smoked away like a
brewery.

'Well!' said the sharp-nosed man, in a very slow and soft voice,
addressing the company in general, 'I always do say, that of all the
gentlemen I have the pleasure of meeting in this room, there is not one
whose conversation I like to hear so much as Mr. Rogers's, or who is such
improving company.'

'Improving company!' said Mr. Rogers, for that, it seemed, was the name
of the red-faced man. 'You may say I am improving company, for I've
improved you all to some purpose; though as to my conversation being as
my friend Mr. Ellis here describes it, that is not for me to say anything
about. You, gentlemen, are the best judges on that point; but this I
will say, when I came into this parish, and first used this room, ten
years ago, I don't believe there was one man in it, who knew he was a
slave--and now you all know it, and writhe under it. Inscribe that upon
my tomb, and I am satisfied.'

'Why, as to inscribing it on your tomb,' said a little greengrocer with a
chubby face, 'of course you can have anything chalked up, as you likes to
pay for, so far as it relates to yourself and your affairs; but, when you
come to talk about slaves, and that there abuse, you'd better keep it in
the family, 'cos I for one don't like to be called them names, night
after night.'

'You _are_ a slave,' said the red-faced man, 'and the most pitiable of
all slaves.'

'Werry hard if I am,' interrupted the greengrocer, 'for I got no good out
of the twenty million that was paid for 'mancipation, anyhow.'

'A willing slave,' ejaculated the red-faced man, getting more red with
eloquence, and contradiction--'resigning the dearest birthright of your
children--neglecting the sacred call of Liberty--who, standing
imploringly before you, appeals to the warmest feelings of your heart,
and points to your helpless infants, but in vain.'

'Prove it,' said the greengrocer.

'Prove it!' sneered the man with the red face. 'What! bending beneath
the yoke of an insolent and factious oligarchy; bowed down by the
domination of cruel laws; groaning beneath tyranny and oppression on
every hand, at every side, and in every corner. Prove it!--' The
red-faced man abruptly broke off, sneered melo-dramatically, and buried
his countenance and his indignation together, in a quart pot.

'Ah, to be sure, Mr. Rogers,' said a stout broker in a large waistcoat,
who had kept his eyes fixed on this luminary all the time he was
speaking.