 his eyes, as he shook his fist at a beggar who wanted to
get up behind, »is one of the holiest feelings of our common nature.«
    His children heard with becoming reverence these moral precepts from the
lips of their father, and signified their acquiescence in the same, by smiles.
That he might the better feed and cherish that sacred flame of gratitude in his
breast, Mr. Pecksniff remarked that he would trouble his eldest daughter, even
in this early stage of their journey, for the brandy-bottle. And from the narrow
neck of that stone vessel, he imbibed a copious refreshment.
    »What are we?« said Mr. Pecksniff, »but coaches? Some of us are slow
coaches« -
    »Goodness, Pa!« cried Charity.
    »Some of us, I say,« resumed her parent with increased emphasis, »are, slow
coaches; some of us are fast coaches. Our passions are the horses; and rampant
animals too!« -
    »Really, Pa!« cried both the daughters at once. »How very unpleasant.«
    »And rampant animals too!« repeated Mr. Pecksniff with so much
determination, that he may be said to have exhibited, at the moment, a sort of
moral rampancy himself: »and Virtue is the drag. We start from The Mother's
Arms, and we run to The Dust Shovel.«
    When he had said this, Mr. Pecksniff, being exhausted, took some further
refreshment. When he had done that, he corked the bottle tight, with the air of
a man who had effectually corked the subject also; and went to sleep for three
stages.
    The tendency of mankind when it falls asleep in coaches, is to wake up
cross; to find its legs in its way; and its corns an aggravation. Mr. Pecksniff
not being exempt from the common lot of humanity, found himself, at the end of
his nap, so decidedly the victim of these infirmities, that he had an
irresistible inclination to visit them upon his daughters; which he had already
begun to do in the shape of divers random kicks, and other unexpected motions of
his shoes, when the coach stopped, and after a short delay, the door was opened.
    »Now mind,« said a thin sharp voice in the dark. »I and my son go inside,
because the roof is full, but you agree only to charge us outside prices. It's
quite understood that we won't pay more. Is it?«
    »All right, sir,«
