uench
the fiery fever of last night's potations, which he drained from no cup of
mine. Welcome, most rubicund sir! You and I have been strangers hitherto;
nor, to confess the truth, will my nose be anxious for a closer intimacy,
till the fumes of your breath be a little less potent.

7. Mercy on you, man! The water absolutely hisses down your red-hot
gullet, and is converted quite into steam in the miniature Tophet, which
you mistake for a stomach. Fill again, and tell me, on the word of an
honest toper, did you ever, in cellar, tavern, or any other kind of
dramshop, spend the price of your children's food for a swig half so
delicious? Now, for the first time these ten years, you know the flavor of
cold water. Good-by; and whenever you are thirsty, recollect that I keep a
constant supply at the old stand.

8. Who next? Oh, my little friend, you are just let loose from school, and
come hither to scrub your blooming face, and drown the memory of certain
taps of the ferule, and other schoolboy troubles, in a draught from the
Town Pump. Take it, pure as the current of your young life; take it, and
may your heart and tongue never be scorched with a fiercer thirst than
now.

9. There, my dear child, put down the cup, and yield your place to this
elderly gentleman, who treads so tenderly over the paving stones that I
suspect he is afraid of breaking them. What! he limps by without so much
as thanking me, as if my hospitable offers were meant only for people who
have no wine cellars.

10. Well, well, sir, no harm done, I hope! Go, draw the cork, tip the
decanter; but when your great toe shall set you a-roaring, it will be no
affair of mine. If gentlemen love the pleasant titillation of the gout, it
is all one to the Town Pump. This thirsty dog, with his red tongue lolling
out, does not scorn my hospitality, but stands on his hind legs, and laps
eagerly out of the trough. See how lightly he capers away again! Jowler,
did your worship ever have the gout?

11. Your pardon, good people! I must interrupt my stream of eloquence, and
spout forth a stream of water to replenish the trough for this teamster
and his two yoke of oxen, who have come all the way from Staunton, or
somewhere along that way. No part of my business gives me more pleasure
than the watering of cattle. Look! how rapidly they lower the watermark on
the sides of the trough, till their capacious stomachs are moistened with
a gallon or two apiece, and they can aff