'Do you hear me?
Go to bed!' 'I hear you, and defy you, Varden,' rejoined Simon Tappertit.

'This night, sir, I have been in the country, planning an expedition which shall fill your bell-hanging soul with wonder and dismay.

The plot demands my utmost energy.

Let me pass!' 'I'll knock you down if you come near the door,' replied the locksmith.
'You had better go to bed!' Simon made no answer, but gathering himself up as straight as he could, plunged head foremost at his old master, and the two went driving out into the workshop together, plying their hands and feet so briskly that they looked like half-a-dozen, while Miggs and Mrs Varden screamed for twelve.
It would have been easy for Varden to knock his old 'prentice down, and bind him hand and foot; but as he was loth to hurt him in his then defenceless state, he contented himself with parrying his blows when he could, taking them in perfect good part when he could not, and keeping between him and the door, until a favourable opportunity should present itself for forcing him to retreat up-stairs, and shutting him up in his own room.

But, in the goodness of his heart, he calculated too much upon his adversary's weakness, and forgot that drunken men who have lost the power of walking steadily, can often run.