Nippers

In the office before the appearance of Bartleby, there were already three of them - Turkey, Nippers and Ginger Gingerbread, which received these names of each other and which, according to the narrator, corresponded to the appearance and behavior of each of them. The nipper is active just before lunch, and the turkey is active after. The nipper is young and in a hurry to do everything before lunch, because he has the whole day ahead (read: life), but he laid it out at the beginning, and the old Turkey, which becomes active only at the end of the day, as if recalls that there is still so much to do and to try to make up for lost time. Red ink means a debt (red ink records losses, and black ink profits), so Nippers jokes that all Turkey money goes to buy red ink, that is, in debt, as in silks. On top of that, Turkey is buying an office for its office with its own money. Probably the only reason the narrator keeps him: he is greedy, and Turkey does not require much, although it does not work well. Turkey and Nippers form a kind of pair: they can work effectively only at certain times of the day. One before lunch, the other after dinner. Like a watch. In the Russian translation this was not transmitted, but in the literal translation it sounds like this: "When the Cutter was turned on, Turkey was turned off and vice versa." If we take into account the time of writing the story (1853), then perhaps it will become clear what the author is hinting at.