use, and as they
drank beer, Harry, who was a great sportsman, gave them a graphic
account of a prize-fight he had seen on the previous Saturday evening,
which had been rendered specially memorable by one man being so hurt
that he had died from the effects. It had evidently been a very fine
affair, and Harry said that several swells from the West End had been
present, and he related their ludicrous efforts to get in without
being seen by anyone, and their terror when someone to frighten them
called out 'Copper!' Then Tom and he entered into a discussion on the
subject of boxing, in which Tom, being a shy and undogmatic sort of
person, was entirely worsted. After this they strolled back to the
brake, and found things being prepared for luncheon; the hampers were
brought out and emptied, and the bottles of beer in great profusion
made many a thirsty mouth thirstier.

'Come along, lidies an' gentlemen--if you are gentlemen,' shouted the
coachman; 'the animals is now goin' ter be fed!'

'Garn awy,' answered somebody, 'we're not hanimals; we don't drink
water.'

'You're too clever,' remarked the coachman; 'I can see you've just
come from the board school.'

As the former speaker was a lady of quite mature appearance, the
remark was not without its little irony. The other man blew his horn
by way of grace, at which Liza called out to him:

'Don't do thet, you'll bust, I know you will, an' if you bust you'll
quite spoil my dinner!'

Then they all set to. Pork-pies, saveloys, sausages, cold potatoes,
hard-boiled eggs, cold bacon, veal, ham, crabs and shrimps, cheese,
butter, cold suet-puddings and treacle, gooseberry-tarts,
cherry-tarts, butter, bread, more sausages, and yet again pork-pies!
They devoured the provisions like ravening beasts, stolidly, silently,
earnestly, in large mouthfuls which they shoved down their throats
unmasticated. The intelligent foreigner seeing them thus dispose of
their food would have understood why England is a great nation. He
would have understood why Britons never, never will be slaves. They
never stopped except to drink, and then at each gulp they emptied
their glass; no heel-taps! And still they ate, and still they
drank--but as all things must cease, they stopped at last, and a long
sigh of content broke from their two-and-thirty throats.

Then the gathering broke up, and the good folk paired themselves and
separated. Harry and his lady strolled off to secluded byways in the
fores