Vun day the lawyer come to make his vill; all the time he wos a takin’ it down, Jinkinson was secretly a clippin’ avay at his hair vith a large pair of scissors. ‘Wot’s that ’ere snippin’ noise?’ says the lawyer every now and then, ‘it’s like a man havin’ his hair cut.’ ‘It _is_ wery like a man havin’ his hair cut,’ says poor Jinkinson, hidin’ the scissors and lookin’ quite innocent. By the time the lawyer found it out, he was wery nearly bald. Jinkinson was kept alive in this vay for a long time, but at last vun day he has in all the children, vun arter another, shaves each on ’em wery clean, and gives him vun kiss on the crown of his head; then he has in the two assistants, and arter cuttin’ and curlin’ of ’em in the first style of elegance, says he should like to hear the woice o’ the greasiest bear, vich rekvest is immedetly complied with; then he says that he feels wery happy in his mind, and vishes to be left alone; and then he dies, prevously cuttin’ his own hair, and makin’ one flat curl in the wery middle of his forehead.” {18a} There is a great deal more in the same vein, not unworthy of the “Pickwick Papers.” We must leave the curious reader to find it out, however, for himself. During the progress of this publication, it seems that certain officious persons, mistaking it for a kind of _omnium gatherum_, by “several hands,” tendered contributions to its pages, and the author was compelled to issue the following advertisement: MASTER HUMPHREY’S CLOCK. MR. DICKENS begs to inform all those Ladies and Gentlemen who have tendered him contributions for this work, and all those who may now or at any future time have it in contemplation to do so, that he cannot avail himself of their obliging offers, as it is written solely by himself, and cannot possibly include any productions from other hands. This announcement will serve for a final answer to all correspondents, and will render any private communications unnecessary. After “winding up his Clock,” as he termed it, Dickens resolved to make a tour in the United States. Before he went away, however, some of the most distinguished citizens of Edinburgh gave him a farewell banquet. {18b} He was then only twenty-nine years of age, and this was the first great public recognition of his genius, and the first occasion that was afforded him of displaying his powers as a public speaker. Professor Wilson (Christopher North) presided, and spoke of the young author in the following terms:—