"Dickens, Charles - The Haunted Man And The Ghost's Bargain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickens Charles)

many of us Swidgers! - Pepper. Why there's my father, sir,
superannuated keeper and custodian of this Institution, eighty-
seven year old. He's a Swidger! - Spoon."

"True, William," was the patient and abstracted answer, when he
stopped again.

"Yes, sir," said Mr. Swidger. "That's what I always say, sir. You
may call him the trunk of the tree! - Bread. Then you come to his
successor, my unworthy self - Salt - and Mrs. William, Swidgers
both. - Knife and fork. Then you come to all my brothers and their
families, Swidgers, man and woman, boy and girl. Why, what with
cousins, uncles, aunts, and relationships of this, that, and
t'other degree, and whatnot degree, and marriages, and lyings-in,
the Swidgers - Tumbler - might take hold of hands, and make a ring
round England!

Receiving no reply at all here, from the thoughtful man whom he
addressed, Mr. William approached, him nearer, and made a feint of
accidentally knocking the table with a decanter, to rouse him. The
moment he succeeded, he went on, as if in great alacrity of
acquiescence.

"Yes, sir! That's just what I say myself, sir. Mrs. William and
me have often said so. 'There's Swidgers enough,' we say, 'without
OUR voluntary contributions,' - Butter. In fact, sir, my father is
a family in himself - Castors - to take care of; and it happens all
for the best that we have no child of our own, though it's made
Mrs. William rather quiet-like, too. Quite ready for the fowl and
mashed potatoes, sir? Mrs. William said she'd dish in ten minutes
when I left the Lodge."

"I am quite ready," said the other, waking as from a dream, and
walking slowly to and fro.

"Mrs. William has been at it again, sir!" said the keeper, as he
stood warming a plate at the fire, and pleasantly shading his face
with it. Mr. Redlaw stopped in his walking, and an expression of
interest appeared in him.

"What I always say myself, sir. She WILL do it! There's a
motherly feeling in Mrs. William's breast that must and will have
went."

"What has she done?"

"Why, sir, not satisfied with being a sort of mother to all the
young gentlemen that come up from a variety of parts, to attend
your courses of lectures at this ancient foundation - its
surprising how stone-chaney catches the heat this frosty weather,