraits of the late Mr. Grimaldi, as clown. It so happened that Mr. Winkle, senior, instead of being deeply engaged in reading the letter, as Mr. Bob Sawyer thought, chanced to be looking over the top of it at no less a person than Mr. Bob Sawyer himself; rightly conjecturing that the face aforesaid was made in ridicule and derision of his own person, he fixed his eyes on Bob with such expressive sternness, that the late Mr. Grimaldi's lineaments gradually resolved themselves into a very fine expression of humility and confusion.

'Did you speak, Sir?' inquired Mr. Winkle, senior, after an awful silence.

'No, sir,' replied Bob, With no remains of the clown about him, save and except the extreme redness of his cheeks.

'You are sure you did not, sir?' said Mr. Winkle, senior.

'Oh dear, yes, sir, quite,' replied Bob.

'I thought you did, Sir,' replied the old gentleman, with indignant emphasis. 'Perhaps you looked at me, sir?'

'Oh, no! sir, not at all,' replied Bob, with extreme civility.

'I am very glad to hear it, sir,' said Mr. Winkle, senior. Having frowned upon the abashed Bob with great magnificence, the old gentleman again brought the letter to the light, and began to read it seriously.

Mr. Pickwick eyed him intently as he turned from the bottom line of the first page to the top line of the second, and from the bottom of the second to the top of the third, and from the bottom of the third to the top of the fourth; but not the slightest alteration of countenance afforded a clue to the feelings with which he received the announcement of his son's marriage, which Mr. Pickwick knew was in the very first half-dozen lines.

He read the letter to the last word, folded it again with all the carefulness and precision of a man of business, and, just when Mr. Pickwick expected some great outbreak of feeling, dipped a pen in the ink-stand, and said, as quietly as if he were speaking on the most ordinary counting-house topic—

'What is Nathaniel's address, Mr. Pickwick?'

'The George and Vulture, at present,' replied that gentleman.

'George and Vulture. Where is that?'

'George Yard, Lombard Street.'

'In the city?'

'Yes.'

The old gentleman methodically indorsed the address on the back of the letter; and then, placing it in the desk, which he locked, said, as he got off the stool and put the bunch of keys in his pocket—

'I suppose there is nothing else which need detain us, Mr. Pickwick?'

'Nothing else, my dear Sir!' observed that warm-hearted person in indignant amazement. 'Nothing else! Have you no opinion to express on this momentous event in our young friend's life? No assurance to convey to him, through me, of the continuance of your affection and protection? Nothing to say which will cheer and sustain him, and the anxious girl who looks to him for comfort and support? My dear Sir, consider.'

'I will consider,' replied the old gentleman. 'I have nothing to say just now. I am a man of business, Mr. Pickwick. I never commit myself hastily in any affair, and from what I see of this, I by no means like the appearance of it. A thousand pounds is not much, Mr. Pickwick.'

'You're very right, Sir,' interposed Ben Allen, just awake enough to know that he had spent his thousand pounds without the smallest difficulty. 'You're an intelligent man. Bob, he's a very knowing fellow this.'

'I am very happy to find that you do me the justice to make the admission, sir,' said Mr. Winkle, senior, looking contemptuously at Ben Allen, who was shaking his head profoundly. 'The fact is, Mr. Pickwick, that when I gave my son a roving license for a year or so, to see something of men and manners (which he has done under your auspices), so that he might not enter life a mere boarding-school milk-sop to be gulled by everybody, I never bargained for this. He knows that very well, so if I withdraw my countenance from him on this account, he has no call to be surprised. He shall hear from me, Mr. Pickwick. Good-night, sir.—Margaret, open the door.'

All this time, Bob Sawyer had been nudging Mr. Ben Allen to say something on the right side; Ben accordingly now burst, without the slightest preliminary notice, into a brief but impassioned piece of eloquence.

'Sir,' said Mr. Ben Allen, staring at the old gentleman, out of a pair of very dim and languid eyes, and working his right arm vehemently up and down, 'you—you ought to be ashamed of yourself.'

'As the lady's brother, of course you are an excellent judge of the question,' retorted Mr. Winkle, senior. 'There; that's enough. Pray say no more, Mr. Pickwick. Good-night, gentlemen!'

With these words the old gentleman took up the candle-stick and opening the room door, politely motioned towards the passage.

'You will regret this, Sir,' said Mr. Pickwick, setting his teeth close together to keep down his choler; for he felt how important the effect might prove to his young friend.

'I am at present of a different opinion,' calmly replied Mr. Winkle, senior. 'Once again, gentlemen, I wish you a good-night.'

Mr. Pickwick walked with angry strides into the street. Mr. Bob Sawyer, completely quelled by the decision of the old gentleman's manner, took the same course. Mr. Ben Allen's hat rolled down the steps immediately afterwards, and Mr. Ben Allen's body followed it directly. The whole party went silent and supperless to bed; and Mr. Pickwick thought, just before he fell asleep, that if he had known Mr. Winkle, senior, had been quite so much of a man of business, it was extremely probable he might never have waited upon him, on such an errand.

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