er's life. As to the great silver snuff-box
which the King sent Joe with his own hand, because of his conduct in the
Riots, what guest ever went to the Maypole without putting finger and
thumb into that box, and taking a great pinch, though he had never taken
a pinch of snuff before, and almost sneezed himself into convulsions
even then? As to the purple-faced vintner, where is the man who lived in
those times and never saw HIM at the Maypole: to all appearance as much
at home in the best room, as if he lived there? And as to the feastings
and christenings, and revellings at Christmas, and celebrations of
birthdays, wedding-days, and all manner of days, both at the Maypole and
the Golden Key,--if they are not notorious, what facts are?

Mr Willet the elder, having been by some extraordinary means possessed
with the idea that Joe wanted to be married, and that it would be well
for him, his father, to retire into private life, and enable him to live
in comfort, took up his abode in a small cottage at Chigwell; where
they widened and enlarged the fireplace for him, hung up the boiler,
and furthermore planted in the little garden outside the front-door, a
fictitious Maypole; so that he was quite at home directly. To this, his
new habitation, Tom Cobb, Phil Parkes, and Solomon Daisy went regularly
every night: and in the chimney-corner, they all four quaffed, and
smoked, and prosed, and dozed, as they had done of old. It being
accidentally discovered after a short time that Mr Willet still appeared
to consider himself a landlord by profession, Joe provided him with
a slate, upon which the old man regularly scored up vast accounts for
meat, drink, and tobacco. As he grew older this passion increased upon
him; and it became his delight to chalk against the name of each of his
cronies a sum of enormous magnitude, and impossible to be paid: and such
was his secret joy in these entries, that he would be perpetually seen
going behind the door to look at them, and coming forth again, suffused
with the liveliest satisfaction.

He never recovered the surprise the Rioters had given him, and remained
in the same mental condition down to the last moment of his life. It was
like to have been brought to a speedy termination by the first sight of
his first grandchild, which appeared to fill him with the belief that
some alarming miracle had happened to Joe. Being promptly blooded,
however, by a skilful surgeon, he rallied; and although the