{"product_id":"2940013296336","title":"Freaks On The Fells","description":"STORY ONE, CHAPTER 1.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMR SUDBERRY IN HIS COUNTING-HOUSE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMr John Sudberry was a successful London merchant.  He was also a fat\u003cbr\u003elittle man.  Moreover, he was a sturdy little man, wore spectacles, and\u003cbr\u003ehad a smooth bald head, over which, at the time we introduce him to the\u003cbr\u003ereader, fifty summers had passed, with their corresponding autumns,\u003cbr\u003ewinters, and springs.  The passage of so many seasons over him appeared\u003cbr\u003eto have exercised a polishing influence on the merchant, for Mr\u003cbr\u003eSudberry's cranium shone like a billiard-ball.  In temperament Mr\u003cbr\u003eSudberry was sanguine, and full of energy.  He could scarcely have been\u003cbr\u003ea successful merchant without these qualities.  He was also extremely\u003cbr\u003eviolent.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow, it is necessary here to guard the reader from falling into a\u003cbr\u003emistake in reference to Mr Sudberry's character.  We have said that he\u003cbr\u003ewas violent, but it must not be supposed that he was _passionate_.  By\u003cbr\u003eno means.  He was the most amiable and sweet-tempered of men.  His\u003cbr\u003eviolence was owing to physical rather than mental causes.  He was hasty\u003cbr\u003ein his volitions, impulsive in his actions, madly reckless in his\u003cbr\u003epersonal movements.  His moral and physical being was capable of only\u003cbr\u003etwo conditions--deep repose or wild activity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt his desk Mr Sudberry was wont to sit motionless like a statue, with\u003cbr\u003ehis face buried in his hands and his thoughts busy.  When these thoughts\u003cbr\u003eculminated, he would start as if he had received an electric shock,\u003cbr\u003eseize a pen, and, with pursed lips and frowning brows, send it careering\u003cbr\u003eover the paper with harrowing rapidity, squeaking and chirping, (the\u003cbr\u003epen, not the man), like a small bird with a bad cold.  Mr Sudberry used\u003cbr\u003equills.  He was a _tremendous_ writer.  He could have reported the\u003cbr\u003edebates of the \"House\" in long-hand.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe merchant's portrait is not yet finished.  He was a peculiar man, and\u003cbr\u003emen of this sort cannot be sketched off in a few lines.  Indeed, had he\u003cbr\u003enot been a peculiar man, it would not have been worth while to drag him\u003cbr\u003ethus prominently into notice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmong other peculiarities in Mr Sudberry's character, he was afflicted\u003cbr\u003ewith a chronic tendency to _dab_ his pen into the ink-bottle and split\u003cbr\u003eit to the feather, or double up its point so as to render it\u003cbr\u003eunserviceable.  This infirmity, coupled with an uncommon capacity for\u003cbr\u003eupsetting ink-bottles, had induced him to hire a small clerk, whose\u003cbr\u003eprincipal duties were to mend pens, wipe up ink, and, generally, to\u003cbr\u003eattend to the removal of _debris_.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Mr Sudberry slept he did it profoundly.  When he awoke he did it\u003cbr\u003ewith a start and a stare, as if amazed at having caught himself in the\u003cbr\u003every act of indulging in such weakness.  When he washed he puffed, and\u003cbr\u003egasped, and rubbed, and made such a noise, that one might have supposed\u003cbr\u003ea walrus was engaged in its ablutions.  How the skin of his head, face,\u003cbr\u003eand neck stood the towelling it received is incomprehensible!  When he\u003cbr\u003ewalked he went like an express train; when he sauntered he relapsed into\u003cbr\u003ethe slowest possible snail's-pace, but he did not graduate the changes\u003cbr\u003efrom one to the other.  When he sat down he did so with a crash.  The\u003cbr\u003enumber of chairs which Mr Sudberry broke in the course of his life\u003cbr\u003ewould have filled a goodly-sized concert-room; and the number of\u003cbr\u003etea-cups which he had swept off tables with the tails of his coat might,\u003cbr\u003ewe believe, have set up a moderately ambitious man in the china trade.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47182804582640,"sku":"2940013296336","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013296336_p0.jpg?v=1763579447","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013296336","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}