"
Dr. Burge had laid aside his knife and fork, and had launched bravely
forth upon his theme. Sir Joseph moved uneasily. Things were getting
serious. Our host happily interposed,--
"Very true, Doctor, all very true;--yet there is one piece of wisdom
regulating the spiritual practice which now seems worth considering."
"And what is that, pray?"
"They do not recognize Fast-Day."
"Well, well," said Dr. Burge, taking the hint with the utmost
good-humor, "perhaps they were not altogether wrong there; and so I will
trouble Miss Prowley for a bit more of the steak, and----No, thank you,
no beer for me; I am a water-drinker of twenty years' standing."
"The toast I am about to propose," observed Colonel Prowley, "may, with
exceeding propriety, be drunk in water,--that is, whenever
milk-and-water is not to be had:--
_"Our spiritual demagogues, much weaker than our political ones, may
they not be as much worse!"_
"And there is one other sentiment," said good Dr. Burge, brimming over
with an honest hilarity,--"a toast which I should be willing to drink in
pretty strong--coffee."
"I have not forgotten that," exclaimed our host, proffering a hearty
shake of the hand to the High Senior Governour and Primitive Patriarch
of All Sextons,--
_"Health and a long life to Sir Joseph Barley!"_
PROSPICE.
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