, if it would be at all agreeable to Miss
Summerson; and consequently I esteem it a privilege to do that young lady any
service, however small. We are naturally in the vagabond way here, sir, both
myself and Phil. You see what the place is. You are welcome to a quiet corner of
it for the boy, if the same would meet your views. No charge made, except for
rations. We are not in a flourishing state of circumstances here, sir. We are
liable to be tumbled out neck and crop, at a moment's notice. However, sir, such
as the place is, and so long as it lasts, here it is at your service.«
    With a comprehensive wave of his pipe, Mr. George places the whole building
at his visitor's disposal.
    »I take it for granted, sir,« he adds, »you being one of the medical staff,
that there is no present infection about this unfortunate subject?«
    Allan is quite sure of it.
    »Because, sir,« says Mr. George, shaking his head sorrowfully, »we have had
enough of that.«
    His tone is no less sorrowfully echoed by his new acquaintance. »Still I am
bound to tell you,« observes Allan, after repeating his former assurance, »that
the boy is deplorably low and reduced; and that he may be - I do not say that he
is - too far gone to recover.«
    »Do you consider him in present danger, sir?« inquires the trooper.
    »Yes, I fear so.«
    »Then, sir,« returns the trooper, in a decisive manner, »it appears to me -
being naturally in the vagabond way myself - that the sooner he comes out of the
street, the better. You Phil! Bring him in!«
    Mr. Squod tacks out, all on one side, to execute the word of command; and
the trooper, having smoked his pipe, lays it by. Jo is brought in. He is not one
of Mrs. Pardiggle's Tockahoopo Indians; he is not one of Mrs. Jellyby's lambs,
being wholly unconnected with Borrioboola-Gha; he is not softened by distance
and unfamiliarity; he is not a genuine foreign-grown savage; he is the ordinary
home-made article. Dirty, ugly, disagreeable to all the senses, in body a common
creature of the common streets, only in soul a heathen. Homely filth begrimes
him, homely parasites devour him, homely sores are in him