Two or three evenings after Francis Ardry came to see me again, and again we went out together, and Francis Ardry took me to--shall I say?--why not?--a gaming house, where I saw people playing, and where I saw Francis Ardry play and lose five guineas, and where I lost nothing, because I did not play, though I felt somewhat inclined; for a man with a white hat and a sparkling eye held up a box which contained something which rattled, and asked me to fling the bones. "There is nothing like flinging the bones!" said he, and then I thought I should like to know what kind of thing flinging the bones was; I, however, restrained myself. "There is nothing like flinging the bones!" shouted the man, as my friend and myself left the room. Long life and prosperity to Francis Ardry! but for him I should not have obtained knowledge which I did of the strange and eccentric places of London. Some of the places to which he took me were very strange places indeed; but, however strange the places were, I observed that the inhabitants thought there were no places like their several places, and no occupations like their several occupations; and among other strange places to which Francis Ardry conducted me, was a place not far from the abbey church of Westminster. Before we entered this place our ears were greeted by a confused hubbub of human voices, squealing of rats, barking of dogs, and the cries of various other animals. Here we beheld a kind of cock-pit, around which a great many people, seeming of all ranks, but chiefly of the lower, were gathered, and in it we saw a dog destroy a great many rats in a very small period; and when the dog had destroyed the rats, we saw a fight between a dog and a bear, then a fight between two dogs, then . . . After the diversions of the day were over, my friend introduced me to the genius of the place, a small man of about five feet high, with a very sharp countenance, and dressed in a brown jockey coat, and top-boots. "Joey," said he, "this is a friend of mine." Joey nodded to me with a patronising air. "Glad to see you, sir!--want a dog?" "No," said I. "You have got one, then--want to match him?" "We have a dog at home," said I, "in the country; but I can't say I should like to match him. Indeed, I do not like dog-fighting." "Not like dog-fighting!" said the man, staring. "The truth is, Joe, that he is just come to town." "So I should think; he looks rather green--not like dog-fighting!" "Nothing like it, is there, Joey?" "I should think not; what is like it? A time will come, and that speedily, when folks will give up everything else, and follow dog-fighting." "Do you think so?" said I. "Think so? Let me ask what there is that a man wouldn't give up for it?" "Why," said I, modestly, "there's religion."