JONES MINIMUS passes, laden with tarts.
Duval.--Hullo! you small boy with the tarts! Come here, sir. Jones
Minimus.--Please, Duval, they ain't mine. Duval.--Oh, you abominable
young story-teller. [He confiscates the goods.
I think I like young Duval's mode of levying contributions better than
Bullock's. The former's, at least, has the merit of more candor. Duval
is the pirate of Birch's, and lies in wait for small boys laden with
money or provender. He scents plunder from afar off: and pounces out on
it. Woe betide the little fellow when Duval boards him!
There was a youth here whose money I used to keep, as he was of
an extravagant and weak taste; and I doled it out to him in weekly
shillings, sufficient for the purchase of the necessary tarts. This boy
came to me one day for half a sovereign, for a very particular purpose,
he said. I afterwards found he wanted to lend the money to Duval.
The young ogre burst out laughing, when in a great wrath and fury I
ordered him to refund to the little boy: and proposed a bill of exchange
at three months. It is true Duval's father does not pay the Doctor, and
the lad never has a shilling, save that which he levies; and though he
is always bragging about the splendor of Freenystown, Co. Cork, and
the fox-hounds his father keeps, and the claret they drink there--there
comes no remittance from Castle Freeny in these bad times to the honest
Doctor; who is a kindly man enough, and never yet turned an insolvent
boy out of doors.