 will you give me your opinion?«
    Mrs. Micawber pronounced it excellent.
    »Then I will drink,« said Mr. Micawber, »if my friend Copperfield will
permit me to take that social liberty, to the days when my friend Copperfield
and myself were younger, and fought our way in the world side by side. I may
say, of myself and Copperfield, in words we have sung together before now, that
 
We twa' hae run about the braes
And pu'd the gowans fine
 
- in a figurative point of view - on several occasions. I am not exactly aware,«
said Mr. Micawber, with the old roll in his voice, and the old indescribable air
of saying something genteel, »what gowans may be, but I have no doubt that
Copperfield and myself would frequently have taken a pull at them, if it had
been feasible.«
    Mr. Micawber, at the then present moment, took a pull at his punch. So we
all did: Traddles evidently lost in wondering at what distant time Mr. Micawber
and I could have been comrades in the battle of the world.
    »Ahem!« said Mr. Micawber, clearing his throat, and warming with the punch
and with the fire. »My dear, another glass?«
    Mrs. Micawber said it must be very little; but we couldn't allow that, so it
was a glassful.
    »As we are quite confidential here, Mr. Copperfield,« said Mrs. Micawber,
sipping her punch, »Mr. Traddles being a part of our domesticity, I should much
like to have your opinion on Mr. Micawber's prospects. For corn,« said Mrs.
Micawber argumentatively, »as I have repeatedly said to Mr. Micawber, may be
gentlemanly, but it is not remunerative. Commission to the extent of two and
ninepence in a fortnight cannot, however limited our ideas, be considered
remunerative.«
    We were all agreed upon that.
    »Then,« said Mrs. Micawber, who prided herself on taking a clear view of
things, and keeping Mr. Micawber straight by her woman's wisdom, when he might
otherwise go a little crooked, »then I ask myself this question. If corn is not
to be relied upon, what is? Are coals to be relied upon? Not at all. We have
turned our attention to that experiment, on the suggestion of my family, and we
find it fallacious.«
    Mr. Micawber, leaning back in his chair with his hands in his pockets, eyed
us aside, and
