e I
suppose when you're used to it. What I like about all this," continued
Mr. Blyth, rubbing his hands cheerfully, and kicking into view another
empty bottle, as he settled himself in his chair--"What I like about
this is, that it's so thoroughly without ceremony. Do you know I
really feel at home already, though I never was here before in my
life?--Curious, Zack, isn't it?"

"Look out for the taters!" roared Mat suddenly from the fireplace.
Valentine started, first at the unexpected shout just behind him, next
at the sight of a big truculently-knobbed potato which came flying over
his head, and was dexterously caught, and instantly deposited on the
dirty table-cloth by Zack. "Two, three, four, five, six," continued
Mat, keeping the frying-pan going with one hand, and tossing the baked
potatoes with the other over Mr. Blyth's head, in quick succession
for young Thorpe to catch. "What do you think of our way of dishing up
potatoes in Kirk Street?" asked Zack in great triumph. "It's a little
sudden when you're not used to it," stammered Valentine, ducking his
head as each edible missile flew over him--"but it's free and easy--it's
delightfully free and easy." "Ready there with your plates. The liver's
a coming," cried Mat in a voice of martial command, suddenly showing his
great red-hot perspiring face at the table, as he wheeled round from the
fire, with the hissing frying-pan in one hand and the long toasting-fork
in the other. "My dear sir, I'm shocked to see you taking all this
trouble," exclaimed Mr. Blyth; "do pray let me help you!" "No, I'm
damned if I do," returned Mat with the most polite suavity and the most
perfect good humor. "Let him have all the trouble, Blyth," said Zack;
"let him help you, and don't pity him. He'll make up for his hard work,
I can tell you, when he sets in seriously to his liver and bacon. Watch
him when he begins--he bolts his dinner like the lion in the Zoological
Gardens."

Mat appeared to receive this speech of Zack's as a well-merited
compliment, for he chuckled at young Thorpe and winked grimly at
Valentine, as he sat down bare-armed to his own mess of liver and bacon.
It was certainly a rare and even a startling sight to see this singular
man eat. Lump by lump, without one intervening morsel of bread, he
tossed the meat into his mouth rather than put it there--turned it
apparently once round between his teeth--and then voraciously and
instantly swallowed it whole. By the time a q