Sponge, but he felt more equal to cope with him--he even felt as
if he could fight him. There did not, however, seem to be much likelihood
of his having to perform that ceremony, for nine o'clock struck and no Mr.
Sponge, and at half-past Mr. Crowdey stumped off to bed.
Mrs. Crowdey, having given Bartholomew and Susan a dirty pack of cards to
play with to keep them awake till Mr. Sponge arrived, went to bed, too, and
the house was presently tranquil.
It, however, happened that that amazing prodigy, Gustavus James, having
been out on a sort of eleemosynary excursion among the neighbouring farmers
and people, exhibiting as well his fine blue-feathered hat, as his
astonishing proficiency in 'Bah! bah! black sheep,' and 'Obin and Ichard,'
getting seed-cake from one, sponge cake from another, and toffy from a
third, was troubled with a very bad stomach-ache during the night, of
which he soon made the house sensible by his screams and his cries. Jog and
his wife were presently at him; and, as Jog sat in his white cotton
nightcap and flowing flannel dressing-gown in an easy chair in the nursery,
he heard the crack of the whip, and the prolonged _yeea-yu-u-p_ of Mr.
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