I'd just as soon walk, and a little rather, perhaps, of
the two. It was quite amusing enough to see you carry Johanna." "Well--well, there ain't much gratitude in this world. Come on, all of
you, for you must be famished; and as for me, I haven't had a bit of
anything to eat for a whole hour and a half, and then it was only a
pound and three quarters of beef-steak, and a half quartern loaf!" "But we are none of us hungry," said Johanna. "Never mind that," replied Ben, "you don't know what you may be; so
always eat when you can get it. That's my maxim, and I find it answers
very well. Plenty to eat and drink, and taking things easy, is how I get
through the world, and you'll all on you find it the best in the long
run." "There are worse philosophies than that going," said Sir Richard Blunt
to Colonel Jeffery. "Very much worse," laughed the colonel. Ben now led the way along a narrow arched passage, and through two
rather gloomy corridors to a stone room, with a grand arched roof, in
the ancient fortress; and there, sure enough, they found the little
snack, as he called it, laid out very nicely for their reception. A table ran along the centre of the room, and at one end of it there was
placed an immense round of corn beef. At the other was a haunch of
mutton, weighing at least thirty pounds. Somewhat about the middle of
the table was an enormous turkey; and those dishes, with a ham and four
tongues, made up a tolerable repast. Six half-gallon flagons, filled with old Burton Ale, stood at regular
distances upon the table. "It's only," said Ben, "a slight snack, after all; but I hope you will
be just able to find enough." "Enough!" cried Sir Richard. "Why, there's enough for fifty people." "There's almost enough for a regiment!" said the colonel. "Oh, you are joking," said Ben; "but come, sit down. You, father Oakley,
sit here by this little bit of mutton, and I'll cut up the beef." After considerable laughing they were all seated; and then Ben, finding
that Johanna was on one side of him, and Miss Wilmot on the other,
declared that he was quite satisfied. He cut, first of all, a cold tongue in halves down the middle
lengthways, and placed one half upon a plate for Johanna, and the other
on a plate for Arabella. Then upon the tongue in each plate, he placed
about a pound of ham. "Take that, my little dears," he said, "to begin with, and don't be
sparing now, for there's the turkey and the mutton, you know, to fall
back upon. Easy does it." The room resounded with shrieks of laughter at the looks of utter
distressful dismay which Johanna and Arabella cast upon their plates;
and Ben looked from one face to another in perfect astonishment, for he
could not see any joke for the life of him. "Dear Ben," said Johanna, "do you really imagine we can eat a tenth part
of all this?" "Do I imagine?--In course I does. Only you begin. Lord bless you, that
ain't much. Come--come, you want your ale, I suppose. So here it is." Upon this, Ben poured them each out about a quart of the strong ale, and
requested them to take an easy pull at that. They found that it was of no use requesting Ben to diminish the quantity
he helped them to; so they just, as he advised, took it easy, and ate
what they had a mind to do. As for Ben himself, he cut one large slice off the round of beef, and
then placed upon it two slices of ham, so that the thickness--for he was
not a delicate carver--was about three inches; and so he set to work,
every now and then taking up one of the half-gallon ale flagons, and
pledging the company all round. Probably, rough and homely as was Ben's lunch, not one of them present
had ever enjoyed such a meal more than they this did; and if we might
judge by the loud laughter that echoed about the old arched roof, a
merrier hour was never spent than in the Tower with Big Ben. But it was a sadness to Ben to find that such little progress was made
in the consumption of his eatables and drinkables; and he uttered many
groans as he watched Johanna and Arabella. CHAPTER CXXIII. THE BEASTS AT THE TOWER. All good things must have an end, and Ben's lunch in the Tower was not
any exception to the rule. At last even he was satisfied that nobody
would eat any more, although he was very far indeed from being satisfied
that they had had enough. "Won't anybody be so good," he said, "as just to try and pick a little
bit of something?" "No--no!" was the general response. "Indeed, Ben," said Colonel Jeffery, "if we take any more we shall
positively be ill, and I'm sure you don't wish that." "Oh, dear, no," groaned Ben; "but it's quite clear to me, of course,
that you don't like the lunch, or else you could not have took it so
very easy." With one accord upon this, everybody declared that they had liked it
amazingly well. "Then you will all try a drop more ale?" Upon this, they rose from the table, for they had a well-grounded
suspicion that if they staid any longer, Ben would try to force
something down their throats, whether they would or not. "Ah, well," said Ben, with a sigh, when he found that they would not be
prevailed upon to take anything else. "Then we may as well go and see
the lions in the Tower." "Oh, yes," added Johanna, "I have heard so much of them, that I quite
long to see them." "Should you, my duck?" cried Ben; "then come along." Here Ben would have carried Johanna again, for somehow he had got the
idea fixed in his head that the kindest thing he could possibly do as
regarded Johanna was to prevent her from using her feet; but Mark
Ingestrie interposed, saying--

"Ben, she would much rather walk. You forget, my kind friend, that she
is no longer now a child." "Oh, dear," said Ben, with a look of profound wisdom, "if you come to
that, we are all children. Look at me, I'm only a fine baby." Everybody laughed at this sally of Ben's, as well they might; and then,
being fully convinced that no more eating nor drinking was at all
practicable, Ben proceeded to lead the way to the lions. "Is there any danger?" said Arabella. "I hope you will not let any of
them out of their cages, Mr. Ben." "Oh, dear, no, there's no danger, and we don't let any of them out. We
only pokes them up a bit with a long pole, to make 'em rather lively to
visitors." "And have no accidents ever happened?" said Johanna. "Lord bless you, no. To be sure one of the warders, who was rather a new
hand, would put his hand in between the bars of the lion's den and get
it snapped off; and once a leopard we had here broke loose, and jumped
on the back of a sentinel, and half eat him up; but we haven't had any
accidents." "Why, what do you call them, Ben?" "Oh, nothing at all." "I dare say," said Sir Richard Blunt, "that the poor warder and the
sentinel would have called those little incidents something." "Well, perhaps they might," said Ben.