310 POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF
by means of an oyster-knife and a half-quartern loaf, to the great edifi- cation of the assembled company. Then the whole train went to church, where Mr. Benjamin Allen fell fast asleep ; while Mr. Bob Sawyer abstracted his thoughts from worldly matters, by the ingenious process of carving his name on the seat of the pew, in corpulent letters of about four inches long.
" Now," said Wardle, after a substantial lunch, with the agreeable items of strong-beer and cherry-brandy, had been done ample justice to ;
- ' what say you to an hour on the ice ? We shall have plenty of
time."
" Capital !" said Mr. Benjamin Allen.
"Prime !" ejaculated Mr. Bob Sawyer.
- ' You skait, of course. Winkle ?" said Wardle.
•'* Ye—yes ; oh, yes ;" replied Mr. Winkle. " I — I — am rather out of practice."
" Oh, do skait, Mr. Winkle," said Arabella. " I like to see it so much."
" Oh, it is so graceful," said another young lady.
A third young lady said it was elegant, and a fourth expressed her opinion that it was " swan-like."
" I should be very happy, I'm sure," said Mr. Winkle, reddening ; " but I have no skaits."
This objection was at once overruled. Trundle had got a couple of pair, and the fat boy announced that there were half-a-dozen more, down stairs, whereat Mr. Winkle expressed exquisite delight, and looked exquisitely uncomfortable.
Old Wardle led the way to a pretty large sheet of ice ; and the fat boy and Mr. Weller, having shovelled and swept away the snow which had fallen on it during the night, Mr. Bob Sawyer adjusted his skaits with a dexterity which to Mr. Winkle was perfectly marvellous, and described circles with his left leg, and cut figures of eight; and inscribed upon the ice, without once stopping for breath, a great many other pleasant and astonishing devices, to the excessive satisfaction of Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Tupman, and the ladies; which reached a pitch of positive enthusiasm, when old Wardle and Benjamin Allen, assisted by the afore- said Bob Sawyer, performed some muystic evolutions, which they called a reel.
All this time, Mr. Winkle, with his face and hands blue with the cold, had been forcing a gimlet into the soles of his feet, and putting his skaits on, with the points behind, and getting the straps into a very complicated and entangled state, with the assistance of Mr. Snodgrass, who knew rather less about skaits t!han a Hindoo. At length, however, with the assistance of Mr. Weller, the unfortunate skaits were firmly screwed and buckled on, and Mr. Winkle was raised to his feet.
" Now, then. Sir," said Sam, in an encouraging tone ; " off vith you, and show 'em bow to do it."
- ' Stop, Sam, stop," said Mr. Winkle, trembling violently, and clutch-
ing hold of Sam's arms with the grasp of a drowning man. " How slippery it is, Sam I "
