sentence that sounded in his
ears like the close of his speech, he stared ahead, with a dim idea that
he had missed a point. "Bundle o' sticks," lustily shouted, revived his
apprehension; but the sole effect was to make him look on the ground and
lift his hat on the point of a perplexed finger. He could not conceive
how the bundle of sticks was to be brought in now; or what to say
concerning them. Union and Harmony:--what more could be said? Mr. Tom
Breeks tried a remonstrance with his backers. He declared to them that
he had finished, and had brought in the Bundle. They replied that they
had not heard it; that the Bundle was the foundation--sentiment of the
Club; the first toast, after the Crown; and that he must go on until the
Bundle had been brought in. Hereat, the unhappy man faced Squire Pole
again. It was too abject a position for an Englishman to endure. Tom
Breeks cast his hat to earth. "I'm dashed if I can bring in the bundle!"

There was no telling how conduct like this might have been received by
the Yellow-and-Blues if Mr. Barrett had not spoken. "You mean everything
when you say 'Union,' and you're quite right not to be tautological. You
can't give such a blow with your fingers as you can with your fists, can
you?"

Up went a score of fists. "We've the fists: we've the fists," was
shouted.

Cornelia, smiling on Mr. Barrett, asked him why he had confused the poor
people with the long word "tautological."

"I threw it as a bone," said he. "I think you will observe that they
are already quieter. They are reflecting on what it signifies, and will
by-and-by quarrel as to the spelling of it. At any rate it occupies
them."

Cornelia laughed inwardly, and marked with pain that his own humour gave
him no merriment.

At the subsiding of the echoes that coupled Squire Pole and the Junction
Club together, Squire Pole replied. He wished them well. He was glad
to see them, and sorry he had not ale enough on the premises to regale
every man of them. Clubs were great institutions. One fist was stronger
than a thousand fingers--"as my friend here said just now." Hereat the
eyelids of Cornelia shed another queenly smile on the happy originator
of the remark.

Squire Pole then descended to business. He named the amount of his
donation. At this practical sign of his support, heaven heard the
gratitude of the good fellows. The drum awoke from its torpor, and
summoned its brethren of the band to give their various vers