stonishment and
disapproval on the part of Aunt Temperance.

"Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham!" was the
ejaculation of that lady. "Lad, art thou afire, or what ails thee?"

The answering laugh was in Aubrey's voice. "Why, Aunt!" said he, "is
this the first time you did ever see a man to drink Uppowoc?"

"`Drink up a work!'" exclaimed she. "What on earth--"

"Picielt," said he.

"Lettice, is that thou?" inquired Aunt Temperance. "Call Charity
quickly, and bid her run for the apothecary: this boy's gone mad."

A ringing peal of laughter from Aubrey was the answer. Lettice had come
far enough to see him now, and there he stood in the hall (his coat more
slashed and puffed than ever), and in his hand a long narrow tube of
silver, with a little bowl at the end, in which was something that sent
forth a great smoke and smell.

"Come, Aunt Temperance!" cried he. "Every gentleman in the land,
well-nigh, doth now drink the Indian weed. 'Tis called uppovoc,
picielt, petum [whence comes petunia], or tobago, and is sold for its
weight in silver; men pick out their biggest shillings to lay against
it, and 'tis held a favour for a gentlewoman to fill the pipe for her
servant [suitor]. I have heard say some will spend three or four
hundred a year after this manner, drinking it even at the table; and
they that refuse be thought peevish and ill company."

"And whither must we flee to get quit of it?" quoth she grimly.

"That cannot I say, Aunt. In France they have it, calling it Nicotine,
from one Nicot, that did first fetch it thither; 'twas one Ralph Lane
that brought it to England. Why, what think you? there are over six
thousand shops in and about London, where they deal in it now."

"Six thousand shops for that stinking stuff!"

"Oh, not for this alone. The apothecaries, grocers, and chandlers have
it, and in every tavern you shall find the pipe handed round, even
where, as in the meaner sort, it be made but of a walnut shell and a
straw. Why, Aunt, 'tis wondrous wholesome and healing for divers
diseases."

"Let's hear which of them."

"Well--migraines [headaches], colics, toothache, ague, colds,
obstructions through wind, and fits of the mother [hysterics]; gout,
epilepsy, and hydropsy [dropsy]. The brain, look you, being naturally
cold and wet, all hot and dry things must be good for it."

"I'd as soon have any of those divers distempers as _that_," solemnly
announced Aunt Tempera