"I don't want to hurt her feelings," said Dick, yielding to his wife's influence. "But there, you're trying to come the soft on me again, as you always do, and I won't have it. Now be off." "Yes, Dick--I'm going," she said quickly, as she put on her bonnet and shawl. "But I know you won't be unkind." "Won't I?" said Dick, as the door closed. "I'll show some of them yet! I can be a regular savage when I like--can't I, Jack?" "Please, what did you say, master?" whined the boy. "I can be a regular savage when I like--can't I?" shouted Dick. "Yes, master.--Please, master, I'm so hungry." "So what?" "So hungry, please, master." "Hungry? Why, the boy's mad!" cried Dick, looking up in mock astonishment. "How dare you, sir? Hungry, indeed! There, take that wax-out of your mouth. You're always trying to ruin me by eating the wax or chewing leather." "I can't help it, master," said the boy. "Please, I'm so hungry." "Hungry!" exclaimed Dick, with mock heroic diction. "Brought up, too, as you were, at one of the first workhouses in the kingdom!" "Please, master, I can't help it," said the boy. "I feel so hollow inside." "Hollow? Nonsense, sir! It's bad tendencies, or desire for gluttony and wine-bibbing. And after I've been such a good master to you!" "Yes, master; and I'll never, never, never--" "`Never, never, never shall be slaves,'" sang Dick, in his musical tenor voice. "But don't you say that, Jack, my boy; because if you keep on running out of your trousers as you do, and looking like something growing out of two beans, which is your boots, and then joining in the middle and running up to a head, I sha'n't want you, specially if you're going to be hollow, and want filling out." "But I don't want filling out, master, only just a little sometimes. I can't help feeling hollow, and as if something was gnawing me." "Gnawing? Yes, that's it," cried Dick. "I always told you so. That's it. You will devour your food in such a way that it don't digest; and that's what you feel, sir--gnawing pains. There, fix up them bristles. You ain't hungry." "It feels very much like as I used to feel at the House, master," said the boy. "We all of us used to feel hollow there sometimes on rice days. I can't help it, please." "Now, look ye here, my fine fellow, it won't do, so I tell you. I'm your master, ain't I?" "Yes, please," said the boy, making a scoop with his hand. "Leave off! I won't have it!" cried Dick. "You ain't to bow to me. I say as your master I ought to know best, and I say you ain't hungry; and, look here, don't you chew wax and leather any more, because they're my property, and you'll be tempted to swallow them, when it will not only be petty larceny, but they'll disagree with you. Now, go on sorting out the best o' them bits o' leather." "Yes, master," said the boy.