_Tickle._ And ’specially, too, when Mr Wakby said there was so many Jews who’d be delighted to take the post o’ Sundays, and be ’specially delighted to take the money for it. [Illustration] CHAPTER IV. _Enter =Peabody= (Policeman)._ _Nutts._ Well, I’m glad somebody’s come. Thought all the beards had gone out of town. Just as you come, was thinking of shuttin’ up shop and goin’ myself. Never saw the Dials so dull, Mr Peabody. There isn’t a back pair that isn’t at a watering-place. _Slowgoe._ (_With newspaper._) Watering-place! Pretty goings on there, I think. Here’s a letter taken from the _Times_, when the gentleman as writes says, “Ramsgate’s shocking. Ladies bathing with no more thought than if they was mermaids; and chairs let out at a penny a piece, for an enlightened public to sit--as if they was in the opera stalls--to look at ’em.” _Nutts._ Bless my soul! Where did you say? _Slowgoe._ At Ramsgate. _Nutts._ You may go on. Mrs Nutts is at Margate. _Slowgoe._ And the gen’leman says in his letter that the young ladies dance polkas and waltzes in their bathing-gowns; and dance and scream the more for the people looking at ’em. _Peabody._ Where’s the police? _Slowgoe._ That’s what the gen’leman asks. Where’s the police to put ’em down? Where’s the police to warn ’em back to the machines? _Tickle._ Why not have a coast-guard with indy-rubber uniforms, to run into the water, and take the ladies up, and make an example of the ring-leaders? _Nutts._ I don’t know how it is, I’ve often thought of it; but somehow--I’ve observed the circumstance to Mrs Nutts--somehow the female mind seems to gain courage at watering-places. A young thing that won’t raise a eyelid in London, will meet you like the full moon at the seaside. _Tickle._ Well, I’ve often thought of that too. Somehow or other the sea air does harden ’em. Now, Mr Peabody, you who was a schoolmaster afore you was a policeman, can you, who knows everything--can you explain it? _Peabody._ Why, the female mind is naturally susceptible---- _Nutts._ That’s what Mrs Nutts said, when on one occasion she _would_ have a pint of peas at five shillings. _Peabody._ And sympathises with external nature. The female mind, too, often confined to the limits of a slop-basin, feels itself grow and expand in presence of the universal deep. A woman who may be no better than a doll in London, shall be a first-rate philosopher at Broadstairs. _Nutts._ Humph! Like young ducks; don’t know all their strength till they take to the water. _Peabody._ But it all goes off with the season. _Nutts._ I’m glad of that. Mrs Nutts, as you know, is a woman of strong mind; nevertheless, she must come back to the slop-basin.