parent, "do you vant a licking the first thing this morning?"
"No," answered the boy, in as irreverent a voice as ever filial throat cast up.
"Then don't wex me, my boy, or you'll catch it at once."
And he did "catch it at once." I was still looking intently upon Mr Levy's curious trappings, when a loud blow, followed by a louder scream, compelled my attention elsewhere.
"Vot's the matter now?" shouted Mr Levy, almost beside himself.
"That sarves you right," exclaimed his good lady, addressing the juvenile above referred to, now lying at her feet, and kicking furiously. "I caught you, did I? My back isn't turned a minute before the villain has picked off every bit of brown in the dish. You won't maul the fish, my dear, again in a hurry."
All the family seemed horror-struck at the unholy pilfering, but Mr Levy himself was choked with just rage. "If you don't take away the rascal's share to-morrow morning, Hannah, you and I shall quarrel. Dat boy, Mr Shtukely," continued he, still neglecting his orisons, "dat boy, sir, vill come to the gallows, if his mother and I don't live to see it. He has got a nateral idea of shtealing that breaks my heart to think of. He's booked for Newgate, though I say it:"—and Mr Levy, with a heavy sigh, pursued his prayers, and did not speak again on worldly topics till he brought them to a close. Once more in ecstasy he wiped his visage with the fringes, and kissed them passionately; and, last of all, he turned his face towards the wall, bowed to it with reverence repeatedly, and beat his breast with force and sound that would have pleased a stethescopist's ear.
"You have nothing to say pertikler, I suppose?" asked Mr Levy, taking from his head and arm the leathern straps.
"A few words, if you please," I answered nervously.
"Oh, sartinly, my dear. Ikey, undo the shutters."
Ikey, the eldest boy, reserved and silent hitherto, furbishing his buttons, looked hard at me, and left the room without a word.
"We'll follow, if you please," said Levy shortly afterwards; "it's up the vone pair stairs."
"Vat do you think of Ikey?" asked the fond father, as we searched our way in darkness up the staircase.
"He's a very quiet boy, sir."
"Ah, a deep un! Just vot I should have been at his age with a eddication! I meant to have named him after me, if it hadn't been 'gainst the religious. Vill you believe, I vould'nt mind dropping Ikey this blessed minute in the streets of Turkey? He'd make his fortune anyvheres."
We reached the sanctum, a small and really elegantly furnished room. From the centre was suspended a pretty silvered chandelier—a Sabbath lamp, as Mr Levy termed it. Young Ikey had ensconsced himself at the table, and showed no symptoms of departure.
"And now," said Mr Levy, placing on his nose a pair of iron spectacles, "vot is it you vant, my dear? You don't happen to be out of wine? I've got some port—oh!" (and he smacked his lips and swung his head, to express a praise too huge for utterance.) "Dat isn't good port at all, Ikey, is it? Vot did it cost?"
"Fifty-nine and six," answered the boy-man immediately.
"And vot do I sell it for?"
"Sixty," said he, just as readily.
"I came, sir," said I, rather confounded as the time for explanation approached, "to solicit your aid in a different way. The truth is, I have overdrawn my allowance from home, and I require a little help to carry me over the quarter. If you will be good enough to advance me a loan—say for three months—I shall feel deeply indebted to you, and but too glad to show, to the extent of my power, my gratitude for such obligation." This was only a portion of the speech that I had prepared upon the road. The rest of it, the ornamental and best part, I could not get out. The small Levy turned up his knowing eye as soon as he heard the word loan, and planted it steadily upon me, to my very great shame and annoyance. The father was silent a while.
"How much might you vant, Mr Shtukely?" asked the old man, after his musing.
"What's the use of your asking?" shrieked the young monster. "You know, father, you haven't a shilling in the house, and there are those three bills that were returned the other day.'
