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Although nobody seemed to know who or what the Steeles were, and they certainly lived very oddly in the old house at the lower end of Whiffle Street, Janet was so likable, and her invalid mother was evidently so much of a gentlewoman, that Laura and her chum had vouched for Janet and declared her to be "all right."
One of the party was a little red faced gentleman, Peregrine Whiffle, Esquire, by name who, in Jamaica parlance, was designated an extraordinary master in Chancery; the overseer of the pen, or breeding farm, in the great house as it is called, or mansionhouse of which Mr Fyall resided, and a merry, laughing, intelligent, round, red faced man, with a sort of Duncan Knockdunder nose, through the wide nostrils of which you could see a cable's length into his head; he was either Fyall's head clerk, or a sort of first lieutenant; these personages and myself composed the party.
"Select" represented Miss Whiffle's brazen mean of morality; and, indeed, it is an elastic and accommodating word. One, for instance, may select an aged gander for its wisdom, knowing that the youthful gosling is proverbially "green." Miss Whiffle selected the aged gander for me, and I gnawed its sinewy limbs without a protest.
Now this Pearl was no other than the seaman who pulled the stroke oar in the gig; a very handsome negro, and the man who afterwards forked Whiffle out of the water tall, powerful, and muscular, and altogether one of the best men in the ship. The rest of the boat's crew, from his complexion, had fastened the sobriquet of the clergyman on him. "Call the clergyman."
But we found out from Whiffle, whom we met in town, and who had learned it from the guard of the North mail, that one of the last season's pots was still on hand at Biggleswade; so down we trundled in the mail that very evening." "And don't you remember the awful cold I caught that night, being obliged to go outside?" quoth Waggy. "Ah, and so you did, my dear fellow," continued his ally.
To whiffle = to hesitate; waver; prevaricate. cf. p. 279 Bulkers. Whores. cf. Shadwell, Amorous Widow , Act iii: 'Her mother sells fish and she is little better than a bulker. A bulker was the lowest class of prostitute. cf.
The critics scold, and whiffle, and dispute about it, but on the whole it is a success, so the "Times" says, with much coughing, hemming, and standing first on one foot and then on the other. If the "Times" were sure we should beat in the next election, "Dred" would go up in the scale; but as long as there is that uncertainty, it has first one line of praise, and then one of blame.
The choir raised a wailing chant for the dead, but the group by the haystack did not move. Occasionally they came back, after talking about seeding and the price of hogs, to the discussion of the dead man's affairs. "I s'pose his property will go to Emmy and Serry, half and half." "I expec' so. He always said so, an' John wa'n't a man to whiffle about every day."
Nobody can use his fists without being taught the use of them by those who have themselves been taught, no more than any one can "whiffle" without being taught by a master of the art. Now let any man of the present day try to whiffle. Would not any one who wished to whiffle have to go to a master of the art? Assuredly! but where would he find one at the present day?
He was going on with an eulogium upon the captain, when I received a message to clean myself, and go up to the great cabin: and with this command I instantly complied, sweetening myself with rosewater from the medicine chest. When I entered the room, I was ordered to stand by the door, until Captain Whiffle had reconnoitered me at a distance with a spy-glass.
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