Roundabout Papers - Penn State University

Thackeraysons, now unsubstantial ghosts. There at the end of theroom was Hood. Some publishers, I think, were our companions.I quite remember his pale face; he was thinand deaf, and very silent; he scarcely opened his lipsduring the dinner, and he made one pun. Some gentlemanmissed his snuff-box, and Hood said,—(the Freemasons’Tavern was kept, you must remember, by Mr.Cuff in those days, not by its present proprietors). Well,the box being lost, and asked for, and Cuff (rememberthat name) being the name of the landlord, Hood openedhis silent jaws and said * * * Shall I tell you what hesaid? It was not a very good pun, which the great punsterthen made. Choose your favorite pun out of “Whimsand Oddities,” and fancy that was the joke which hecontributed to the hilarity of our little table.Where those asterisks are drawn on the page, you mustknow, a pause occurred, during which I was engagedwith “Hood’s Own,” having been referred to the bookby this life of the author which I have just been reading.I am not going to dissert on Hood’s humor; I amnot a fair judge. Have I not said elsewhere that thereare one or two wonderfully old gentlemen still alivewho used to give me tips when I was a boy? I can’t be afair critic about them. I always think of that sovereign,that rapture of raspberry-tarts, which made my youngdays happy. Those old sovereign-contributors may tellstories ever so old, and I shall laugh; they may commitmurder, and I shall believe it was justifiable homicide.There is my friend Baggs, who goes about abusing me,and of course our dear mutual friends tell me. Abuseaway, mon bon! You were so kind to me when I wantedkindness, that you may take the change out of thatgold now, and say I am a cannibal and negro, if youwill. Ha, Baggs! Dost thou wince as thou readest thisline? Does guilty conscience throbbing at thy breasttell thee of whom the fable is narrated? Puff out thywrath, and, when it has ceased to blow, my Baggs shallbe to me as the Baggs of old—the generous, the gentle,the friendly.No, on second thoughts, I am determined I will notrepeat that joke which I heard Hood make. He says hewrote these jokes with such ease that he sent manu-81