human
Respecting this same boarding and lodging, Young Master Wilding,
gpt
Yes, Joey?
human
Speaking for myself, Young Master Wilding--and I never did speak and I never do speak for no one else--_I_ don't want no boarding nor yet no lodging. But if you wish to board me and to lodge me, take me. I can peck as well as most men. Where I peck ain't so high a object with me as What I peck. Nor even so high a object with me as How Much I peck. Is all to live in the house, Young Master Wilding? The two other cellarmen, the three porters, the two 'prentices, and the odd men?
gpt
Yes. I hope we shall all be an united family, Joey.
human
Ah! said Joey.
gpt
I hope they may be.
human
They? Rather say we, Joey.
gpt
Don't look to me to make we on it, Young Master Wilding, not at my time of life and under the circumstances which has formed my disposition. I have said to Pebbleson Nephew many a time, when they have said to me, 'Put a livelier face upon it, Joey'--I have said to them, 'Gentlemen, it is all wery well for you that has been accustomed to take your wine into your systems by the conwivial channel of your throttles, to put a lively face upon it; but,' I says, 'I have been accustomed to take _my_ wine in at the pores of the skin, and, took that way, it acts different. It acts depressing. It's one thing, gentlemen,' I says to Pebbleson Nephew, 'to charge your glasses in a dining-room with a Hip Hurrah and a Jolly Companions Every One, and it's another thing to be charged yourself, through the pores, in a low dark cellar and a mouldy atmosphere. It makes all the difference betwixt bubbles and wapours,' I tells Pebbleson Nephew. And so it do. I've been a cellarman my life through, with my mind fully given to the business. What's the consequence? I'm as muddled a man as lives--you won't find a muddleder man than me--nor yet you won't find my equal in molloncolly. Sing of Filling the bumper fair, Every drop you sprinkle, O'er the brow of care, Smooths away a wrinkle? Yes. P'raps so. But try filling yourself through the pores, underground, when you don't want to it!
human
I am sorry to hear this, Joey. I had even thought that you might join a singing-class in the house.
gpt
Me, sir? No, no, Young Master Wilding, you won't catch Joey Ladle muddling the Armony. A pecking-machine, sir, is all that I am capable of proving myself, out of my cellars; but that you're welcome to, if you think it is worth your while to keep such a thing on your premises.
human
I do, Joey.
gpt
Say no more, sir. The Business's word is my law. And you're a going to take Young Master George Vendale partner into the old Business?
human
I am, Joey.
gpt
More changes, you see! But don't change the name of the Firm again. Don't do it, Young Master Wilding. It was bad luck enough to make it Yourself and Co. Better by far have left it Pebbleson Nephew that good luck always stuck to. You should never change luck when it's good, sir.
human
At all events, I have no intention of changing the name of the House again, Joey.
gpt
Glad to hear it, and wish you good-day, Young Master Wilding. But you had better by half, muttered Joey Ladle inaudibly, as he closed the door and shook his head,