OLD FISHERMAN PEGGOTTY, HAM PEGGOTTY, DAVID COPPERFIELD.

OLD FISHERMAN PEGGOTTY, HAM PEGGOTTY, DAVID COPPERFIELD.

Old Peggotty gets up to greet him.

She's gone! Peggotty.

Where are you going, Mr. Peggotty? Peggotty.I'm a goin' to seek fur my little Em'ly.

Where are you going, Mr. Peggotty? Peggotty.I'm a goin' to seek fur my little Em'ly.

Peggotty and Mrs. Steerforth are admirably drawn and contrasted.

Mrs. Gummidge's thoughtful care of Peggotty exhibits Dickens's fine perception of the self-sacrificing spirit among the very poor.

The first things that assume shape and form in the recollections of my childhood are my mother, with her pretty hair and youthful shape, and Peggotty, our faithful serving maid, with no shape at all, and eyes so dark that they seemed to darken their whole neighbourhood in her face, and cheeks and arms so hard and red that I wonder the birds didn't peck her in preference to apples.

One night when Peggotty and I had been sitting cosily by the parlour fire, my mother came home from spending the evening at a neighbour's, and with her was a gentleman with beautiful black hair and whiskers.

When I confided this to Peggotty, she told me that her brother dealt in lobsters, crabs, and crawfish, which accounted for the sea smells in the delightful house.

There was also Mrs. Gummidge, an old lady who sat continually by the fire and knitted, and who was the widow of a former partner of Mr. Peggotty's.

"Why, Peggotty," I said, ruefully, "isn't she come home?" "Yes, yes, Master Davy," said Peggotty, "She's come home.

"Why, Peggotty," I said, ruefully, "isn't she come home?" "Yes, yes, Master Davy," said Peggotty, "She's come home.

" Intensely agitated, Peggotty led me into the kitchen and closed the door, then, as she untied her bonnet with a shaking hand, she said breathlessly; "Master Davy, what do you think?

"What is going to be done with me, Peggotty dear?"

Near London," was Peggotty's answer.

"Yes," said Peggotty.

" Then followed some assurances of affection, which Peggotty sobbed through the keyhole, and from that night I had an affection for her greater than for any one, except my mother.

During the visit I had a great surprise, which was no less than Peggotty's marriage to the carrier who had taken me on so many trips, and whose affections it seemed, had long been fastened upon Peggotty.

During the visit I had a great surprise, which was no less than Peggotty's marriage to the carrier who had taken me on so many trips, and whose affections it seemed, had long been fastened upon Peggotty.

Not knowing where she lived, I wrote a long letter to Peggotty, and asked in it incidentally if she knew the address, and also if she could lend me half a guinea for a short time.

As early as possible the next day, I visited Peggotty.

Thus, Grandfather Smallweed is always settling down into his cushion, and having to be shaken up; Mr. Jellyby is always sitting with his head against the wall; Peggotty is always bursting her buttons off, etc.

For the play itself, as given by Messrs. BUCHANAN and HORNER,the latter of whom, true to ancestral tradition, will have his finger in the pie,it is but an ordinary drama, strongly reminding a public which knows its DICKENS of the story of Little Em'ly, with Vaillant for Old Peggotty, Lydie for Little Em'ly, Antonin Caussade for Ham, and Paul Astier for Steerforth.