" "I tell you what," said
Hunter, "I conceives I do such an old fool as you an honour when I comes
into his house and drinks his beer, and goes away without paying for it,"
and then there was a roar of laughter from everybody, and almost all said
the same thing. "Now do you please to pay me, Mr. Hunter?" said I. "Pay
you!" said Hunter--"pay you! Yes, here's the pay," and thereupon he held
out his thumb, twirling it round till it just touched my nose. I can't
tell you what I felt that moment; a kind of madhouse thrill came upon me,
and all I know is, that I bent back as far as I could, then lunging out,
struck him under the ear, sending him reeling two or three yards, when he
fell on the floor. I wish you had but seen how my company looked at me
and at each other. One or two of the clan went to raise Hunter, and get
him to fight, but it was no go; though he was not killed, he had had
enough for that evening. Oh, I wish you had seen my customers; those who
did not belong to the clan, but had taken part with them, and helped to
jeer and flout me, now came and shook me by the hand, wishing me joy, and
saying as how "I was a brave fellow, and had served the bully right!" As
for the clan, they all said Hunter was bound to do me justice; so they
made him pay me what he owed for himself, and the reckoning of those
among them who said they had no money. Two or three of them then led him
away, while the rest stayed behind, and flattered me, and worshipped me,
and called Hunter all kinds of dogs' names. What do you think of that?'

'Why,' said I, 'it makes good what I read in a letter which I received
yesterday. It is just the way of the world.'

'Ain't it!' said the landlord. 'Well, that ain't all; let me go on.
Good fortune never yet came alone. In about an hour comes home my poor
niece, almost in high sterricks with joy, smiling and sobbing. She had
been to the clergyman of M---, the great preacher, to whose church she
was in the habit of going, and to whose daughters she was well known; and
to him she told a lamentable tale about my distresses, and about the
snares which had been laid for my soul; and so well did she plead my
cause, and so strong did the young ladies back all she said, that the
good clergyman promised to stand my friend, and to lend me sufficient
money to satisfy the brewer, and to get my soul out of the snares of the
man in black; and sure enough the next morning the two young ladies
brought me